The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

APPENDIX H.
[Seep. 215.]
Letter to Postmaster- General (Lord Canning).
General Post Office, l8th June, 1853.
MY DEAR LORD, As your Lordship is already acquainted with
many of the statements I am about to make, you will at once perceive
that in writing at such length my view is in accordance with
your understood wish so to prepare the case for the Chancellor of
the Exchequer as to supersede the necessity of reference to former
correspondence on the subject.
In September 1842, in the midst of what the Treasury was pleased
to consider an able discharge of duties connected with the institution
of my system of Penny Postage, I learnt that my services were no
longer required, and I spent the next four years in private life, except
so much of the year 1843 as was occupied in preparing and laying
before a committee of the House of Commons a full exposition of
the operation of the Post Office as then conducted, in the course of
which I demonstrated that the existing system of management, besides
depriving the public of many reasonable facilities, involved an enormous
loss of revenue.
In December, 1846, my friend Mr. Warburton intimated to me the
desire of Her Majesty's Government again to employ me in developing
and perfecting my plans, and that they were prepared to offer me
a permanent engagement at the Post Office.
Although I was then engaged in avocations more highly remunerative
than the proffered appointment, I at once avowed myself ready
to accept it if I could be assured of sufficient authority to secure the
success of my measures a stipulation which, while reasonable under
any circumstances, was rendered imperative by my former experience
of the obstructions and injury that improvements were exposed' to
in consequence of the state of feeling which prevailed at the Post
Office.