The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

1849] CLOSING OF MONEY ORDER OFFICES. IOp
cautiously made, might excite opposition, perhaps too
strong to be overcome. The difficulty, too, was increased
by unreasonableness and even absurdity in some
of the demands put forth ; as, for instance, one for the
complete stoppage on their route of the mail-trains and
all other vehicles in the mail-service, from midnight on
Saturday till midnight on Sunday.
As, however, the Sunday suspension of moneyorder
business at Bath appeared on trial to produce no
public inconvenience, I recommended its extension,
first to Leeds, and afterwards to Birmingham, these
towns having likewise presented memorials on the
subject. In both cases my recommendation was
adopted by the Postmaster-General. I now began to
take measures to extend this Sunday closing of the
money-order offices to the whole kingdom. By the
beginning of 1849 it was extended to England and
Wales, and thus, in one day, four hundred and fifty
offices were relieved from money-order duty, many
of which had been previously open for that purpose
during the whole Sunday, just as on ordinary days.
Three months later, the experiment still proving successful,
the measure was extended to Ireland and
Scotland, relieving two hundred and thirty-four addi-
tional offices, and making the Sunday suspension of
money-order business complete.
Meantime, also, I was taking steps for bringing all
other Sunday work in the provincial offices within
narrower limits. In October, 1848,
I submitted a
minute suggesting that inquiry should be made as to
Sunday proceedings at the offices in Scotland (where
restriction had always been carried further than in
England), and how far such arrangements were found
satisfactory to the public and the department. The information
thence derived led me to hope that the