THE POST OFFICE OF FIFTY YEARS AGO.
less difficulties Sir Rowland Hill had to encounter in forcing his reforms down the throats of the authorities at St. Martin's-le-Grand, we need not here give any account. The story is told in the Life of Sir Rowland Hill published about seven years ago; and the complete success of his postal scheme is now everywhere fully recognised.
It should, however, be stated that in 1842 the hostility of certain officials to the new reform rose to such a pitch that—by means which even at this length of time it would hardly be safe to describe—Sir Robert Peel's Government (then in power) was coerced into putting an end to Sir Rowland Hill's engagement at the Treasury. This was terminated in September, 1842; the excuse publicly given by the Government for so doing being that the new postal system was then working so well that Sir Rowland Hill's services were no longer necessary. As was characteristically stated by Thomas Hood at the time, "it would never surprise him, after such an instance of folly and ingratitude, to hear of the railway people some day, finding their trains running so well, proposing to discharge the engines."
With profuse expressions of the high sense the Government entertained of his personal character, and of the value of the services he had rendered to the public, Sir R. Hill was politely bowed out of office, and the new postal system handed over to the tender mercies of its worst enemies.
By the public this ungracious act was strongly
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