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After I had explained to the Committee the difficulties to be encountered in the travelling-office—where “how the duty is to be performed” the Postmaster-General had declared himself “altogether at a loss to imagine,” adding that “if the number of registered letters should increase largely this office must be abolished”—a return was ordered by the Committee, in which, when received, the danger to the public service certainly stood forth in a ludicrous light; since it appeared that the number of registered letters then to be dealt with in the travelling-office, during its whole journey from London to Preston, averaged only six each trip!

For the purpose of refuting my statement, that little or nothing had yet been done in the way of increased facilities to the public, an attempt was made to extort from me an admission that there had been a great number of additional deliveries within the previous twelve months in different parts of the kingdom. The mode taken was to inquire if I were aware of large augmentations in particular towns selected by the querist (Mr. Estcott), who said that he spoke from his own knowledge, and to lead the Committee to infer, from my inability to reply off-hand to such questions, that I must be ignorant on the general subject; the whole was made up of parts, and if I could not speak to these, how could I be informed as to that?[17] In the interval, however, between my two interrogations on this subject, I produced evidence flatly contradicting, so far as related to two out of the three towns named, the allegations so distinctly implied in the questions of the hon. member.[18]

Such are a few of the matters selected for my pamphlet, out of the many dealt with in my evidence relative to past proceedings.

The next point of consideration was the probability of the completion of my plan. I again quote from my pamphlet, premising that in the previous passage I had referred to the importance which I had always attached to the plan as a whole, and to the Duke of Wellington’s emphatic recognition of such importance:—