The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

i855~9] MR. ROBERT STEPHENSON. 341
CONTROVERSY WITH MR. ROBERT STEPHENSON.
In the course of this period I was reluctantly
drawn into controversy with the eminent engineer,
Mr. Robert Stephenson, then President of the Society
of Civil Engineers, who, in his inaugural address,
in defiance of facts, with which, at his request, I
had supplied him, represented the railway system as
essential to the fiscal success of penny postage, and
even to the conveyance of the mails : and then proceeded
to charge the Post Office with harsh and
unjust dealing in relation to the railway companies,
and with uncertainty, irregularity, and delay in its
own proceedings. The dissatisfaction which I natu-
rally felt and expressed at statements and charges so
unfounded, being reported to Mr. Stephenson, drew
from him a letter in which he expressed regret at
my annoyance, thanked me for the information
supplied to him, admitted " all the principal facts
therein stated," but retained his own conclusions ; at
the same time deprecating controversy, and speaking
in the highest terms of my public services. To
remove, as far as practicable, the erroneous impression
necessarily produced by Mr. Stephenson's address,
which of course could not be affected by his private
letter, I requested Mr. Edward Page, the Inspector-
General of Mails, as the officer most conversant with
the whole subject, to prepare a complete exposition
of the facts of the case ; and this, drawn up with
Mr. Page's usual care and ability, appeared in the
Appendix to the Second Report
of the Postmaster-
General (p. 45), and, I may add, will still repay
perusal. In a subsequent address, however, to the
Institution, Mr. Stephenson, without any effectual
answer to Mr. Page's definite and accurate statements,