The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

90 LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILL. [1848
Manchester and Liverpool Railway, and that they were satisfied
therewith ; that the Postmaster-General, in opposition
to the advice
of his officers, proposed to the Treasury a scale nearly the same, but
slightly higher than that now established, and then appointed a large
number of new guards ; that, owing to a blunder of 's [instead
of the change being limited to guards on railway, who got no fees
from passengers], the option was offered to all the guards then in the
service to be placed on this scale, as he admits, without authority
from the Treasury ; that the Irish guards [who all worked on mail-
at once
coaches], without exception, accepted the offer ; thus adding
more than ^5,000 a year to the expenses ; that an attempt was then
made (in
effect unsuccessfully) to withdraw the offer, and that in the
course of a few years the expenses in mail guards were advanced
from ^10,513 in 1836, to ^28,627 in 1841 ; that my minute on the
subject, written at the Treasury in 1842, calling for explanations and
suspending further advance meanwhile, was sent to the Postmaster-
General in August of that year, and remained unanswered till
September, 1845,
and that in the meantime the Post Office was
frequently pressing the Treasury to remove the suspension. . .
Towards the end of 1845 the Treasury took off the suspension, and
the arrears (about ^2,000) were paid. The Committee of Investi-
gation, in 1843, called for a copy of my minute, and of the proceedings
consequent thereon, but it was delayed under various
pretexts, and was eventually withheld altogether."
Letter-Boxes.
One means of economising the time of the letter-carriers, which I
had contemplated from the first, was to induce the public to provide
themselves with letter-boxes to the doors of their houses ; and I now
suggested to the Postmaster-General the expediency of addressing a
circular on the subject, in his name, to the inhabitants of London.
I proposed that it should give information as to the cost of change,
and offer Post Office assistance in case of difficulty. At the time
the Postmaster-General concurred in all this, but for some months
nothing was done.
" March 2pth. The P.M.G. has sent me a private note stating
his apprehension that the circular as to letter-boxes, &c., will be
ridiculed, and proposing to leave out all information as to prices, &c.
As he had previously sanctioned the circular, I suppose some one
must have excited these apprehensions. To me it appears ridiculous
to issue a circular without giving the information which every one
naturally desires but of course it must be altered."
;