The Secretary replied:—
“My Lord,—I consider the place in the Bye Letter Office to be fit for a Gentleman's Son, if that Gentleman be poor and wants to provide for his children. At all events it is an appointment for none but the son of a respectable man.
“I have the honour to be, &c.,
“F. Freeling.”
This rebuke to the haughty Cecil was richly merited, and Sir Francis Freeling deserves credit for standing up for his office. His esprit de corps was aroused, and he was not the man to remain silent when discredit was thrown on the Post Office. But the doubt as to the fitness of the Post Office service for the sons of gentlemen exists to-day among people who associate the Post Office only with the sticking on of stamps and the delivery of letters. And even in the eyes of the Treasury the Post Office has suffered because of its commercial associations, and the great spending departments, such as the War Office and the Admiralty, have usually received more honours and attention.
In the old days, when places in the Civil Service were filled by the nominees of peers and politicians, there was no competition to enter the Post Office so long as positions could be found in West End offices. There was usually an uncomfortable suspicion in the candidate's mind that the Post Office required a full day's work from every man. There was a Commission of Revenue Inquiry in 1823. One of the Commissioners questioned the Secretary of the Irish Post Office thus:—
“It appears one of the surveyors, Mr. Bushe, avowedly does no duty at all. When he received his office, did you or not consider him as receiving an office with certain duties attached to it?”
“Certainly.”
“Did you ever call upon him to perform his duty?”
“I did indeed call upon him to do his duty once, and his answer was that he would never do any, for that he held his office during good behaviour, and was determined therefore to do nothing wrong.”