This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal. The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.
Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford.
EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO.
EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org).
The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source.
Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data.
Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so.
Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor.
The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines.
Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements).
Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site.
WHereas there was an Act made in the 12th. year of this King, Entituled, An Act for the Erecting and Eſtabliſhing a Poſt-Office; Wherein the Poſtage of LETTERS for His Majeſties DoProviſo in the words following.
Provided always, That all Merchants Accompts, not exceeding one Sheet of Paper, and all Bills of Exchange, Invoices, (or Bills of Parcels,) and Bills of Lading, are, and ſhall hereby be underſtood to be allowed without Rate in the Price of the Letters; And likewiſe the Covers of Letters, (not exceeding the fourth part of a ſheet of Paper,) ſent to Maor Leogorn, to be ſent towards Turky, ſhall be underſtood to paſs without Rate, or, Payment for the ſame.
The ſaid Clauſe or Proviſo (as is humbly conceived,) ought to be apply'd to the Body of the ACT, and not reſtrain'd, (as the Poſt-maſter doth,) to Foreign Letters only, excluding His Majeſties Subjects, and the Trade of the Three Kingdoms from the juſt Right and Claim, or Benefit thereof, by Extorting Rates for every ſuch Account, Bill of ExLetter may go cheaper to Conſtantinople, than to Briſtol, or Place of that Diſtance, contrary to the expreſs Words and Meaning, the literal Senſe or Reaſon of the ſaid Clauſe: And for that it cannot be imagined the PARLIAMENT ſhould either ſo far forget themſelves, or the Countrey for which they ſerved, or the neceſſary and convenient Correſpondence, as well as the Trade of His Majeſties DoLaw allows by above Twenty tbouſand pounds per annum, whilſt the Revenue is ſaid to produce to the Duke of York yearly above forty thouſand pounds more than it was valued at the time it was granted.
Complaints have been made hereof a long time, and the Poſt-maſter threatned with Indictments, but the charge or Proſecution was too great for any Private Perſon to wreſtle with ſo great a Power; And ſome who were moſt concern'd, being allow'd to tax their own Letters, to keep them from joyning in the Proſecution, nothing was done therein. A Petition complaining of this Abuſe and Extortion, was Preſented in the late long Parliament, and referred to a Committee, wherein a Noble Lord had the Chair; But they very ſeldom met to effect a Redreſs: And in the late Parliament the Complaint was again revived; but be
It is now Humbly Prayed, that this Honourable Houſe will give their Judgement on that Proviſo, to the intent the Correſpondence and Trade in General, way receive its juſt Benefit and Encouragement; And that the Votes and News-Books for the Informtation of the Kingdom, may go free, as heretofore, with what elſe this Honourable Houſe ſhall think fit.