The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

1847] BRISTOL POST OFFICE. 57
that all returns to Parliament should be submitted
to me before being sent to the Treasury, with free
leave for me to attack any such as seemed unfair to
penny postage, while the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
in his place in Parliament, spoke highly of my
services.
At the same time, I felt obliged
to remind the Post-
master-General of our slow progress. I again called
his attention to the delay of my measures after their
leaving my hands ; showed, in short, that all my
measures were standing still, and told him I was very
anxious to bring some one improvement to a successful
issue, a view in which he agreed, thinking, however,
that much had already been effected. As regards
minor matters this was true enough, but my continued
anxiety was justified by
the fact that I had now been
nearly four months in office without being able to bring
into effect any improvement important enough to re-
quire the sanction of the Treasury.
On April ist of this year, in accordance with the
wish of the Postmaster-General, I went to Bristol. As
what I found there may be regarded as a specimen, by
no means an unfavourable one, of the state of things
at the provincial offices I generally, describe it. The
first delivery of the day, by far the most important of
all, was not completed until twelve o'clock ; the letter-
carriers, as I was informed, often staying after de-
from the office to take their breakfast before
parture
commencing
their rounds. I was able to show how at
a small cost (only ^125 a year) it might be completed
by nine. The office itself I found small, badly lighted,
and worse ventilated. The day mail thence to London
was nearly useless, its contents for London delivery
being on the morning of my inquiry only sixty-four
letters, thirty-seven of which might have been sent by