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Post Office (Duties) Act 1860
(23 & 24 Vict c.65, 6th August 1860)

An Act to authorize the Commissioners of the Treasury to further regulate the Postage on re-directed Letters of Commissioned and Warrant Officers, Seamen, and Soldiers whilst on actual Service.
[6th August 1860]

'WHEREAS an Act was passed in the Session of Parliament holden in the Third and Fourth Years of the Reign of Her Majesty, Chapter Ninety-six, for the Regulation of the Duties of Postage, and by the Fourteenth Section of the said Act, after reciting that Letters and Packets sent by the Post were chargeable by Law on being re-directed and again forwarded by the Post with a new and distinct Rate of Postage, it was enacted, that on every Post Letter re-directed (whether posted with any Stamp thereon or not) there should be charged for the Postage of such Letter from the Place at which the same should be re-directed to the Place of ultimate Delivery (in addition to all other Rates of Postage payable thereon) such a Rate of Postage only as the same would be liable to if pre-paid; and by the Fifty-third Section of the said Act certain Privileges were given and granted both to send and receive Letters, at a reduced Rate of Postage, to Seamen employed in Her Majesty's Navy, whether at home or abroad, and to Serjeants, Corporals, Drummers, Trumpeters, Fifers, and Private Soldiers in Her Majesty's Regular Forces, Militia, Fencible Regiments, Artillery or Royal Marines, whether at home or abroad, whilst respectively actually employed in Her Majesty's Service, and to Serjeants, Corporals, Drummers, Trumpeters, Fifers, and Private Soldiers in the Service of the East India Company, whilst actually employed in the Service of the Company; but the Letters of Commissioned Officers or Warrant Officers, whether in the Army or Navy, or Midshipmen, or Masters Mates of the Navy were not included in that Provision; and it was declared that with respect to Letters sent by any such privileged Persons, and with respect to Letters received by the Post by any of the said privileged Persons, certain Conditions therein respectively mentioned and prescribed should be observed; and also that any Letters received by the Post under that Enactment by any such privileged Persons which might have been re-directed should not be charged any Postage on or in respect of such Re-direction: And whereas another Act was passed in the Session of Parliament holden in the Tenth and Eleventh Years of the Reign of Her Majesty, Chapter Eighty-five, for giving further Facilities for the Transmission of Letters by Post and for the regulating the Duties of Postage thereon, and for other Purposes relating to the Post Office, and by the Seventh Section of the said last-mentioned Act it was provided that the Privilege given to Seamen and Soldiers by the said before-recited Act should be enjoyed by such Seamen and Soldiers, whether any such Letters should be liable to any Foreign Postage or not, but subject to the Payment of the Foreign Postage if any should be chargeable thereon: And whereas the like Privileges were afterwards given and granted to Seamen employed abroad in the Service of the East India Company, whilst actually employed in the Service of the Company, by Treasury Warrant duly made and bearing Date the Twenty-eighth Day of November One thousand eight hundred and forty-four: And whereas another Act was passed in the Session of Parliament holden in the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Years of the Reign of Her Majesty, Chapter One hundred and six for the better Government of India, and by the Fifty-sixth Section of the said last-mentioned Act it was provided that the Military and Naval Forces of the East India Company should be deemed to be the Indian Military and Naval Forces of Her Majesty: And whereas it is expedient to make further Provision for enabling Commissioned and Warrant Officers, Seamen, and Soldiers to receive their re-directed Letters free of the re-directed Rates of Postage whilst actually employed in Her Majesty's Service:' Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, as follows:

I. The Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury may from Time to Time, by Warrant under their Hands, authorize all Letters received by the Post on their own private Concerns by Commissioned Officers and Warrant Officers whether in the Army or the Navy, and Midshipmen and Masters Mates in the Navy, whether at home or abroad, and by Commissioned and Warrant Officers, Midshipmen, and Masters Mates in Her Majesty's Indian Military and Naval Forces, and by Seamen employed in Her Majesty's Navy, whether at home or abroad, and by Serjeants, Corporals, Drummers, Trumpeters, Fifers, and Private Soldiers in Her Majesty's Regular Forces, Militia, Fencible Regiments, Artillery, or Royal Marines, whether at home or abroad, and by Serjeants, Corporals, Drummers, Trumpeters, Fifers, Private Soldiers, and Seamen in Her Majesty's Indian Military and Naval Forces, whilst respectively actually employed in Her Majesty's Service, to be delivered to all such Persons respectively free of Foreign Postage chargeable on or in respect of Re-direction on such Letters when such Letters shall have been re-directed and again forwarded by the Post and transmitted or sent through any Foreign Country, (the several Conditions imposed by the said Fifty-third Section of the before-recited Act of the Third and Fourth Victoria, Chapter Ninety-six, with respect to Letters received by the Post by the privileged Persons therein mentioned being duly observed with respect to Letters to be received by the Post by such Seamen, Serjeants, Corporals, Drummers, Trumpeters, Fifers, and Private Soldiers respectively as aforesaid,) and may also from Time to Time, by Warrant under their Hands, reduce or remit the Rates of Postage,British or Colonial, which may be chargeable by Law on or in respect of Re-direction on all Letters received by the post on their own private Concerns by Commissioned Officers and Warrant Officers whether in the Army or Navy, and Midshipmen and Masters Mates in the Navy, whether at home or abroad, and by Commissioned Officers and Warrant Officers, Midshipmen and Masters Mates in Her Majesty's Indian Military and Naval Forces, whilst respectively actually employed in Her Majesty's Service, which shall have been re-directed and again forwarded by the Post.

II. Any printed Copy of the London Gazette in which any Warrant or order issued or made under or by virtue of this Act, or purporting so to be, shall be published shall be admitted as Evidence by all Courts, Judges, Justices, and others of such Warrant or Order, and of the due making and issuing thereof, and of the Contents of any such Warrant, without any further or other Proof of such Warrant.

III. This Act shall be deemed and considered a Post Office Act, and the several Terms and Expressions used therein shall be construed according to the respective Interpretations contained or referred to in the said Act of the Third and Fourth Years of the Reign of Her Majesty, Chapter Ninety-six.

IV. This Act shall come into operation on the First Day of October One thousand eight hundred and sixty.