The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

1847] BOOK POST. 65
perquisites, &c., I made arrangements for such returns
as to the current amount of those irregular emoluments
as would keep these claims thenceforth within due
bounds. The efficiency of this plan will be evident
when it is considered that, though at the period of
abolition claimants would naturally seek to make this
amount appear as large as possible, yet, in ordinary
times, when the receipt of large fees might act as a bar
to demand for augmented salary, the interest would lie
in the opposite direction. All, therefore, that was
necessary was to get the ordinary
putable record. This had been provided
estimate on indis-
for before I
left the Treasury, but, in the interim, the plan had
been abandoned.
Finding that any attempt to establish a parcel post,
which I had formerly suggested, would raise more
opposition in the railway companies than I thought
it prudent just then to encounter, I suggested the
establishment of a book post, pointing out how much
such a measure would promote education, and how
acceptable it would be to the public. The Postmaster-
General expressed apprehensions of the department
being overloaded on magazine days, and I had to
point out the means by which all such difficulties could
be surmounted. Vehement objections came from the
usual quarter, but these were overruled.
Before closing the account of the year, I must
mention two attempts at improvements w rhich have
met with no success.
Upon an application from Colonel Maberly's extra
clerks for an increase of salary, I proposed instead a
all vacancies
regular system of promotion, whereby
in the establishment should be filled by selection from
the extra clerks instead of from without, an arrangement
which would have obtained the collateral
VOL. II. F