The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

IIO LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILL. [1849
English offices might be closed at least during the
hours of divine service, and the Sunday deliveries
limited in all cases to one. I consequently suggested
that the opinion of the surveyors should be ascertained
on these points, and at the same time I recommended
that the offices should, in the first instance, be closed
from ten to five (except for the receipt and despatch of
any mails in the interval).
The Reports of the surveyors concurred in strongly
recommending the adoption of the proposed improvements
;
not, however, without showing some apprehen-
sions of inconvenience, and consequent complaints,
from the proposed restriction to one delivery ; for the
cases in which there were more deliveries than one on
the Sunday proved then much more common than I
had supposed. Still, I was of opinion that, with what-
ever inconvenience the improvements might be attended,
they would be accepted by the public if accompanied by
another measure conferring an equivalent advantage.
Such a measure was at that time under consideration,
and had long been regarded as a desideratum, viz.,
the transmission of the " forward letters " * through
London on the Sunday, with a view to their delivery
on the Monday morning ;
a measure which I felt con-
fident might be effected, not only without any addition
to Sunday labour, but, even when taken in all its bear-
ings, with a great reduction of Sunday labour. Nay,
more, I saw reason to believe that, even in the London
office, on which alone the labour of such transmission
would fall, the improvement might, in the end, be made
to yield similar relief. This expectation was fully con-
firmed by experience.
Accordingly I took an early opportunity of consulting
* " Forward letters" are letters coming from one post town to a second, for
despatch to a third.