The word “finality” was written across the decisions of the Postmaster-General, and the postal service was given to understand that nothing more was to be expected. This did not tend to allay the feeling of disappointment that had taken possession of all bodies of postal servants. There were still more meetings, and still more protests; but to no effect so far as the department was concerned. The conviction that their claims had not been adequately met, however, obtained a strong hold everywhere, and helped to still further promote that spirit of federation which for some two or three years had been at work among the various associations. It was not so much the little they had gained by the Tweedmouth inquiry, as what they had actually lost, and the parsimonious manner in which many of the more favourable recommendations were being applied by the authorities, and even in some cases, as was alleged, wholly withheld. The question of civil rights for postal servants and cognate matters occupied the attention of the Trades Union Congress at Bristol; and two resolutions were passed urging the matter once more on the attention of the Postmaster-General. The first of the two resolutions in question protested against the persistent refusal of the Postmaster-General to allow the legitimate right of combination and civil liberty to postal employés, and strongly condemned “the repeated attempts to break up the postal organisations by intimidating their officers.” The second resolution protested against “the failure of the Postmaster-General to carry into effect the recommendations of the Tweedmouth Committee in regard to split duties (emphatically condemned by the official medical officers as highly injurious to health), and the insanitary condition of Post-Office buildings, which were admitted to be in a most dangerous condition, and a standing menace to the life and health of the workers.” These two resolutions were forwarded by the Parliamentary Committee, through Mr. Sam Woods, M.P., to the Postmaster-General. The Postmaster-General, Nov. 15, replied to this impeachment of the Trades Union Congress; and, admitting much of its truth, pledged himself that “every effort was being made” in regard to the objectionable working conditions, and at the same time repeated his assurance that he had “no wish to curtail the privilege of combination in the Post-Office,” but he wished it to be distinctly understood that he was “unable to condone insubordination in any rank of the service, merely because it is disguised under the cloak of civil liberty.” The reply of the Postmaster-General was regarded with some slight satisfaction by postal servants, though it was not accepted as covering all the facts alleged.