CHAPTER XIX.

PARTIAL IMPROVEMENT IN POSITION.

If I had been painfully sensible of the evils attending my anomalous position even before the commencement of the Sunday observance agitation, the suffering I had gone through during its progress, and my fear of its recurrence in some other form, impelled me, as soon as I began to breathe a little freely, to new efforts for relief. Before the end of 1849 I had again addressed the Postmaster-General, briefly referring to past correspondence, and showing how my fears had been confirmed by recent events; how I had been singled out for attack, even in respect of measures which I had earnestly and successfully opposed; and how entirely it was out of my power, in the present state of the office, to render those extended services which were expected of me at the time of my appointment. Past experience, however, gave me but very moderate hope of success; and this was fortunate, for, three months after the delivery of my letter, I learnt, upon inquiry, that all was in _statu quo_--nothing to be done till some vacancy should occur.

Here then was more disappointment; a continuance of my troubles; the maintenance of a position subjecting me to constant demands, but denying me the promised means of satisfying them. Much as I owed to certain members of the existing administration, and particularly to my immediate official superior, I have never been able to account satisfactorily for the constant adjournment of my claims. I had returned to office, at much personal sacrifice, under a virtual promise, contingent only on my demonstrating certain powers: and yet, though neither promise nor demonstration was ever denied or even questioned, fulfilment was withheld; a second contingency being introduced, of which I had never dreamed, and which I should have regarded as an insuperable objection to re-entering the service.

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:--

"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.

"'MY DEAR SIR,--I have had a letter from Mr. Cobden on the subject I wrote to him about, and on my arrival in London, on the 3rd of February, I shall have the pleasure of writing to you or seeing you, after I have had some conversation with Mr. Cobden, and some other persons.

"'I think your object may be attained, which will give satisfaction to yours sincerely,

"'JOSEPH HUME.

"'ROWLAND HILL, Esq., General Post Office.'"

"_February 1st._--Moffatt called. Told him in confidence much that had occurred. He will join Hume and Cobden in doing what I want."

"_February 3rd._--Called on Cobden, who is just returned to town. Told him in confidence the greater part of what passed between the Chancellor of the Exchequer and myself. He will see Hume in the morning, and will try to get him to settle matters without consulting any one else.... In the course of conversation I said I feared that the Sunday agitation had injured my influence with the public, but Cobden replied that it was no such thing; that I was 'the most popular man in the world.'"

In reference to my conversation with the Chancellor of the Exchequer I spoke to the Postmaster-General on the subject of assistance. I proposed that I should have as assistant-secretary some one in whom I had entire confidence, and who would be able to take my place in case of my absence, and I pointed out that for such duty a knowledge of Post Office details was unnecessary. His lordship expressed general concurrence, but said that he must speak on the subject with the Chancellor of the Exchequer. My wish was to obtain the appointment of my brother Frederic, but I forbore at the time to mention his name, as the Postmaster-General was in haste to reach the House of Lords.

To justify my selection I need only recount a few facts. My brother had been for sixteen years one of the Inspectors of Prisons; for twelve years in Scotland, and the remaining time in England. He was one of the first appointed under the Act of 1835, by which the office was created; and Lord John Russell, then Secretary of State for the Home Department, when assigning to the inspectors their districts, paid him the compliment of saying that he had given him Scotland because he knew that in that part of the kingdom there was most need of improvement.

On examination, my brother found that, with the almost sole exception of the Glasgow Bridewell, which was under the governorship of an admirable prison reformer, Mr. Brebner, the Scottish prisons were as bad as Lord John Russell had stated, and that indeed the great majority, instead of being places of reform, were the abodes of idleness and disorder, and not unfrequently of drunkenness and riot; in a word, of general demoralization. Although invested with no other power than that of inspection, and of making Reports to the Secretary of State, and, through him, to Parliament and the country, my brother, in a short time, effected a great change. He obtained the removal of a large number of bad officers, the appointment in their stead of persons qualified for their duties, including matrons (of whom till his nomination there had been only two or three in the whole of Scotland), with a proper corps of female assistants, and without waiting for the erection of new prisons, he succeeded, in most instances, in inducing the local authorities at once to turn to the best account the buildings at their command.

After a time he was authorized by Government to frame a bill for remodelling the whole system of prison government in Scotland in accordance with his recommendations. Although this bill was a good deal altered, and, as we both thought, much injured, in its passage through Parliament, the new system adopted under it was a great improvement on what had existed before. By the appointment of a general board, of which he was chosen a member, a directing authority was established which removed many obstacles to improvement. Thus, long before he quitted Scotland to take an English district, every prison there had either been so altered as to become well fitted for its use, or, if beyond improvement, had been replaced by a new building. In every prison productive work had been introduced, motives to diligence supplied, tread-mills and all other unproductive employment abolished, flogging and every kind of degrading punishment discontinued; good chaplains had everywhere been appointed, and provision made for ordinary elementary instruction; the health of the prisoners had much improved, good conduct had become the general rule, and, in many cases, means had been provided for maintaining some amount at least of supervision and friendly assistance after liberation. Finally, my brother practically showed that, under good arrangements, all prisoners of ordinary health and strength, and committed for even a moderate period, may be made to defray the entire cost of their maintenance and custody.

Any one who compares the most enlightened demands of the present day with this statement of facts, and yet more, the series of recommendations contained in my brother's Reports, or more summarily in his work entitled "Crime; its Amount, Causes, and Remedies," will find that my account of his services contains no exaggeration.

Having carried the work of prison reform thus far in Scotland, he exchanged his Scottish for an English district; but although he was able to accomplish a good deal there, he found among the country justices of the peace, who have the general charge of the county prisons, far more of _vis inertiæ_ than he had encountered in Scotland. In the belief that in the Post Office, in conjunction with myself, he should have a new and wide field for the exercise of his knowledge of the principles of government and his powers of administration, and that he should be able to render me effectual assistance, he was ready to accept an appointment, should it be made, as assistant-secretary.

Of course I was well pleased with the prospect of constant aid from one of whose ability and trustworthiness I was so well assured; a prospect which, as the sequel will show, was amply realised. Upon my speaking more explicitly, the Postmaster-General made no objection to the appointment,[84] but feared that the Chancellor of the Exchequer would object to the necessary expense; an apprehension at which I could not but feel disappointed after all that had passed, but which, nevertheless, was confirmed on inquiry. Coupled with the announcement of this result, came new cause of anxiety, viz., a warning that Ministers would resign if beaten on an impending motion of Mr. Disraeli's. Though, on the division, there was a majority in their favour, yet, as the difference was only fourteen, it was but too clear that the administration was by no means firm. It was important, therefore, to press on at once. I again called upon Mr. Hume; but though I found him very friendly, he still objected to giving me the