On the following day, when, though better, I was unable to leave home, I looked with anxiety into the morning papers to learn what would be the complexion of their reports in the absence of that information which I had been forbidden to supply; and, with concern, I found my unsatisfactory anticipations confirmed. Even the Times, which had hitherto given us so much support, headed its article with “Commencement of Sunday labour in the Post Office”; made it appear that it was intended to make a despatch by the day mails, but that the attempt failed; represented the attendance as compulsory, and stated that not less than fifty men were employed in the additional duties, the actual number being only twenty-five. Handbills, too, were publicly distributed by letter-carriers, attacking not only me, but also the Postmaster-General, and even the Government.
Amidst so many difficulties on one side it was natural that those on the other should be overlooked. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had written to me saying that he did not see the necessary connection between Sunday relief in the provinces and the Sunday transmission of letters through London; intimating, in short, that we might retain the one and abandon the other. In reply, I informed him that I could not have ventured to propose the one change without the other, reminded him that there were two parties to be considered in the matter, referred for further explanation to my minute of the previous February, repeated my conviction that by the use of proper means the additional force at the Chief Office could be altogether dispensed with, reported satisfactory results thus far, and forwarded, as evidence of relief at the provincial offices, the letter lately received from the postmaster of Plymouth.
On the day after writing this letter, being still confined to the house, I received a note from the Postmaster-General, informing me that he was much pressed to issue an order for compelling attendance, and that he wished me to consider the question before he next came to the office. On going myself to the office on the following day, I learnt that a larger Sunday force had been applied for by Mr. Bokenham, partly with a view to completing the work in the morning, and partly to enable him to work the men on alternate Sundays only. He wished the number to be raised to forty, which, by alternation, would be in effect five less than the number I had proposed; yet I hesitated to agree to the change, knowing how the matter would be misrepresented abroad.
“November 2nd.—In the evening the Postmaster-General came to the office, and reported that Lord John Russell concurred in the importance of avoiding compulsion. The final settlement is deferred till Monday.”
Even the authority of the Premier, however, did not remove all difficulties, for on my suggesting to Mr. Bokenham that he should offer a new inducement to volunteers, he again urged that, instead of this, I should consent to a compulsory attendance in rotation. Upon my refusal, he asked permission to warn the men that, unless there were sufficient volunteers, compulsion would be resorted to; offering, as I still refused, to do this in his own name, without implicating me. Of course I stood firm to my point.
When the second Sunday had passed much as the first, I again offered, with a view to avoid further importunity, to undertake the work myself; but scarcely had I done this when a new difficulty arose, for which, however, I was not altogether unprepared. An eminent printer, who had offered me the aid of fifty of his men, deemed it prudent to withdraw, as he saw reason to believe that if he persisted in his offer it would lose him some important custom.[64] At the same time I was warned by anonymous letters (of one of which a copy is given in [Appendix F]), of treacherous conduct within the office, and upon my reporting this to the Postmaster-General, learnt that he had received the same warning in a letter not anonymous.[65] I had come to him, however, prepared with a memorandum showing the results for which I was ready to make myself responsible, and also the conditions which I deemed essential to success; and, of course, I stood quite prepared to go on. My offer was the more opportune as Mr. Bokenham, who arrived in the midst of our conversation, informed the Postmaster-General, when I had withdrawn, that he could not remain responsible for the new work, even on the Sunday next ensuing. My offer, therefore, was, with some modification, accepted. I felt more confident in the charge, because I had devised a means of reducing the number of bags—the chief difficulty on the previous Sunday—from six hundred to one hundred, and because I had learnt from Mr. Tilley that all such volunteers as he had spoken to had renewed their engagement. He himself was ready to go on, and even Mr. Bokenham, though shrinking from the chief responsibility, was, like Mr. Tilley, willing to undertake the share of duty allotted to him according to our first arrangement.[66] The only remaining doubt was whether the Premier might not decide upon a complete abandonment of the plan.
“November 6th.—Saw the Postmaster-General by appointment at his own house in the evening. Lord John Russell, whom he met at the Cabinet Council at Windsor, did not hesitate a moment. The agreement of yesterday was therefore confirmed.”
This was, however, with one modification, viz., that if the office did not supply the requisite number of volunteers, the deficiency should be made up from other Government departments. Happily no such necessity arose, as the number of volunteers from the office itself who presented themselves on the conditions I had been authorised to offer, was more than necessary. Seeing this, Mr. Bokenham for the third time undertook the duty, at first only for the next Sunday, but within two days for permanence. Accordingly the next Sunday, though the additional force still did not exceed twenty-five men, the number of letters, however, being somewhat less than the week before, the whole work was completed in the morning, so as to release all engaged in it by ten o’clock for the whole day. In short, the difficulty had so completely passed away that three days afterwards Mr. Bokenham came to inquire if I should be likely to make any change in duties during the next three Sundays, as he wished to leave town; and upon my doubting the safety of his withdrawal at such a time, gave it as his opinion that there was no danger. Among the circumstances tending to this satisfactory result was, doubtless, an authority which I had obtained from the Postmaster-General to form a permanent corps of volunteers, principally from other Government offices, who were to receive a month’s pay whether called upon for actual service or not. The Stamp and Record Offices alone were ready to supply thirty-five men, or ten more than needful. I could not, however, fully share in Mr. Bokenham’s confidence. Only four days before, inflammatory handbills had been distributed within the office, one being deposited at each sorter’s place, while a sub-sorter was selling, at a halfpenny per copy, an abusive song attacking myself; proceedings which, as the Postmaster-General remarked in calling for investigation, showed that there must be great neglect in the discipline of the office.
There continued, likewise, a daily issue of placards, which were exhibited chiefly on the churches and in certain shop-windows, one of these latter being nearly opposite my room. A few of these placards were avowedly issued by the Lord’s Day Society, but most of them were anonymous. All had the appearance of being concocted more or less in the Post Office, and all evinced an utter disregard of truth. I retain to this day a collection of these mendacious papers, which, though large, is nevertheless incomplete. The strike among the men urged in some of them never went further than the refusal, on the part of the guards, on one occasion, to assist in placing the bags in the carriages at the Post Office; in consequence of which, even before I knew the fact, they were all suspended from employment by the Postmaster-General.
However, as the Sunday duty was now permanently off my hands, I had leisure to direct my attention towards those measures for diminishing its amount, which formed an integral part of my plan. One of these was so to arrange the work as to have the greatest practicable amount of sorting done in the travelling offices on the railways; the earlier portion ending by five on Sunday morning, and the latter not beginning till nine on Sunday evening. The pursuit of this object led to a singular device. One portion of the correspondence passing through London on the Sunday, viz., that from towns too near to London to allow of time for sorting on the way, seemed incapable of being brought within this arrangement; but while I was preparing a minute on the subject, in which my brother Arthur was assisting me, I suddenly startled him, so he now reports, by exclaiming: “A light breaks in upon me.” I had just conceived the first notion of the device referred to above, which, strange as it may seem, really answers its purpose very well. This was that the down mail-trains on Saturday night should take up these letters at the different towns on their respective routes, thus conveying them, in the first instance, in a direction opposite to their final destination, but subsequently transferring them to the up-trains for conveyance to town. Thus the down night train to Liverpool would receive successively the up-mails of St. Albans and Watford, and on arrival at a more remote town would transfer them all to the up-train, which would carry them back to London. By this arrangement the required opportunity for sorting the letters was obtained. Indirect as is the route, no time whatever is lost to the public, which to this day, I believe, remains quite unaware that letters are carried away from London by one night train only to be brought back by another. Another point for relief was a Sunday morning delivery in the suburbs of London, employing about four hundred men, against which, amidst all the hubbub of the time, not a word had been said.[67] It occurred to me that, as a means of immediately reducing the work, the district cross posts might be dispensed with on Sundays, which could be done without inconvenience.