ng
to secure his two companions. Wilson then decided to confess. Hawkins
and Sympson were tried, found guilty, and executed 21st May, 1722.

In connection with this Bristol mail robbery, the following are
interesting particulars from the calendar of Treasury papers:--"Memorial
of William Saunderson, clerk, to Sir Robert Walpole. Says he was author
of an expedient to prevent the Bristol and other mails from being
robbed. The scheme seems to have been to write with red ink on the
foreside of all bank notes the name of the post town where they were
posted, the day of the month, and also the addition of these words,
viz.:--'From Bristol to London,' &c. These services (presumably
Saunderson's) have been attended with great expense and loss of time,
and no mail robberies have since been committed. Asks for compensation.
Referred 11th April, 1728, to postmasters to report. May 23,
1728.--Affidavit of W. Saunderson, receiver, of Holford, West Somerset
(probably the same person), that he sent a letter subscribed A.Z. to the
Postmaster-General offering an expedient to prevent the robbing of the
Bristol and other mails, and of the subsequent negotiations with
the Post Office; has never received any reward. Mr. Carteret
claimed the contrivance of the scheme wholly to himself. May
29th.--Postmaster-General's report of 17th April read: 'My Lords
satisfied with the report.' Saunderson had no pretence to any reward.
Scheme entirely formed at Post Office without assistance of Saunderson
or anybody else. Saunderson called in, informed that my Lords adhere to
Postmaster-General's report, and nothing more will be ordered therein."

Stealing a letter or robbing the mail was a capital offence long after
Hawkins and Sympson expiated their offences on the scaffold. Thus a
notice from the General Post Office on the 24th July, 1767, issued in
the _London Evening Post_, dated "From Tuesday, July 28th, to Thursday,
July 30th, 1767," recited that--"Notice is hereby given that by an Act
passed the last Session of Parliament, 'For amending certain Laws
relating to the revenue of the Post Office, and for granting rates of
postage for the conveyance of letters and packets between Great Britain
and the Isle of Man, and within that Island,' it is enacted--That from
and after the first day of November, 1767, if any person employed or
afterwards to be employed in the Post Office shall 'secrete, embezzle,
or destroy any letters, &c.,' 'every such offender,