by Godfrey's death, and by the discovery of Coleman's papers, was
then at the height. A cry was therefore raised that the penny post was a
Popish contrivance. The great Doctor Oates, it was affirmed, had hinted
a suspicion that the Jesuits were at the bottom of the scheme, and that
the bags, if examined, would be found full of treason. [158] The utility
of the enterprise was, however, so great and obvious that all opposition
proved fruitless. As soon as it became clear that the speculation would
be lucrative, the Duke of York complained of it as an infraction of his
monopoly; and the courts of law decided in his favour. [159]

The revenue of the Post Office was from the first constantly increasing.
In the year of the Restoration a committee of the House of Commons,
after strict enquiry, had estimated the net receipt at about twenty
thousand pounds. At the close of the reign of Charles the Second, the
net receipt was little short of fifty thousand pounds; and this was then
thought a stupendous sum. The gross receipt was about seventy thousand
pounds. The charge for conveying a single letter was twopence for eighty
miles, and threepence for a longer distance. The postage increased in
proportion to the weight of the packet. [160] At present a single letter
is carried to the extremity of Scotland or of Ireland for a penny; and
the monopoly of post horses has long ceased to exist. Yet the gross
annual receipts of the department amount to more than eighteen hundred
thousand pounds, and the net receipts to more than seven hundred
thousand pounds. It is, therefore, scarcely possible to doubt that the
number of letters now conveyed by mail is seventy times the number which
was so conveyed at the time of the accession of James the Second. [161]

No part of the load which the old mails carried out was more important
than the newsletters. In 1685 nothing like the London daily paper of
our time existed, or could exist. Neither the necessary capital nor
the necessary skill was to be found. Freedom too was wanting, a want as
fatal as that of either capital or skill. The press was not indeed at
that moment under a general censorship. The licensing act, which had
been passed soon after the Restoration, had expired in 1679. Any person
might therefore print, at his own risk, a history, a sermon, or a poem,
without the previous approbation of any officer; but the Judges were
unanimously of opinion that this liberty did not extend to Gazette