At this time, if anything there was more real discontent among the juniors of the sorting staff than among the seniors. The greatest dissatisfaction prevailed among them mainly owing to the lack of promotion, for the sorting force being divided into two classes, first and second, the juniors had to remain at a certain barrier until a vacancy occurred in the class above them. They virtually had little but the hope of waiting for dead men’s shoes. This system of promotion was becoming utterly discredited, owing to the fact that while the juniors’ class was practically unlimited in number, that of the seniors was limited, and by no means in fair proportion. The average of deaths and pensions among their elders afforded a prospect only to the merest section of their number. It was maintained by them that the only fair remedy was the substitution of promotion by service, and not by death or pension. Five years, it was urged, was a fair period of service to entitle them to promotion to the class above them, and a movement was soon on foot to submit their proposal to the Postmaster-General. They were the young bloods of the service, and new blood had brought new courage and new vigour. Their case, carefully prepared, had been awaiting the arrival of the expected Royal Commission which never came. They in consequence resolved—or rather the youth who led them did, the same W. E. Clery who had acted as secretary of the late abortive Royal Commission movement—to effect what they could in amelioration of their position by using the readiest means to hand. Mr. Raikes was now Postmaster-General, and from all that had reached them of his justice and impartiality, they were inspired with a desire to go forward. It was thought that from every point of view this resolve was a wise one, as should another Royal Commission after all be ready to accept their evidence, and it was learnt that they had failed to petition the Postmaster-General, it might be urged that the hardship of a lack of promotion was one specially manufactured to suit the occasion, since nothing had before been heard of it. So there was a preliminary meeting of the juniors held in the largest refreshment-room of the General Post-Office, and a bigger meeting was held in the same place a few days later, when a draft of the proposed petition was read and discussed. In the following month, September 1887, the second-class men’s petition was forwarded. This petition, to the Postmaster-General direct, was memorable if only from the fact that it was the first petition worth speaking of, the outcome of a general meeting, which had been forwarded to the public head of the department since the day when Lord John Manners dismissed five and punished over a hundred of others practically for the same thing. The petition forwarded on the present occasion expressed in no unmistakable language that the men were unqualifiedly dissatisfied with the system