The evidence of the officials originally intended to minimise the value of that given by the subordinate and manipulative staffs, could not on the whole, however, be adjudged altogether unfair. The authorities had to play the game according to the rules prescribed for them, and mostly with a view to scoring for the department. If they did not play the game entirely devoid of prejudice, they played it consistently as witnesses for their department on its defence. The tribunal itself may have been unfairly constituted, but there were few outward and visible signs that it was so during the taking of evidence. The naked truth was as decently draped as possible. And for the artistic arrangement of the drapery there was much credit due to the secretary of the committee, Mr. Bruce, to whose courtesy and considerateness the host of witnesses owed much in carrying through their tasks. Lord Tweedmouth was, as the president of the inquiry, always studiously fair and strong in his judicial capacity; but he struck one at times as being uncomfortable and pained at the realisation, that had come too late, that he had been betrayed into a false position. If ever it was a case of “Save us from our friends” it was so with Lord Tweedmouth. Mr. Arnold Morley as Postmaster-General had lightly and airily granted this inquiry, apparently with the full conviction that the case of the postal malcontents was so weak and flimsy that examination would only cover them with confusion. That indeed was to be the end and purpose of the whole inquiry; and Lord Tweedmouth, trusting to the representations of his friend, agreed to risk his reputation on it. However open-minded Lord Tweedmouth may have been when he approached the problem, the constitution of the committee, the terms of its reference, the restrictions with which it was hedged in various ways, all conspired against a free and impartial verdict. It is probable that Lord Tweedmouth was as surprised as anybody to find how complex, how tangled, and how stupendous was the problem so lightly laid before him by Mr. Arnold Morley. Whatever may have been his chagrin at being thus betrayed into the acceptance of so onerous and gigantic a task, Lord Tweedmouth courageously determined to see it through to the end. And he did; but he came out of the fearful ordeal scarcely the man he was when he went in, and his public reputation, if not sullied, was certainly not enhanced. If the recommendations of the Tweedmouth Committee were not the result of a prearranged and foregone conclusion, the subsequent discontent was largely based on the suspicion that it was so. The inquiry lasted for some two or three months; there was an elaborate examination of witnesses drawn from every branch and every section of the lower ranks of the service, there was a very industrious show of getting at the facts of things, there was some amount of patience and tolerance displayed, but