The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

326 LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILL. [1855-9
General. With such provision it might perhaps have
been hoped that not only would all motive to such
insubordinate proceedings as had frequently troubled
the department in previous years be entirely re-
moved, but even that irregular modes of complaint
would not have been taken, at least until after full
trial of the appointed channel.
Nevertheless, about two months after the circu-
lation of the inflammatory paper given above, amidst
an almost total absence of formal complaint, and
certainly without substantiation of any grievance in
respect of a class, or even of individuals, a meeting of
letter-carriers was held in the South Western district,
and reported in the newspapers, at which " Speeches
were made containing statements which the men who
uttered them must have known to be false, but from
the consequences of which they endeavoured to screen
themselves by concealing their names."* For the
time the misconduct was repressed ; but we felt that
without either such a course of concession as would
gradually raise salaries far beyond
true remuneration
(thus tending to serious waste and other evils, not less
certain though less patent), or such union of firmness
and energy in all the authorities of the department as
would render even an approach to mutiny unsafe to
those concerned, recurrence of trouble was certain,
and its imminence could not but remain a source of
anxiety. This will further appear in a later period of
my narrative.
Slander, however, was not the only means resorted
to by malcontents ; threats being added. Of these no
mention appears in my Journal,
as of course I wished
* "Fifth Report," p. 40. In the admonitory address from which the above
quotation is made, and which was afterwards published in the Annual Report,
the position of a letter-carrier is distinctly set forth.