re
thoughtless and unpunctual; yet when older men were employed they
frequently got into liquor, and thus endangered the mails. The records
of the service are full of the troubles arising from the conduct of
these servants. The public were doubtless much to blame for this. For
the post-boys were, as we may suppose, ever welcome at the house and
ball, where refreshment, in the shape of strong drink, would be offered
to them, and they thus fell into trouble through a too common instance
of mistaken kindness.

In the year 1763 the mail leaving London on Tuesday night (in the
winter season) was not in the hands of the people of Edinburgh until the
afternoon of Sunday. This does not betoken a very rapid rate of
progression; but it appears that in many cases the post-boy's speed did
not rise above three or four miles an hour. The Post Office took severe
measures with these messengers, through parliamentary powers granted;
and even the public were called upon to keep an eye upon their
behaviour, and to report any misconduct to the authorities.

Mention has already been made of the unsafety of the roads for ordinary
travellers; but the roads were in no way safer for the post-boys. In
1798 a post-boy carrying certain Selby mails was robbed near that place,
being threatened with his life, and the mail-pouch which he then carried
was recovered under very strange circumstances in 1876.

But to come nearer home. On the early morning of the 1st of August 1802
the mail from Glasgow for Edinburgh was robbed by two men at a place
near Linlithgow, when a sum of L1300 or L1400 was stolen. The robbers
had previously been soldiers. They hurried into Edinburgh with their
booty, got drunk, were discovered, and, when subsequently tried, were
sentenced to be executed. The law was severe in those days; and the Post
Office has the distinction of having obtained judgment against a robber
who was the last criminal hung in chains in Scotland. According to
Rogers, in his _Social Life of Scotland_, this was one Leal, who, in
1773, was found guilty of robbing the mail near Elgin. A curious fact
came out in connection with the trial of this man Leal, showing what may
be termed the momentum of evil. It happened that some time previously
Leal and a companion had been to see the execution of a man for robbing
the mail, and, on returning, they had to pass through a dark and narrow
part of the road. At this point Leal observed to his companion that the
si