When, however, the Postmaster-General was more at leisure we sometimes got on apace:—
March 5th.—Had a long interview with the Postmaster-General, and got through much business. I never met with a public man who is less afraid of a novel and decided course of action ... ; e.g., a proposal of mine to require the postmaster at Manchester to pay out of his fees the salaries of two new clerks, required on account of his own inefficiency, has been cordially adopted, in direct opposition to Maberly and the surveyor; and this is the more important, inasmuch as my minute is a direct attack on a claim hitherto treated with great reverence, viz., the right of an officer to continue receiving fees (unless compensated), however large in amount and mischievous in their tendency, simply because he has once enjoyed them.
“Spoke again of the absolute necessity of my being better informed as to what is going on, and proposed that he [the Postmaster-General] should direct that all communications to and from the Treasury should pass through my hands. He at once concurred in the necessity of the thing, but proposed that, instead of writing a minute on the subject, he would himself take care that I saw such papers before they left his own hands. I fear that the arrangement will frequently be forgotten, but I could not object to try it. He again expressed a wish that I would not disturb existing arrangements, at least so far as they appear in writing; but on my telling him that the rule requiring me to obtain papers through him caused much inconvenience and delay, he told me in confidence that he did not desire that I should regard it, but send for any papers that I wanted.”
Not liking this anomalous state of things, I consulted confidentially with Mr. Jones Loyd, mentioning also my uneasiness at the slow progress of improvement, and referring to the expectations held out to me through him and Mr. Warburton before I entered the Post Office.[36] These expectations, however, I did not suppose were likely soon to be fulfilled, as I had just learnt that a large addition was about to be made to Colonel Maberly’s staff. Mr. Loyd, while recognising the expectations held out to me, advised me temperately to press the Postmaster-General to assign to me a department, or at least to leave in my hands till ripe for his own decision all matters connected with any specific improvement which may be assigned to me. On this advice I resolved to act as occasions arose. I presently had further evidence that I was advancing in the confidence of my official superiors. The Postmaster-General placed the secretarial management of the Money Order Department in my hands, and directed that all returns to Parliament should be submitted to me before being sent to the Treasury, with free leave for me to attack any such as seemed unfair to penny postage, while the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his place in Parliament, spoke highly of my services.
At the same time, I felt obliged to remind the Postmaster-General of our slow progress. I again called his attention to the delay of my measures after their leaving my hands; showed, in short, that all my measures were standing still, and told him I was very anxious to bring some one improvement to a successful issue, a view in which he agreed, thinking, however, that much had already been effected. As regards minor matters this was true enough, but my continued anxiety was justified by the fact that I had now been nearly four months in office without being able to bring into effect any improvement important enough to require the sanction of the Treasury.
On April 1st of this year, in accordance with the wish of the Postmaster-General, I went to Bristol. As what I found there may be regarded as a specimen, by no means an unfavourable one, of the state of things at the provincial offices generally, I describe it. The first delivery of the day, by far the most important of all, was not completed until twelve o’clock; the letter-carriers, as I was informed, often staying after departure from the office to take their breakfast before commencing their rounds. I was able to show how at a small cost (only £125 a year) it might be completed by nine. The office itself I found small, badly lighted, and worse ventilated. The day mail thence to London was nearly useless, its contents for London delivery being on the morning of my inquiry only sixty-four letters, thirty-seven of which might have been sent by the previous mail on the mere payment of the extra penny. The impression regarding this mail, both in and out of the office, agreed exactly with my evidence in 1843, viz., that all day mails, to be efficient for their purpose, should start as late as is consistent with their reaching London in time for their letters to be forwarded by the evening mails. The satisfaction I felt in such improvements as I had been able to make on the spot was much enhanced by my receiving at the termination of my visit the thanks of both clerks and letter-carriers for the new arrangements.
To return to the subject of obstruction:—
“April 20th.—A letter from Mr. Lettis, a senior clerk of the Money Order Office, written on the 12th instant, and forwarded the same day by Mr. Barth, instead of being sent at once to me, was forwarded, by Colonel Maberly’s own endorsement, to the Postmaster-General, then in the west of Ireland, in consequence of which it did not reach me till yesterday, I being all the while engaged on the subject to which it relates.”
The paper thus retarded I soon found was one amongst many, all of them more or less important to a right understanding of the work on which I was specially engaged. Application, however, to the Postmaster-General for the maintenance of direct communication produced no other effect than an injunction to Colonel Maberly’s department against further delay.
In the midst of these troubles, petty in themselves, but trying to my health and very injurious in the delay they produced, I saw, for the first time, a fellow-labourer in the great cause of postal improvement, who, in establishing the overland route to India, had surmounted formidable difficulties and rendered invaluable services, without, I fear, securing either to himself or his family any proportionate recompense. My record of the interview is very brief:—