The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

2/8 LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILL. [1855-9
to perform the duty for ^1000 a year, the very
circuitous route via Shrewsbury was adopted, and
is still followed ; the longer route involving, however,
no inconvenience, as the conveyance is effected in the
night.
Again, the importance of some definite rule of
charge for specific duty, even as a means of facilitating
improvement, is shown by reference to the
multiplicity of contracts sometimes requiring to be
made or modified before a change can be completed.
The following is from the Report of 1859 :
"The great number of arrangements still necessary for the con-
veyance of letters to long distances, notwithstanding the length of
many of the railways for which a single contract suffices, is shown by
the fact, that for the transmission of a letter from Land's End to
John O'Groat's exclusive of engagements with rural messengers,
and of arrangements for the conveyance of mail-bags between
railway stations and post-offices twenty-one separate
required."*
Conciliatory Devices Loans.
contracts are
In my anxiety to place our relations with the railway
companies on a satisfactory footing, and amidst doubt
as to success in any attempt to procure efficient legislation
on the subject, I devised, in the beginning of
1857, what I hoped might prove a means of winning
from the companies that which, in spite of what I
believed and still believe to be to their true interests,
they have almost all refused to concede. My plan was
that Government should, on ample security and to a
limited extent, advance loans, on the terms on which it
could itself borrow, to such companies as were willing
to adopt a reasonable tariff of charge for postal services.
This arrangement, while costing in effect nothing to
* " Fifth Report," p. 12.