The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

1847] LORD CLANRICARDE'S BOLDNESS. 55
Maberly, and beyond this nothing could be learnt till to-day, when,
getting impatient at the delay, I set Armstrong to learn the cause,
when it appeared that the papers were not with Colonel Maberly at
all, but in the first clerk's room, where they had been '
mislaid '
usual."
This transaction, though apparently
as
but of local
importance, I have narrated at some length, because
it shows how the progress of improvement was clogged,
and how much my time was occupied in watching lest
that which I had carefully planned should be marred in
working. Other difficulties will appear as I proceed
with my narrative :
"February ijth. Requested that he [the Postmaster-General]
would reconsider a minute directing that letters addressed to me
by the subordinates shall pass not only through
the heads of the
departments, as I had proposed, but through Maberly's office."
"February 24th. Finished a minute calling for copies of many
of the periodic returns made to Maberly, to which I have added
several original ones, with a view of obtaining tolerable statistics.
At present they are lamentably deficient."
"February 2jth. The Postmaster-General is so much engaged in
his duties as
present,
Cabinet Minister that he rarely comes to the office at
and I am obliged to defer to
many points on which it is
consult him. I am much dissatisfied with the little
necessary
progress made."
When, however, the Postmaster-General was more
at leisure we sometimes got on apace :
March $th. Had a long interview with the Postmaster-General,
and got through much business. I never met with a public man
who is less afraid of a novel and decided course of action . . .
;
e.g., a proposal of mine to require the postmaster at Manchester to
pay out of his fees the salaries of two new clerks, required on
account of his own inefficiency, has been cordially adopted, in
direct opposition to Maberly and the surveyor; and this is the
more important, inasmuch as my minute is a direct attack on a
claim hitherto treated with great reverence, viz., the right of an
officer to continue receiving fees (unless compensated), however