University of Virginia Library

II

It is from the nineteen-year period preceding 1764—a time of lax government control—that the relevant Dodsley correspondence presented below originates. Evidence of specific franking abuses in this correspondence derives from twenty-three separate letters written by eleven different persons, including Dodsley himself. An additional fourteen letters show the bookseller actually franking his own letters. The former originate from a variety of places, including Aberdeen, Bath, Birmingham, Carlisle, Durham, and Nottingham. Mostly regular correspondents, the writers include the printer John Baskerville; John "Estimate" Brown; John Gilbert Cooper, a prolific miscellaneous writer; the poet John Dyer; David Fordyce, professor of moral philosophy at Aberdeen; Richard Graves, author of The Spiritual Quixote; John Scott Hylton, a numismatist from Hales-Owen; Robert Lowth, the grammarian and future bishop of London; William "Pliny" Melmoth; and the poet William Shenstone.

Not all of the instances are de facto violations of the franking privilege, but where they are not, it is clear that the writers, short of counterfeiting a signature, would not hesitate to so infringe. Generally the abuses are of three types: the endorsement by M.P.s of letters or packets that have nothing to do with their own business but franked as a favor to a friend; letters or packets sent to a local M.P., who, upon reception, franked his friend/neighbor's mail; and, perhaps the most notorious of all, the circulation and use of blank but franked sheets.

Five letters from Dodsley's correspondents solely concerned with the writers' literary interests or productions (and not at all with an M.P.'s business) are either franked by an M.P. or request that favor of Dodsley. Two of John Gilbert Cooper's letters, written from Derby on 18 February 1747 and from Leicester on 23 September 1749, are franked by Borlace Warren, M.P. for Nottingham (1713-15, 1727-47), and by George Wrighte, M.P. for Leicester (1727-66), respectively.[10] The first is wholly concerned with essays that Cooper encloses for Dodsley's fortnightly Museum: or Literary and Historical Register (1746-47); the second is taken up with directions for indexing the author's soon-to-be-published Life of Socrates (1749). Another letter on 16 January 1749 asks Dodsley to send Thomas Seward's pamphlet The Conformity between Popery and Paganism illustrated in a frank, thereby calling upon the bookseller to supply the free postage.[11] A similar favor is begged of Dodsley by John Brown on 8 November 1746, only he would like two pamphlets—Nathaniel

Cotton's Fireside and the "Surprising History of a late long Administration" by "Titus Livius, jr."—sent in a frank.[12] (Franked pieces were not to exceed two ounces.) Finally, David Fordyce's letter from Aberdeen on 11 February 1748 has nothing to do with the endorser, William Grant, M.P. for Elgin, but inquires at length about Fordyce's manuscript for The Elements of Moral Philosophy, which he had recently submitted to Dodsley.[13]

The franking of Dodsley's own letters, upon receipt, was assured in two further letters from Cooper. On 7 April 1746, he directs Dodsley to send every number of the Museum to the Hon. John Stanhope, Lord of the Admiralty, at Alderman Frances's in Derby, "where I shall receive it without any post charge."[14] On 9 December 1749, he enjoins Dodsley to send him "in two Separate covers (for I'm afraid one will weigh above two ounces) the last Monthly Review [containing a review of Cooper's Life of Socrates], directed, for Wrightson Mundy Esqr Membr of Parlt. at John Gilbert Cooper's in Leicester, which expedient will save me the expense of carriage, & you two franks."[15]

If one can generalize from the bulk of evidence found in the correspondence, the most common abuse of the franking privilege consisted of the wholesale endorsing of blank sheets by privileged persons for the use of their friends. The earliest instance, found in a Cooper letter on 15 November 1746, shows the author promising Dodsley another two papers for his Museum "as soon as I can procure franks." Apparently he did more than keep his word, for, in a letter of the following 11 February, he is reminding Dodsley that "about two months ago I sent you some franks of Mr Warren's," thereby allowing the bookseller to respond to his many queries free of charge.[16]

John Baskerville, the Birmingham printer, implicitly reveals the extent and common acceptance of the abuse in the conclusion of his letter to Dodsley on 19 October 1752.[17] There he suggests to the bookseller, whose shop in Pall Mall was near to the Houses of Parliament, that "As you are [in] the Land of Franks: half a Doz. would do me a particular pleasure, As a good Many things not worth a groat might be communicated by Yr Most obedt hble Servt." A similar impression of Bath's seasonal "resources" is conveyed by Richard Graves when writing on 30 September 1756.[18] Graves hopes "to get some Franks when our Season comes in." From another quarter, John Scott Hylton of Hales-Owen, near Birmingham, complains in a letter of 6 December 1757 that "Lord Dudley's death [5th Baron Dudley] has put an

end to all Franks with me."[19] Four months later, providing Dodsley with a lengthy account of his ailing neighbor William Shenstone, Hylton resorts to a frank "found . . . in Mr: Shenstone's pocket Book, which I stole for you," adding: "I wish I could procure some and then I should write with greater Satisfaction to you, than to make you pay postage for my incorrect scrawl."[20] The availability of franks seems so common that, when temporarily unavailable, Dodsley's correspondents thought twice about writing.

Obviously Shenstone himself made regular use of franks to cover his personal letters, and from whatever source he could procure them. Dodsley's response to the poet in a letter of 19 September 1758 implicitly acknowledges the free flow of franks that did not even require the user to procure them directly from a friend, or even be acquainted with his benefactor: "As to Franks, you could not have ask'd at a worse time, as I have no body in Town to apply to: however I have enclos'd three, & will send You more as soon as I have an opportunity of getting any."[21] Shenstone had revealed a reliance upon franks for his personal correspondence even earlier. On 21 December of the previous year, when sending Dodsley corrections for poems to be included in Volumes 5 and 6 of a Collection of Poems by Several Hands, Shenstone says he believes he will write again tomorrow, for which he has "reserv'd my only Frank."[22] Still another request for a supply of franks comes from William Melmoth on 3 July 1760.[23] Although missing, Dodsley's response was probably little different from that to Shenstone, for Parliament, of course, did not sit during the summer months.

Another seven allusions in the correspondence implicitly acknowledge the casual circulation of franked sheets among non-privileged persons, but, for the most part, they consist of simple apologies to Dodsley for momentarily lacking franks to cover letters, thereby requiring the bookseller to pay the post. Three such letters come from Richard Graves, on 10 October 1757, 21 May 1763, and 6 January 1764.[24] John Dyer the poet is responsible for another letter on 12 May 1757; John Scott Hylton, for one on 9 February 1758; and Robert Lowth, for one on 9 June 1758.[25] Finally, another such apology appears in Dodsley's own letter on 9 December 1758, a brief piece hastily dashed off to Shenstone amidst the excitement surrounding the performance of Dodsley's tragedy Cleone at Drury Lane.[26]