Following on this deputation yet another meeting within the precincts of the General Post-Office building was asked for and official permission obtained; and on January 16, 1890, the combined sorting force met, again two thousand strong. The temper and enthusiasm of this monster gathering was if anything more pronounced than the last, curiosity running high as to the result of the recent meeting between their leaders and the Postmaster-General. J. H. Williams and W. E. Clery were the moving spirits of the platform, and the men looked to them as the heralds of good tidings. It was resolved that the sorting force express their regret that while the Postmaster-General seemed to consider their view a justifiable one and sympathised with them in their disappointment, he was not prepared to immediately carry into effect that which had been for so long withheld from them. He was also reminded of the “luminous suggestion” of a “three-cornered committee” of public men. It was decided to request that official permission be granted for holding a further meeting in a more convenient place, so that public men could be invited. Further, it was definitely decided to form an organisation on trades-union lines. The want of an official organ for the interchange of ideas among the members and for the advocacy of accepted principles among the letter-sorting staff was at this time beginning to be strongly felt. Clery, seeing the necessity which the new movement had created, now determined to supply the deficiency. At his own risk he started a small journal, the _Post_. The first number appeared February 8, 1890, and was an unpretentious, pamphlet-like little print of eight pages, sold at a penny weekly. Clery himself was not only editor, but almost the sole contributor; as few dared to join in the risk of “writing for the press,” and the fact is to be commented on only because of the surprising amount of work and responsibility he saddled himself with at this period. Besides performing his ordinary eight hours’ duty at the General Post-Office, and his association as an officer with the Fawcett Scheme Committee, and the efficient discharge of all the detail work which such an office entailed, he was an industrious contributor to the public press, a prolific writer of fiction, and a playwright of some little repute. Under a _nom de plume_ which afterwards became well known, he found an entrance into the pages of the _Gentleman’s Magazine_, and found himself, among other things, special dramatic correspondent of the _Morning Advertiser_—no mean attainments, it will be confessed, remembering his years and the hampering conditions under which he worked. The _Post_ appeared, but it was predicted by many that its life would be short, as, if it did not die of ill-nutrition on the part of its patrons, the Postmaster-General would undoubtedly strangle it with red-tape. But Mr. Raikes, though he could not have been wholly oblivious to the daring