Then there was a breathing time for some months, and the men cautiously refrained from discussing and advertising their grievances too freely, but they were sustained by the hope, based on semi-official information, that some sort of remedial measure was being prepared by the department. In August 1872 the hope was realised. A scheme of classification was introduced, and its reception was hailed with increased satisfaction when it was found that it dated back nearly a year, and covered the strike period. Under this scheme some few clerks received an immediate rise in wages, and considerable sums in back pay. That in itself was a most palatable sauce, and helped the digestion of the scheme very considerably for some. Whatever the intention of its authors, it proved to be not so fair as it appeared on the surface; and its application to practical uses proved its worthlessness in meeting all the demands of the telegraphists. With the monetary improvements, so far as the maximum was concerned, there was perhaps least to grumble at; but it left entirely untouched the other grievances which pressed so sorely upon them. Perhaps the name of “Scudamore’s Folly,” by which it afterwards came to be distinguished, most aptly described it. The dissatisfaction which it so soon produced placed it almost beyond doubt that it was full of leakages. The higher rates of pay were regarded as so far beyond the immediate reach of the majority that the solatium of back money bestowed on the fortunate few was soon forgotten; it was found that the promised promotion speedily came to a standstill; and there obtained, generally, the same annoying and irritating conditions as prevailed before the strike. The evils which the Scudamore scheme was set to cure, were by its operation rather accentuated than mitigated. The telegraph staff, which then numbered 5233, were divided into numerous classes with absurdly low wages, and increments which were microscopic. The ultimate prospect of a decent living wage was so dim and distant that it was scarcely worth taking into account. By the scales of pay indicated in the scheme, a telegraphist had to creep up from a minimum of eight or ten shillings a week by annual increments of a shilling till he reached the halting-ground of twenty-one shillings a week. By the time he reached this guinea a week he was a full-grown man, ready in the natural course of things to become the head of a family in the full performance of his duties as a father and a citizen. Many of them then, needless to say, had so far tempted misfortune. And having arrived at the guinea a week, the lowness of their wage rendered them the ready slaves of the department at sixpence an hour for overtime. A period of sixteen years was allowed by the scheme for a man to reach the Elysium of the second class, which rose from £70 to £90 a year. For the sum of a guinea a week gratuitous Sunday labour was imposed, and for eighteen years was rigidly exacted because it