Note 126 — Chapter II · PROMULGATION OF MY PLAN.

The following extract from a letter by the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers, M.P., to Mr. Frederic Hill, most fittingly comes in here. It was written, indeed, a few days after Sir Rowland Hill’s death, but the writer was carried back in his thoughts to the earliest days of the great struggle for postal reform, in which he himself had played no mean part:—

... “His time, probably from fulness of years, had arrived for leaving us. Still those who appreciated his rare qualities, and the great service he had rendered the country, liked to think that he was yet amongst them, and could observe, with justifiable pride, the continued and increasing success of his great and beneficial scheme.... I remember well, indeed, the frequent communications I had with your brother when he was first bringing his plan before the public, and also (to his honour) the great disinterestedness that he showed when he requested me to submit the scheme then in MS. to the Government, offering to allow them to have the entire credit of its introduction, if they chose to undertake it, stipulating only that, if they should refuse, he should then refer it to the Press, and make it known to, and understood by, the country. The apprehensions that were then expressed at head-quarters (when I executed his commission) are still fresh in my recollection, and most certainly was he left free to do what he liked about a measure that, in their view, would require such a sacrifice of revenue, and the success of which was so extremely problematical. I always considered it fortunate (with regard to its success) that the measure was thus left to the unbiassed judgment of the public, and to the energetic support which such men as Grote, Warburton, and Hume, and the really intelligent reformers, then in the House, gave to your brother.”—Ed.