The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

358 LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILL. [1855-60
relation to Post Office management ;
or, striking
out the years during which I had been excluded
from my work, the sixteenth of my
actual service
in that department. During this time, as may be
remembered, I had served under Mr. Baring and
Mr. Goulburn at the Treasury, Lord Clanricarde,
Lord Hardwicke, Lord Canning, the Duke of Argyll,
Lord Colchester, and Lord Elgin, at the Post Office.
Whoever has followed me thus far will have perceived
that my estimation of my successive superiors, whether
correct or otherwise, has varied considerably ; but I
believe all will agree that I may justly regard myself
as having been, on the whole, very fortunate ; as
having had to deal, for the most part, with great
intelligence, zeal, and honour, and as having met
with almost unvarying courtesy and kindness, and not
unfrequently enjoyed firm and earnest support. I
must add my full belief that, had the power rested
with my immediate superiors, I should have escaped
the long interruption to my tenure of office, and have
been spared the greater part of that protracted and
exhausting contest which undermined my health.
It was not, however, until the last year of this
period that I began to feel that permanent failure in
strength which, combined with other circumstances,
compelled me five years afterwards to withdraw at
once and finally from my post. In this year (1859)
after a careful consultation on my case by three
eminent medical men,
it was laid down that hence-
forth I must limit my days of work to four in the
week. Amidst anxiety on this point, however, I had
the satisfaction of believing myself pretty firmly estab-
lished in public opinion, and in the confidence of
Government. Two years before I had, without any
movement whatever on my part, been elected a