The issue of such a circular was as unexpected as manna from heaven. It was some days before the letter-sorters could realise their good fortune in having a Daniel come to judgment at last after all their privations. Although the circular was a guarantee of good faith on the part of the Postmaster-General, the men still betrayed a certain amount of timidity in responding to so generous an invitation, until four or five of them, forming themselves into a provisional committee, called a meeting in one of the kitchens, and the basis of a plan was laid down. There were several such meetings with the sanction of the authorities, who could not decently withhold it; there was much cackling before the egg was finally laid, as there usually is. But at last a petition to the Postmaster-General was formulated and sent on its mission. The claims set forth were studiously modest, and comprised a request to rise to fifty shillings a week by yearly increments of two shillings instead of eighteenpence, and a yearly holiday extended to three weeks instead of only a fortnight, and an improved scale of pay for extra duty. This constituted the whole of the demand for the sorters. Mr. Fawcett lost no time in doing what he considered the right thing, and in endeavouring to apply a remedy for all the discontent which had for so long prevailed. He went about constructing his remedial measure in a masterly manner and broad-minded spirit. It might have been expected that he, a professor of the “dismal science,” would have sought for a ready means to evade the importunities of a discontented service. But not so; he broadly recognised that discontent was a symptom, a symptom of a growing polypus beneath the surface, and he sought for a means to eradicate the cause. He apparently spared himself no pains to arrive at the true facts of the situation. The report which he made to the Lords of the Treasury signified much inquiry and many hours of labour. He wrote: “For several months past I have been collecting information from all sources, not only as to the alleged grievances of the staff, but as to the conditions of service and rates of pay of persons in private employment, whose duties seem most nearly to correspond to theirs.” Here in these few words is told a story of diligence, patient research, and laborious study—all the more wonderful for a sightless man—which it would take a complete volume to adequately accord full justice to. The consideration of this alone should extenuate whatever few shortcomings might be found in his remedial measure, which came to be known as the “Fawcett Scheme.” Such faults, such as they were, were but as the black specks on the white ermine, perhaps the more accentuating the real goodness of his intention.