The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

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LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILL.
public money with a carefulness which few men show
even in watching over their own private hoards. He
was never even so much as tempted for a single
moment to purchase popularity by swerving by a
hair's breadth from the narrow path of duty. More
than once a slight sacrifice of public money would
have saved him from attack. To public censure he
was by no means indifferent. He suffered beneath it
even though he knew that it was unjust. Yet he was
cause. One of the
always ready to brave it in a good
men who long served under him bore this high testi-
mony
to the character of his old chief:
" Sir Rowland
Hill was very generous with his own money, and very
close with public money. He would have been more
popular had he been generous with the public money
and close with his own." Of his generosity I dis-
covered a striking instance in looking through his
private Journal for his last year in office. For one of
his subordinates, on whose ability and devotion to
himself and zeal in the public service he set a high
value, he had not been able to obtain from the
Government the recompense which, in his opinion,
"
that gentleman deserved. I have compensated him
to some extent," he records, "by a gift of ^300."
Beneath a manner that was cold beat one of the
warmest and even tenderest of hearts. He had, in
earlier life, known what it was to bear the proud man's
contumely. The lesson that he had learnt in that
hard school was one of forbearance. His rule was
stern, yet never without consideration for the feelings
of others. No one who was under him ever felt his
self-respect wounded by his chief. It is not yet forgotten
in the Post Office how, many years ago, one of
the higher officers was summoned to the room of the
Postmaster-General to give an explanation on some