The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

1843-6] RESIGNATION OF CHAIRMANSHIP. 23
market value at the time when the new directors
were appointed a price, however, which I knew to
be in excess of their real value, and which was due
in part to the general inflation at the time, for this, it
may be remembered, was the year of the wellknown
"railway mania." I may observe here that,
pecuniarily speaking, I had been a gainer by my
expulsion from the Treasury ; the rise in the value
of my railway property, resulting in great measure
from my own efforts and those of my brother
directors, having been so great as to render my previous
salary comparatively insignificant ; indeed, in
one year, while chairman, my total gain was as high as
^6,000. Why, then, did I resign so advantageous a
position, especially as I could not but foresee a danger,
a fear afterwards too well confirmed, that, in the
absence of my own direct supervision and control,
these great profits might be exchanged for yet greater
losses ? The answer is to be found in the political
circumstances of the day. By this time Sir Robert
Peel's Government was beginning to totter, and the
Liberals to have strong hopes of a speedy return to
power. Believing that their return would be followed
by my own recall, and feeling that my late efforts had
drawn considerably on my strength both of body and
mind, I resolved to obtain a long holiday an indul-
gence impracticable while I retained the chairmanship.
I gave notice accordingly, as appears by the following
extract from the Railway Chronicle, which will, perhaps,
be the more interesting as it announces the result
of the offer to the Post Office already mentioned,
and indicates probable consequences :
" The Post Office has accepted the liberal offer of the Brighton
Company to carry a bag of letters by every train gratis. As the
South-Eastern, following the Brighton's good example, made i