considerations of economy were to warp and stultify the verdict to be presently given. If the verdict had only been in just accordance with the promise implied in the simulated earnestness of certain members of the committee, there would perhaps have been little to object to. But it was not to be. Certainly, few held optimistic views of the result of the inquiry, but scarcely any one was prepared for what was coming. When, after some months of silent and unseen deliberation in preparing their recommendations, the long-looked-for report of the Tweedmouth Committee was, on March 10, 1897, issued, it immediately produced a thunderclap. It was eminently disappointing to the whole Service. The mountain, after all its long labour, had brought forth a mouse. The many who had asked for bread were offered a stone, while only to a few were given some small crumbs of comfort. The new scheme was to appropriately take effect on the First of April. An examination of the scheme revealed it to be full of flaws and omissions; and what it appeared to so generously offer with one hand it filched with the other. It was regarded by every section of the service as a clever piece of financial thimble-rigging. The only class who appeared to derive any material benefit worth speaking of were the London sorters, their maximum being raised to £160 per annum; but even this benefit was found to be minimised by restrictions, while certain emoluments and allowances for extra responsibilities and particular duties were to be sacrificed.