The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

3/6 LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILL. [1864
CHAPTER XXIX.
RESIGNATION. (1864.)
I RETURN to the year 1864, and to my personal
narrative.
The necessity for my withdrawal
disappointing because I knew that
was the more
I had the full
confidence and even sympathy of the head of that
to which the Post Office is subordinate.
department
This confidence, however, was not sufficiently near
for my support ; and in my immediate department
the ground was slipping from beneath my feet. The
chief point I was striving to maintain was that of
promotion at once by absolute merit, and in faithful
accordance with the requirements of the department.
The rules by which this was maintained had to an
important extent been of late set aside ; all my
resistance to the change being overborne. My
appointment having been made by the Treasury, I
had thought myself justified in appealing directly to
that higher authority ; and I now learnt, for the first
had been
time (February 6th, 1864), that such condemned by the
appeal
Postmaster-General, who at the
same time denied in general terms my alleged appointment
by the Treasury,* maintaining that "all
appointments in the Post Office, without distinction,
See my Letter of Appointment, Vol. II., p. 224.