Note 33 — Chapter XV

Some months before his death Sir R. Hill sent to inform me of a circumstance that had been lately brought back to his memory, but which he had omitted, he said, to mention in the History of Penny Postage. At the time when it was proposed that he should return to the Post Office with a lower salary than Colonel Maberly’s, and therefore in an inferior position, he himself was unwilling to do so. He foresaw the troubles that would arise. On mentioning this to some of his friends, he found that they considered that he was bound to return to the Post Office work, having received, as it were, a retaining fee in the public subscription. If it had not been for this he should, he said, have refused the place.—Ed.