The memorial was forwarded to the Treasury; and the request for an interview with Lord John Russell to support the prayer of his memorial, met with only a curt refusal through his secretary. There the matter ended, so far. The Post-Office had its way, and compulsory Sunday labour in the Post-Office became an established, and in the minds of many, a disgraceful fact; to prove, however, a source of further trouble later on, and to provide one of the most substantial excuses for agitation during the next thirty years. Yet the comparatively feeble agitation by proxy, set on foot then in 1848, did produce, nevertheless, some little result; and on March 18, 1850, a Parliamentary paper was issued to show the “results of the measures recently adopted for the reduction of Sunday labour in the Post-Office.” CHAPTER III ECONOMICAL REFORM AND A LOWERING OF STATUS—AN ESTIMATE OF ROWLAND HILL—EFFORTS OF THE _CIVIL SERVICE GAZETTE_—THE CONDITIONS OF THE SERVICE, 1854-60. From about 1854 it seems a new class of men were gradually being introduced. By the operation of what was known as the Elcho Scheme, there was a large reduction of the clerical class who had hitherto usually discharged the duties of letter-sorting, as well as the despatch and receipt of mails. But the authorities, beginning to awaken to the fact that the Post-Office was becoming a splendid source of revenue, therefore decided to cut down expenditure by introducing a more poorly paid class to take up the duties of those who had been in receipt of a much higher salary than it was proposed to offer the new entrants. The work of sorting letters, for example, which had hitherto been performed by clerks, was now to be entrusted to men of an inferior grade. And the “Report upon the Post-Office for the year 1854,” in which this innovation is first announced, expresses the hope that such persons on an inferior salary would be able, as necessity arose, or on “occasions of any extraordinary pressure,” to take a share also in the duties of the clerks. This is perhaps one of the earliest indications of that policy of cheese-paring and depreciation of the value of official work, which, if it has not always justified discontent and agitation, has proved a fruitful source of it. From the introduction of the penny post, and probably from a long time before, the public correspondence was treated tenderly and disposed of conscientiously. So high was the importance attached to it that none were deemed worthy of being entrusted with it who were not servants belonging to the “major establishment.” Both the sorters of letters and those who despatched the mails belonged to the clerical staff, while only the work of “facing,” stamping, tying, and the work of conveyance and porterage was entrusted to the class of minor officials, who afterwards came to constitute the main bulk of the force.