The disaffection grew apace, and a consciousness of their strength and the justice of their demands rendered them reliant. The agitation was renewed with increased activity. Mr. Macliver and other M.P.’s rallied to their support. Numerous meetings were held all over the country, while the sympathy of the press and the public gave a character and an importance to their movement that could not much longer be ignored by the Government. The service was swept from end to end by a hurricane of discontent that had had no parallel even in the postmen’s agitation of a few years before. The telegraphists were angered, and anger was becoming defiance. It was becoming a question as to how much longer they could be kept within bounds. Mr. Fawcett, true to his democratic instinct, felt the greatest reluctance in imposing restrictions on the right of free public meeting among postal servants. His attention had been drawn, both by the officials and in the House of Commons, to reports of public meetings of postal and telegraph employés, and he expressed himself cognisant of these proceedings, at the same time intimating that it was not his intention to interfere or to visit any official punishment on those who had taken a prominent part. Undoubtedly some of the platform utterances of this period were rather extreme, and the distinguished Postmaster-General was not kept in ignorance of the fact. His forbearance was that of a strong and courageous man, and he probably felt that the best reply he could give to all the far-fetched assertions of the impatient army under his control was to presently offer them the scheme which he was then so busily preparing.