Owing partly to this rebuff, and partly to the demands on my attention arising out of Lord Ashley’s motion for the total abolition of Sunday work, I took no further active measure towards the improvement of my position for several months. Perhaps I might have been willing to wait yet longer, but for two causes; first, that my health, owing to recent labour, anxiety, and mortification, was now suffering more grievously than ever before; and, second, that services continued to be demanded of me which, on my actual footing, I was quite unable to perform. The failure of my health constrained me during this year, in spite of every effort, and though I was paying no inconsiderable sum yearly out of my own pocket for extraneous help,[82] to take frequent rest sometimes for a day or two, sometimes for a week, and once for more than a month. My complaint was a tendency of blood to the head. It has always been my opinion that at this time were sown the seeds of the disorder which, subsequently aggravated by other painful circumstances, later on compelled me finally to withdraw from duty at a period when otherwise there would have remained to me, to the best of my belief, several years of useful service. Indeed I should have been forced to retire much earlier had it not been for the subsequent appointment of my brother Frederic as assistant-secretary.
Being, however, again pressed repeatedly to undertake duties beyond my power, I at length resolved to make another effort to obtain what I knew to be the only change that could give me a fair chance of retaining my health, and at the same time of successfully performing the important duties for which I was responsible, or even of completing the reforms which I had held up to public expectation fourteen years before. Again, therefore, I sought the aid of my ever-zealous friend, Mr. Warburton; zealous, indeed, he must have been, or long ere this he would have been tired of my claims, and even of the public interest on which they were based.
In a letter which I wrote to him ([Appendix G]), I pointed out that four years had elapsed since the promise of speedy promotion was made, and two years since I first claimed its performance; and that though no objection was raised to the justice of my claim, no steps had been taken towards its practical acknowledgment. I showed the utter insufficiency of my present staff for the enormous amount of work now devolving upon me, and the impracticability of giving me an adequate force without either making me Chief Secretary or incurring an unwarrantable expense of several thousands a year. I referred to the injury done to my health by excessive labour, and the impossibility, under present circumstances, of my obtaining due rest. I referred to improvements effected, particularly the reform of the Money Order Department, to savings actually made, and to others in prospect. Lastly, I begged that if Government were still of opinion that it could not immediately fulfil its promise, a period might now be fixed beyond which the complete performance of the promise should not be delayed, and that arrangements should be at once made for the nearest approximation to such performance that might be deemed practicable.
Mr. Warburton, with his usual kind alacrity, promised to see the Chancellor of the Exchequer without delay, and to let me know the result. This interview was unsatisfactory; for though the Chancellor of the Exchequer admitted my claim, spoke highly of me, and said I was in reality the Chief Secretary, he promised no more than that I should succeed to the post if there occurred a vacancy at once suitable and acceptable to Colonel Maberly; though, upon Mr. Warburton’s pressing further, he expressed readiness to give me more assistance, or to exercise his patronage in favour of any member of my family, and promised to see me on the subject generally. Upon my showing the Postmaster-General a copy of my letter to Mr. Warburton, and reporting all that had passed, he admitted that Government was afraid of being attacked by the economists for extravagance, if they allowed Colonel Maberly to retire on full salary. Nevertheless, he cordially approved of what had been done, and volunteered to speak to the Chancellor of the Exchequer himself, and to back all that Mr. Warburton had urged. Two days later he reported progress, informing me that the Chancellor of the Exchequer wished to see him and me together, but adding that he had objected to this for himself, partly because he was going immediately to Ireland. He advised, however, against any attempt to establish a coequal secretariat, but said there would be no difficulty about raising my salary, and spoke of my having six month’s holiday before taking Colonel Maberly’s place, and of appointing a second assistant-secretary to relieve me of routine duty. In short, he showed clearly that he was desirous of the change.
I accordingly wrote next day to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, inquiring when I should wait upon him, and enclosing a copy of the whole correspondence on the subject of my position, commencing with my letter to Mr. Hawes of November 3rd, 1846, and ending with that to Mr. Warburton of November 15th, 1850. I then called on Mr. Warburton to report progress. He was in high spirits, and now thought we should succeed.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer replied that, as he was going into the country, he must postpone seeing me till after his return; but that he would take the correspondence with him and read it meantime. On the same day (December 19th) I received a letter from my brother Frederic, who had gone at my request to Manchester to see Mr. Cobden relative to any opposition that might be looked for from the economists. He informed me that he had been received in the most friendly manner, that Mr. Cobden, on his return to town, would talk over the matter with Mr. Hume, Mr. Villiers, and others, with a view to their acting together, and that meantime he authorized him (my brother) to say that he would back me in everything that I might think necessary for carrying out my plans, including the retirement of Colonel Maberly on full pay. On my brother’s return, I learnt that, though Mr. Cobden engaged to defend Government in the House if attacked for allowing Colonel Maberly to retire on full salary, he objected to give in writing a guarantee to be shown to the Postmaster-General, unless Mr. Hume would move in the same direction. At all events he advised that Mr. Hume should at once be applied to,[83] and thought Mr. Warburton the best man to make this application. Mr. Warburton preferred to do this by letter, and in the end decided on merely suggesting to Mr. Hume that he should see me on the subject.
When I saw Mr. Hume, he expressed concurrence with Mr. Cobden, and undertook to write to him on the subject, but wished to consult other members before signing any paper to be used by Government. He was exceedingly earnest in the matter, and reminded me of a speech he made in 1846, urging on the Whig Government, just then come into power, the necessity for placing me in the Post Office.
Meanwhile I prepared for use in my expected interview with the Chancellor of the Exchequer a statement of improvements effected in the previous two years; a step the more needful, as it might well have been supposed, seeing how much my attention was occupied during the main part of this time with the agitation respecting Sunday observance and with attempts to rectify my own position, that the course of improvement had been entirely suspended. Serious as was the check from these causes, and particularly from the former, which had involved me in a sort of life and death struggle, there was quite enough to show that time had not been allowed to pass unprofitably; and I may add that, even when my personal attention was most largely withdrawn, inquiries and preparations which I had set on foot were constantly paving the way for the improvements then in hand. On the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s return to town after the absence of nearly a month, I again applied for an interview, but again met with postponement; and it was not until a fortnight later that the desired opportunity was obtained. I looked upon these delays as very unpromising.
Meantime efforts were renewed in another quarter; the Postmaster-General himself speaking to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who explained the delay which had occurred, and promised to see me in a day or two. Lord Clanricarde informed me that a vacancy was expected in the chairmanship of the Audit Office, to which it was intended that Colonel Maberly should be appointed. This would have been most satisfactory could I have relied on prompt action; but as I was not to allow my knowledge of such expectation to appear even in my conference with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and as meantime objections on unsatisfactory grounds were raised against my being at once placed on full equality with Colonel Maberly, I could feel no confidence in the result.
After sleeping on the matter I decided that the Chancellor of the Exchequer must be pressed. A case had just occurred in which importunity had induced him to yield to claims which I regarded as at best but illfounded, and I thought that the same expedient might work as well where the claim was undeniable. I accordingly wrote as follows:—