“General Post Office, 29th January, 1851.
“Dear Sir,—It is so very important that my case should be decided without further delay, that I must beg to be excused for proposing that, if possible, the interview you were so good as to promise me may not be any longer deferred.
“Yours faithfully,
“Rowland Hill.
“The Right Hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer, &c. &c.”
An immediate reply summoned me for the next day.
“January 30th.—Went to the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s with documents to sustain my case as set forth in the correspondence. Asked if he had read the correspondence. He replied he had read the greater part. . . . Urged that I had fulfilled the only condition on which my position depended, and claimed the fulfilment of his part of the compact. He at once admitted my claim, qualifying the promise, however, to mean that I am to succeed Maberly on the occurrence of a vacancy. This is not what was understood at the time, as I told him. He says that as soon as any office in his gift suitable for Maberly becomes vacant, M. shall be removed to it (he did not say that he had any immediate expectations of a vacancy) but that I must wait patiently, &c.; that he should not be justified in pensioning M. at his time of life, as this would violate a rule which, though it acts disadvantageously in some cases, is on the whole beneficial. On my admitting that there was truth in this view of the subject, but pressing that all this should have been considered before the promise was given, and that it was unfair to induce me to accept office by holding out expectations unless Government saw their way to their fulfilment in a reasonable time, he said, standing up and leaning his back against the wall, as he is accustomed to do, ‘We may talk in this way till we are both black in the face, but it’s of no use. I can’t do it yet.’ He then said earnestly and cordially that I had fully realised the expectations of my most sanguine friends, and that he would do all in his power to show his sense of my services. He would immediately raise my salary to £1,500 a-year, and ‘give me any amount of assistance I might require.’ On my remarking jocularly that he was scarcely aware of the extent of this promise; that I wanted such a staff as M.’s, at a cost probably of £10,000 a-year; he replied that he ‘would give any reasonable amount of assistance.’. . .
“In conclusion, I thanked him especially for his hearty recognition of my services, but added that I felt it my duty to state, ‘in the plainest language I could use,’ that I must consider what he proposed as only an instalment on my claim, ... and that many important improvements must be deferred so long as the direct authority of Secretary to the Post Office is withheld from me.”
“Saw Warburton and reported to him the result, which he considers satisfactory.”
“January 31st.—Received the following from Hume:—
“‘Burnley Hall, 30th January, 1851.