The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

1848] TWO CO-ORDINATE AUTHORITIES. 95
CHAPTER XVII.
EFFORTS FOR IMPROVEMENT IN POSITION. (1848-9.)
IN the narrative of the proceedings of the year 1848
I have reserved to the last some that were of great
importance to myself, and I venture to think, through
.me, to the public service. The discordant action in the
secretarial department, so often referred to in these
pages, so difficult to prevent where there were two
co-ordinate authorities dealing apart with the very
same affairs, and unfortunately so needlessly aggra-
vated in a variety of ways, continued throughout
the year with but little abatement, and with no
prospect of cure. Not only, as already shown, did
it seriously impede, and in some important cases
even stop, the progress of improvement, but it acted
also so injuriously on my own health as at times to
make me even doubt the possibility of my remaining
at my post.
Before, however, the effect on my
health became
too manifest to allow of neglect, the two-fold evils of
my position, the realisation of all the unpleasant antici-
pations with which I had entered on my office, had led
me to seek the early fulfilment of those expectations
held out to me in the beginning, without which I
should not have entered on my arduous task. In
reply to my inquiry as to the term necessary for
demonstrating my power of dealing with details there