The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

1 86 LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILL. [1849-51
carrying the mails to the Brazils, I asked the Postmaster-General if
he had been consulted in the matter, and found that he had not ;
and further, that there had been no communication with the Office
on the subject."
So that, according to the practice of which I complained, the
Post Office was made chargeable with heavy expenses, incurred not
only without its request, but without its consent or even knowledge.
The inexpediency of such proceedings happened to receive further
illustration on the same day; Mr. Cunard calling upon me (of
course now too late) to say that he had come to England for the
purpose of proposing to undertake the West Indian mails at half the
price then paid for their conveyance, thus tantalising us by proving
that an opportunity had been lost of saving ^120,000 per annum.
In a return called for by the House of Lords, I found that the
number of letters for the year had been arrived at by treating the
year as consisting of twelve months of four weeks each, so that the
total given was that for forty-eight weeks instead of fifty-two. It
would have been hardly fair to mislead the House of Lords without
doing the same good
ingly, upon the Lower House calling
office to the House of Commons. Accord-
for a return of the amount of
transit postage paid to France, the sum reported, without any note to
prevent misunderstanding, instead of being the total amount, was
merely the balance of account between the two Offices. After
as follows :
recording this fact, my Journal proceeds
"
It is a very rare thing for a return to reach me which does not
contain some egregious error."
Fortunately I saw the return before its issue, and it
corrected.
was of course
"
July i8th, 1850. Every now and then something almost incredibly
absurd and mischievous in the management of the Post
Office turns up. Some investigations in which I have lately been
engaged have brought to light the astounding fact that for the
payment of a large part of our expenses (hundreds of thousands
a year probably) we have no vouchers, and yet there is a pretence of
auditing our accounts. The fact is, that the salaries and wages of
the clerks, letter-carriers, &c., at the country offices, together with
heavy expenses for carrying mails, &c., are paid by the postmasters,
and allowed in their accounts, but no evidence is required that the
payments are actually made ; and instances have occurred in which
postmasters have gone on taking credit year after year for payments
on account of mails, &c., which have been suppressed.
The postmasters
at and were both detected in this fraud."