Improvement of correspondence

His Majesty's Postmaster-General, for the further Improvement of Correspondence, having been pleased to order the Bye-Night Mails betwixt London and Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Shrewsbury, Shiffnall, Stafford, Stone, Namptwich, Chester, Northwich, Warrington, Liverpool, and Manchester, which at present pass through Evesham, Worcester and Bromsgrove, to be for the future conveyed directly through Shipston upon Stower, Stratford upon Avon, and Henly upon Arden; (by which means those Mails will arrive much earlier, at Birmingham and all the other Towns North thereof, than they do at present; and a Communication, by the Post be opened from Shipston, Stratford, Henley and Aulcester, to all Parts of Staffordshire, Cheshire, North Wales and Lancashire, and to the Town of Kendal in Westmoreland:)

And having also been pleased to order, a new Branch to be erected betwixt Stratford upon Avon, and Worcester; through Aulcester and Droitwich; (by which Channel the Bye Night Mails will be conveyed to Worcester, and a Communication by Post be opened from Shipston, Stratford, Henley, and Aulcester, to all Parts of Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Bristol, Exeter, all Parts of Devonshire, Cornwall, Somersetshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, and South Wales:)

Public Notice is hereby given, that these Alterations will commence on the 5th Day of January next, at which Time the Bye-Night Bags from London to Evesham and Bromsgrove will be discontinued.

And whereas many Letters have hitherto been collected and delivered, in an illegal Manner, at the several Towns and Stages above-mentioned, to the great Prejudice of the Revenue of the Post-Office, Notice is hereby given, that all Carriers, Coachmen, Watermen, Wherrymen, Dispersers of Country News Papers, and all other Persons whatsoever, hereafter detected in the illegal collecting or delivering of Letters, will be prosecuted with the utmost Severity.

N. B. The Penalty is Five Pounds for every Letter collected or delivered contrary to Law, and One Hundred Pounds for every Week that Practice is continued.

GEO. SHELVOCKE, Secretary.