The Postmaster-General was delighted with an arrangement that reduced Sunday work in the London district, and at once agreed to putting down the cross posts—a change which released eleven men. He was inclined, indeed, as a punishment to the agitators, to abolish the Sunday morning delivery without giving anything in its place; but, upon my advice, this project was abandoned. Accordingly, carrying out a plan of relief which I had suggested, as a more general measure, when at the Treasury,[68] I proposed to substitute a late Saturday night delivery in the nearer suburbs for that on Sunday morning. By this plan more than a hundred men would be forthwith released from Sunday duty in the metropolitan district alone, while further investigation promised additional benefit. Within a fortnight I was able to submit a minute recommending the measure in detail; and to this the Postmaster-General gave his sanction, though he sadly wished to punish the public in the manner I have mentioned.
Further measures of relief soon followed:—
“November 30th.—At home finishing a minute on the sorting of Sunday letters. I have again improved the plan, so as to have most of the sorting done in the country on Saturday night and Sunday morning [of course very early, viz., before the passing of the up mails]. Four or five men working in London on the Sunday will, I expect, suffice.”
“December 1st.—Smith tells me that he shall be able to include every place in the six mile circle in the measure of Sunday relief. Nearly two hundred persons will thus be released from Sunday duty in the metropolitan district.”
On the same day, I wrote a minute pointing out the means for reducing the number of bags, as already spoken of. On learning from Mr. Tilley that some reports on this subject were lying in the office, I sent for them, and found that they were in reply to a minute of the Postmaster-General, written nearly two months before on information given by me. These reports represented my plan as quite practicable, and as saving “nearly half the labour of making-up and despatching the bags”; but orders had been given that no change should be made; and the reports had not even been submitted to the Postmaster-General. Of course I went forward with the improvement, which was carried into effect about six weeks later.
Meantime, there had appeared, from very different quarters, and on very different grounds, two able defences of our late proceedings: one from the late General Peyronnet Thompson, in the form of a series of letters to the Sun newspaper, and the other from the Rev. Dr. Vaughan, Head Master of Harrow School. General Thompson, for the most part, subordinated the question of the day to one of a more general character, viz., the obligation on Christians to observe the Mosaic law; but Dr. Vaughan perceived that, as the former question did not involve the latter, it was better to discuss it separately. His paper is remarkably forcible and terse. Such support from so high a quarter at so critical a time was invaluable. I quote his concluding passage:—
“Let these evils [those of Sunday labour] be met on their proper ground, and at the proper time. Let the good sense and the religious feeling of the country be appealed to when the danger really threatens. At present it is as remote as ever. It will not be brought one step nearer by this measure. But it may be increased by a premature and unreasonable outcry, to be succeeded, as usual, by a very natural recoil.”
To accelerate the process of Sunday relief, I thought it would be well to assemble all the surveyors for England and Wales, and to discuss with them, viva voce, questions usually dealt with by tedious correspondence. The meeting took place in December. The business occupied several successive days, and the results were highly satisfactory, the more so as all their recommendations were made unanimously. In short, the opportunity thus afforded for receiving information, obtaining opinions, and explaining my own views and intentions, proved so beneficial to the service, that in important cases I resorted again and again to similar meetings. I always found the intercourse both profitable and pleasant. It increased the interest of the surveyors in the work of improvement, and, by the collision of many opinions,[69] broke down prejudices and overthrew obstacles. I may say, once for all, as regards the effect on myself, that, though these discussions led to no change in principles, they often modified actual measures. I cannot conclude this brief account of the meeting without mentioning a singular fact which I learnt in the course of it—a fact from which much more might be inferred. Amongst the circuitous courses long maintained for carrying mails forward on the Sunday, without using the forbidden route through London, it appeared that letters posted at Kingston-on-Thames on the Saturday night for Barnet were conveyed by way of Exeter; thus travelling more than four hundred miles instead of five-and-twenty!
Meanwhile, I thought that the time had arrived for effecting an additional Sunday relief which I had contemplated from the first. Under the old arrangement there had always been performed on the Sunday certain work which properly belonged to the Monday; the reason for this proceeding being that the amount of duty accumulated on the Monday by the Sunday suspension of business was, without such relief, more than could be dealt with. The relief, however, that arose from the Sunday transit of letters had made it beyond question practicable for Monday to execute all its own work. That it should be made to do it I had advised in the very outset, feeling confident that it could do it; but I had been met not only with the usual declaration that the thing was impracticable, but with objections so plausible that, for once, I abated self-confidence, and supposed that the practical officers must be right. To my great surprise, on now moving in the matter, I found that, to a considerable extent, the impracticable change had already been effected, though, unluckily, no corresponding reduction had been made in the Sunday force. Such a reduction I began, therefore, to urge; and before the close of the year Mr. Bokenham had reluctantly consented to reduce his Sunday force by eleven men. He gave, at the same time, promise of further reduction on the following Sunday, if practicable; a question soon settled, for the Postmaster-General sanctioned, on the second day of the next year (January 2, 1850), minutes reducing the Sunday force in the London Office from twenty-six men, the number ordinarily employed for many years, to three; ten or eleven, however, being employed either before five o’clock in the morning or after eight o’clock at night in the mail carriages.