[194] “Life,” ii. 227-230.
[195] “My notion is,” wrote the diarist, “to run a train with only one or two carriages in addition to those required for the mail, and to stop only once in about 40 miles.” A long distance run in those days. The speed was fixed at 40 miles an hour, stoppages included. This was considered very quick travelling in the 'fifties.
[196] “It is curious,” says my father, “how inveterate is the mistake in question. Columbus expected to reach Cathay more quickly by sailing westward, but was stopped by the American continent. The projectors of the 'Darian Scheme' hoped to enrich themselves by making their settlement a great entrepot between Europe and the East Indies; and Macaulay, in his interesting narrative of the enterprise ('History of England,' vol. v. p. 200), considers their mistake to consist mainly in the assumption that Spain would permit a settlement on its territory; but it seems not to have occurred to him that, in any event, the scheme was intrinsically hopeless, seeing that the old route by the Cape of Good Hope, besides avoiding the cost and delay of transhipment, surpasses the Darian route even in shortness” (“Life,” ii. 292). It is also well known that the discoverer of certain rapids on the great river St Lawrence believed himself to be nearing the country of Confucius when he called them “La Chine.”
[197] Thus the agitation for an “all red route” is a mere revival.
[198] Sixth Annual Report of the Postmaster-General.
CHAPTER VIII
AT THE POST OFFICE—Continued
The important Commission appointed in 1853 to revise the scale of salaries of the Post Office employees held many sittings and did valuable work.[199] Its report was published in the following year. Rowland Hill's examination alone occupied eight days; and he had the satisfaction of finding the Commissioners' views in accordance with his own on the subject of patronage, promotion, and classification.