The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

398 LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILL. [1864
Mr. Neate, who had been at the time Sir Francis
Baring's private Secretary, most justly
dwelt on the
support given to me by Sir Francis, when my official
superior.
Mr. Hennessy asked why Sir Rowland Hill had not
been created Postmaster-General ; to which Lord
Palmerston remarked that had he been appointed to
that post he would have had to go out on a change of
Government.
The motion was carried without a division.
A few days afterwards, Lord Granville brought
the question before the House of Lords in a very kind
and graceful speech.
" Lord BROUGHAM said there was this peculiarity in Sir Rowland
Hill that whereas inventors in general were the most sanguine of
men,* who saw no difficulties in the way, and who exaggerated the
probable results of their novelty, he understated the value of his
invention and over-estimated the difficulties and the expense of
adopting it.
* * * * * * *
" The Marquis of CLANRICARDE had the satisfaction of remembering
that under him and through him, in some degree, Sir Rowland Hill
had entered the Post Office ;
and bore testimony to the extraordinary
zeal for the public service, the judgment, the discretion, the temper,
and unvarying urbanity with which he met all the difficulties that he
had to encounter. Of course those who had been accustomed to the
old system viewed the innovation proposed with great alarm and
suspicion. He attributed no blame to these officers, believing that
the opinions given by them against the new system were founded
upon very natural fears and bias. But penny postage, as his noble
friend had said, was not the only improvement for which the nation
had to thank Sir Rowland Hill. His belief was that, if it had not
been for Sir Rowland Hill, the business in the Money Order Office
would not have reached to one-sixteenth of its present proportions, and
he doubted, indeed, whether that business would have been carried
on any longer. No balance had been struck, and no one could tell
what assets were in hand. He then asked Mr. Hill, who at that time had
* "Projectors see no difficulties, and critics see nothing else." Edmund Burke.
"Correspondence of Edmund Burke." Vol. n., p. 332. ED.