The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

58 LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILL. [1847
the previous mail on the mere payment of the extra
penny. The impression regarding this mail, both in
and out of the office, agreed exactly with my evidence
in 1843, viz., that all day mails, to be efficient for their
purpose, should start as late as is consistent with their
reaching London in time for their letters to be forwarded
by the evening mails. The satisfaction I felt
in such improvements as I had been able to make on
the spot was much enhanced by my receiving at the
termination of my visit the thanks of both clerks and
letter-carriers for the new arrangements.
To return to the subject of obstruction :
" April 2oth. A letter from Mr. Lettis, a senior clerk of the
Money Order Office, written on the i2th instant, and forwarded the
same day by Mr. Earth, instead of being sent at once to me, was for-
warded, by Colonel Maberly's own endorsement, to the Postmaster-
General, then in the west of Ireland, in consequence
of which it did
not reach me till yesterday, I being all the while engaged on the
subject
to which it relates."
The paper thus retarded I soon found was one
amongst many, all of them more or less important to
a right understanding of the work on which I was
specially engaged. Application, however, to the
Postmaster-General for the maintenance of direct
communication produced no other effect than an
injunction to Colonel Maberly's department against
further delay.
In the midst of these troubles, petty in themselves,
but trying to my health and very injurious in the delay
they produced, I saw, for the first time, a fellowlabourer
in the great cause of postal improvement,
who, in establishing the overland route to India, had
surmounted formidable difficulties and rendered in-
valuable services, without, I fear, securing
either to