The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

APPENDIX E
[See p. 126.]
Letter to Postmaster-General deprecating Compulsory Employment
(Private and Confidential.}
on the Sunday.
General Post Office, October i8th, 1849.
MY DEAR LORD, I am greatly alarmed at your Lordship's note,
and earnestly entreat that you will not authorize Mr. Bokenham to
compel the attendance of a single man. During your Lordship's
absence in Ireland, the excited state of the public mind made it
necessary to take a decided course relative to this matter ; and as it
was always intended and fully understood by Mr. Bokenham that
none but volunteers were to be employed on the Sunday duties, I
did not hesitate to contradict the report which had been most
unjustly raised to the effect that the men, notwithstanding conscientious
objections to the work, were to be forced to engage in it.
The pledge which, under the circumstances, I felt warranted and
compelled to give, I trust your Lordship will enable me fully to main-
tain.
I am still ready to undertake the responsibility of the sorting by
volunteers, provided your Lordship will give me the powers which, by
your approval of my minute of the i5th inst, were conferred on Mr.
Bokenham. I submit, therefore, that there can be no necessity for
resorting to any compulsion ; and considering the manner in which
the public has held me responsible for this measure, I trust I may be
permitted to say that, so far as my own feelings are concerned, I
would rather abandon the improvement altogether than run the risk
of compelling any one to do that to which he has a conscientious ob-
jection.
Until I received your Lordship's note I had no conception of any
difficulty or hesitation on Mr. Bokenham's part. Mr. Tilley was
present when Mr. Bokenham expressed his readiness to undertake