The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

1849] TREACHERY IN THE CAMP. 115
in its own office than with any decrease, however
great, in all the other offices of the kingdom ; and
that if London should sound the alarm on a subject
where Englishmen feel rather than think, an angry
excitement would spread throughout the country ;
evil so formidable as to require that every precaution
should be taken against it. Above all, it was desirable
that no partial rumour should precede the complete
enunciation of the plan ;
since its sole chance of ready
acceptance, and indeed its true justifiability, depended
upon its character as a whole. Consequently, every
one of those to whom knowledge was necessarily
intrusted had been strictly enjoined to secrecy.
Unhappily, there must have been treachery in the
camp ; not that I ever had the means of fixing this
charge on any individual, or that I ever was solicitous
to do so ; but of the fact itself there was abundant
evidence.
On September 2 7th my wife and I, by way of
keeping the twenty-second anniversary of our wedding,
had taken a walk together as far as Hendon, but after
spending some time pleasantly there, we found the rest
of our pleasure marred by rumours of approaching
trouble rumours too well confirmed on the following
day.
"September 28th. The newspapers this morning are full of the
most absurd statements as to the Sunday duties' measure, which, in
several, is violently attacked as a desecration of the Sabbath, and so
on. The Herald and the Record profess to give very circumstantial
statements of what I have said and done in the matter, but these are
pure inventions. The clerks in the Inland Office have signed a
memorial to the Postmaster-General, remonstrating against the
measure, as though it were intended to require their attendance
on a Sunday, and expressing a pious horror of so doing. The facts
being that some who have signed the memorial already attend
throughout the day, while the additional duties will be so arranged
I 2
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