The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

308 LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILL. [1855-9
Libraries.
The following is an extract from the Postmaster-
General's Report for 1858 :
" It is with much pleasure that I have witnessed the establishment,
among the clerks in the Chief Office in London, of an institution
called the Post Office Library and Literary Association. The large
number of clerks who have enrolled their names shows how general
among them are a taste for reading and a desire for mental cultivation
and pleasures of a superior kind. Besides much support within the
department, the institution has received many liberal donations, both
of money and books, from without among others, a munificent gift
of ^50 from His Royal Highness the Prince Consort." *
In the following year similar institutions on a smaller
scale were established at nearly all the London district
offices, and also at Glasgow, t In the London office,
the institution was aided by the delivery of lectures,
a work in which several of the higher officials took
part. On the occasion of the annular eclipse of 1858
I took my turn by giving a lecture on the subject of
that phenomenon, and had the pleasure of addressing
a very full and very attentive audience.
Summary.
I cannot better close this account of the Post Office
staff, numbering at that time more than twenty-four
thousand persons in all, of which more than three
thousand served in the London district, than by quoting
the following passage from the Sixth Annual Report,
that for 1859, issued as usual in the following year,
and signed by the Postmaster-General of the day, Lord
Elgin :
"It is with much satisfaction that I contemplate the many improve-
ments made within the last few years in relation to the staff of officers.
* "Fifth Report," p. 25. t "Sixth Report," p. 43.