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JAMES CHALMERS - RARE POST-1840 POSTAL REFORM CIRCULAR REF. SCOTTISH/SUNDAY MAIL COACHES: 1 June 1841 James Chalmers privately printed Anti-Sabbatarian circular entitled REMARKS ON THE EFFECTS OF MAIL-COACH STOPPAGE ON THE SABBATH-DAY giving the texts of a 26 Mar. 1841 letter from Chalmers that appeared in the Aberdeen & Perthshire papers (being taken up by the London Sun and other papers soon after). He adds three extra paragraphs for this special 1 June 1841 circular version. He notes that the preceding Remarks have been inserted in several journals I, however, at the request of several respectable gentlemen, now reprint them, and at same time add the following He outlines his opinion that stopping all mail coaches from running on Sundays would greatly hamper trade and communications (and in Scotland in particular). He points out that mails between London and Aberdeen would be delayed by 3 days each way, that coachmen and guards would be stranded in obscure places, and that travellers would simply find other means of travel on Sundays. This circular the only example in private hands was found in 1966, in the personal papers of Chalmers friend George Duncan M.P. (1791-1878; wealthy Dundee merchant) along with some original Chalmers Treasury Essays. James Chalmers label Essays are well known, but it seems that in 1841 he was still trying to emphasise his credentials as a long-term Postal Reformer, although he did very little in the 1820s/1830s while William Gallaway led the way. [Ex Duncan Papers, Harmers 1966.] Cross Reference: POSTAL REFORMS
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