The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

1849] END OF THE THIRD CABAL. 143
to warn me that more disturbance might yet come,
were at least beginning to break.'""
I have already referred to hostility in the office as
the chief source of the great trouble which had be-
fallen the department in general, and me in particular.
If there had not been a mutinous spirit amongst the
men, attacks from without, however annoying, could
not have produced that grievous anxiety which arose
from the knowledge of treason within. This, I may
remark, was the third distinct cabal formed with a
view to drive me from office. Like the two former
ones, and one more yet to be mentioned,
timed as to take advantage of a temporary weakness
in my position ;
it was so
a weakness caused on this occasion by
my having ventured, in quest of a great good, to
encounter popular feeling.
I cannot conclude this portion of my narrative
without remarking how near the great measure of
Sunday relief was to being defeated by public
clamour that arose out of the hasty acceptance of
mendacious statements from insubordinate officers.
At the City meeting in the previous October it had
been maintained that the temporary addition of
twenty-five men would not only be made permanent,
but would soon be swollen to six hundred. Within
four months of this prediction, not only had the whole
addition been dispensed with, but also the original
force of twenty-six men had been reduced to fourteen.
Of these, moreover, four only worked during the
* On January loth of the next year there is the following entry in Sir R. Hill's
Journal :
"This being the tenth anniversary of the adoption of Penny Postage, we had a
family party to celebrate the event. My poor sister, however, was too much
affected by the consideration that it would be the last meeting of the kind before
her departure with her family for South Australia ; and I fear the same consideration
affected the spirits of all." ED.