The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

REFORMS OF THE FUTURE. 405
the Postmaster-General should have the disposal of
that very numerous class of Post Office appointments
still retained by the Treasury ; seeing that, in addition
to his being in more direct communication with those
on whose advice it is important that he should act,
he would also, as a matter of course, have better
information on the whole subject than the Treasury
can command. Such transference would also mani-
festly tend to that concentration of responsibility
which all who have rightly studied the principles of
administration agree with Jeremy Bentham in re-
garding as of primary importance.
These organic changes being made, there would
be good ground to hope that, in due time, the allimportant
rule of promotion by simple and exclusive
reference
followed.
to demonstrated fitness would be strictly
One more change may be spoken of, but on this
point I rather suggest inquiry than advise action.
The abandonment of the Post Office monopoly has
much to recommend it, but yet is not a one-sided
question. On the one hand, it implies
the removal
of an offence from our statute book, and the probable
rise of a wholesome competition wherever the service
is performed with less than the greatest efficiency
and cheapness ; a competition which, more perhaps
than any other external circumstance, would tend to
compel the department to have due regard to simple
merit in its officers, and economic efficiency in all its
arrangements.* On the other hand, it must be
* In 1867, proceedings were taken against the Circular Delivery Company "for
delivering letters contrary to the privilege of the Postmaster -General." This
Company delivered circulars at a very low rate. " The proper mode of
"
proceeding,
Sir Rowland Hill recorded in his Journal, "would have been to adopt a plan which
I long ago frequently discussed with the Assistant- Secretaries, and which has, I
believe, been recently proposed in writing by my son, viz., to undertake the