Such, at least, they would have been, only that the unfortunate fact remained that most of these advantages for some unexplained reason were for long withheld by the authorities who administered the scheme. The advantages and benefits intended for the sorting force were precisely and definitely laid down; but the department, either thinking that the force did not merit justice in such full doses, or from some mistaken conception as to the spirit and letter of Mr. Fawcett’s measure, did not give them the full benefit of it there and then. Indeed, it even came to be contended that the Fawcett scheme was never meant to apply to the London postal staff. The men had been taught to be grateful for small mercies. They had been willing to open their mouth and shut their eyes, inspired by the new hope of getting something, just as they had prepared themselves never more to expect anything else than to live and die in the service, discontented and ill-treated to the last. The generous offer of an immediate small monetary benefit overwhelmed them. They were in the position of the pauper coming in for a windfall who is content so long as he gets only a portion, reserving till later his inquiries as to the peculations of others and the extent to which he has been robbed by the good kind guardians meanwhile. It is sufficient to say that very little of the advantages set forth in the scheme, which was said to cost so much, was interpreted to apply to them. In the matter of payment for extra duty even they found themselves no better off, while every other expectation that the scheme had raised slowly dwindled at last into a vague sense of disappointment and a loss of faith in the justice of the Post-Office stewards. Resentment did not come until the actual discovery later on that they had been cheated out of Mr. Fawcett’s good intention. It was not till the blind Postmaster-General was still and voiceless in the quietude of the grave that the suspicion took definite shape that some of his principal benefits had been so long withheld from them. It was that discovery and that conviction which furnished the real primary reason for the starting of a further great agitation in a few years’ time. It is only necessary, however, to refer to this in passing; that forms a portion of the narrative to be told presently. The scheme therefore failed in its effect through being applied only in a too niggardly fashion by those who administered it. It was made to fail mainly because of that; but its failure was partly due to its own internal defects.