“Extract from the Daily News of March 12th.
“House of Commons.
“Pension to Lady Hill. Notice by Lord Palmerston.
“Sir Rowland Hill.
“Lord Palmerston.—Sir, I believe it is well known that that valuable and deserving public servant, Sir Rowland Hill, is about to retire from the public service, and that in the ordinary course of things he will be entitled to a pension for life. I beg to move that this House resolve itself into a committee of supply, on Monday next, for the purpose of considering whether that pension should not be extended for the life of Lady Hill should she survive her husband.”
On the 15th I received a minute of the Treasury, of which the following is a copy. There are some errors in the minute, of which the most important was noticed in my letter to Mr. Gladstone of this day (also subjoined), but nothing could be more gratifying than the minute as a whole:—
“Treasury Minute, dated 11th March, 1864.
“Read letter from Sir Rowland Hill, K.C.B., dated the 29th February, stating that six months’ absence having elapsed without any satisfactory results as regards the state of his health, he has now no course left but to resign his appointment as Secretary to the Post Office.
“Read also letter from the Postmaster-General of the fourth instant, stating that Sir Rowland Hill has, in consequence of the state of his health, been compelled to retire from the public service, and bearing his testimony to the eminent services which Sir Rowland Hill has rendered.
“The retirement of Sir Rowland Hill from the office of Secretary to the Post Office would, if treated under the ordinary machinery of the Superannuation Act, afford to my Lords the power of granting him no more than a pension of £566 13s. 4d., or to the utmost £666 13s. 4d., but it supplies, in the judgment of my Lords, an occasion of peculiar fitness for calling into action the 9th or special clause of the Superannuation Act, and thus, by a proceeding which marks their sense of his services, of drawing to those services the attention of Parliament.
“The period during which Sir Rowland Hill has held office, either by a temporary or a permanent appointment, is but little in excess of twenty years; yet my Lords have to regret that while he remains full as ever of ability, energy, and resources, and of disposition to expend them for the public good, the state of his health, due, without doubt, in great part to his indefatigable labours, compels him to solicit a retirement.
“It is not, however, by length of service that the merits and claims of such a man are to be measured. It is not even by any acknowledgment or reward which the Executive Government, in the exercise of the powers confided to it, can confer.
“The postal system, one of the most powerful organs which modern civilisation has placed at the command of Government, has, mainly under the auspices and by the agency of Sir Rowland Hill, been, within the last quarter of a century, not merely improved but transformed. The letters transmitted have increased nearly nine-fold, and have been carried at what may be estimated as little more than one-ninth of the former charge. In numerous respects convenience has been consulted and provided for even more than cheapness.