Concurrent negotiations should be entered into for extending our outer money order system to many foreign countries not yet brought within its range.
It has been repeatedly urged in Parliament and in the public press that the office of Postmaster-General should cease to be political and become permanent; and, as already intimated, I cannot but consider such change highly desirable; seeing that a permanent head of the Department would have ample time and motive to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the business of the office, and would naturally be led to select his subordinates with more direct reference to their probable efficiency; his duration in office making it probable that the fruits of his own selection, whether good or bad, would be reaped by himself.
Supposing this change to be made, it would become even more desirable than it is at present that the Postmaster-General should have the disposal of that very numerous class of Post Office appointments still retained by the Treasury; seeing that, in addition to his being in more direct communication with those on whose advice it is important that he should act, he would also, as a matter of course, have better information on the whole subject than the Treasury can command. Such transference would also manifestly tend to that concentration of responsibility which all who have rightly studied the principles of administration agree with Jeremy Bentham in regarding as of primary importance.
These organic changes being made, there would be good ground to hope that, in due time, the all-important rule of promotion by simple and exclusive reference to demonstrated fitness would be strictly followed.
One more change may be spoken of, but on this point I rather suggest inquiry than advise action. The abandonment of the Post Office monopoly has much to recommend it, but yet is not a one-sided question. On the one hand, it implies the removal of an offence from our statute book, and the probable rise of a wholesome competition wherever the service is performed with less than the greatest efficiency and cheapness; a competition which, more perhaps than any other external circumstance, would tend to compel the department to have due regard to simple merit in its officers, and economic efficiency in all its arrangements.[246] On the other hand, it must be remembered that the operations of the Post Office, extending over the whole country, provide for the correspondence of many districts where the population is too small or too sparse to yield any profit whatever; and that although its general rule is not to go further than this, by providing for districts which cannot be served without loss, yet for purposes of Government the rule is in many instances set aside. It must be added that there are many reasons in favour of affording a service, not indeed day by day, but at least week by week, to every house in the United Kingdom (a completeness already attained in France, Prussia,[247] and Switzerland); and it would seem hard that the Post Office, while called upon to continue all this ill-remunerated or non-remunerated service, should be exposed to competition in that more profitable part of its business, which alone rival establishments would undertake.
Upon the whole, however, I am so impressed with the evils attaching to every monopoly, that I cannot but regard the abandonment in question, after due preparation, as a desirable step.
Before taking leave of my readers, I would express an earnest hope that my narrative, besides describing the progress of a remarkable change, may prove especially useful to all who may at any time contemplate a devotion of their powers to the cause of departmental reform; that it may be serviceable alike for encouragement and for warning—for encouragement, as showing that the field is open, and success, with its rewards, not unattainable; for warning, as showing with what difficulties it is beset, how serious the obstacles, how long the delays, how galling the mortifications, and how deep the disappointments, to be encountered even by one who is happy enough to attain at length the goal towards which his long, laborious, and anxious race has been directed.