The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

230 LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILL. [1851-4
They think that no railway should have any claim to
be considered as fulfilling
its obligations to the district
in which it is situate which fails to facilitate in this way
the postal communications of that district."*
Nothing, however, was accomplished ;
and repeated
attempts, subsequently made, were equally unavailable.
In truth, the railway influence is so strong in Parlia-
ment, and, on this point, so little guided by a knowledge
of true railway interests, that the injurious law enacted
thirty years ago, though avowedly a temporary measure,
to last only until experience of the working of railways
should have afforded the requisite data for laying down
a scale of charges, continues in force to the present day.
Meanwhile, willing to try what could be done with
of them.
the existing laws, I devised a new application
Being pressed to supply Ayr and the neighbouring
towns with a more direct communication than they
then enjoyed, and finding that the railway company to
be dealt with, though having suitable trains actually
running, refused to carry the mails, except at prices far
beyond what the correspondence would I
justify,
devised a new kind of notice, which the solicitor to the
Post Office regarded as strictly legal, requiring the
company to carry the mails by the existing trains, but
leaving them at liberty to alter or withdraw these trains
altogether on giving us fifteen days' notice. Under
such a notice our arbitrator was of opinion that the
remuneration awarded would be, as it ought to be, very
low. This plan succeeding, I obtained its extension to
some other lines, but at length met with resistance
from one of the companies. On reference to the law
officers of the Crown, our claim was pronounced un-
tenable, they holding that by the law as it stood, the
* " Fifth Report," p. 16.