The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

146 LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILL. [1850
time become practicable to suspend those branch posts
that served many places, and that with the concurrence
of the public this might be gradually done to a very
great extent ; but I saw no hope of such a state of
things as would justify the interruption of the mails on
the trunk lines, which were indispensable alike to the
purposes
of Government and the convenience of the
public. On this latter point I showed in considerable
detail what an enormous amount of derangement such
suspension would produce. I showed that to suspend
all operations of the Post Office for the twenty-four
hours of Sunday must necessarily involve the inter-
ruption of the mails for more than twenty-four hours,
and that this would make it impossible for them to
start at midnight on Sunday from the point at which
they stopped at midnight on Saturday. The derangement
that would result would produce inconvenience
at place after place throughout each line, for it would
not only alter the hours of delivery, but also disturb
arrangements with the branch mails, cross mails, and
rural posts, throughout the greater part of the king-
dom, the whole evil being doubled by its necessarily
applying to mails in both directions. I showed further,
that as the stoppage of the mails would not imply the
stoppage of the mail trains, since passengers would
never consent to such an interruption, there would be
no cessation of traffic, while the relief even to the
servants of the Post Office would be but nominal,
since it would be found indispensable to an efficient
responsibility that the bags when at rest, just as when
in motion, should remain under the custody of the
guards, who would thus have to continue on duty
throughout the day of rest.
With regard to the amount of public inconvenience
which would arise from the interruption, I showed