Booth having freed himself from debt, shortly afterwards, owing to failing health, applied for and obtained the small pension of about eight shillings a week he was entitled to. And so departed one of the most persistent as well as one of the most courageously-consistent agitators the Post-Office or any other Government department has ever been troubled with. Booth’s career as an agitator had been a brief one, but it had been as brilliant as it was brief. And perhaps, after all, there was some truth in his claim that he had largely assisted to overturn two Governments and put in another. CHAPTER IX FORCED LABOUR—A GENERAL POST-OFFICE RIOT—A POSTAL POET—THE WANING OF THE MOVEMENT—THE PUBLICATION OF A MEMORIAL—WHOLESALE DISMISSALS. At this time, and for long previous, there was no definite eight-hour day officially recognised for the working staff at the General Post-Office. That was a privilege as yet definitely enjoyed by few besides the clerical establishment. If there was any official rule regulating and limiting the working hours of the rank and file, that rule and those regulations were vitiated by the practice of the supervising officials. The men were subjected to nothing less than forced labour; the hours which should have been given up to sleep and leisure were extorted from them; and forced contributions of their well-earned liberty were remorselessly levied upon them. They were liable to be summoned back for duty at any time during their intervals of rest. There was no assured time for rest or proper sleep. They were compelled to dispose of incoming foreign mails without remuneration of any kind. As the department had decided such mail matter must be disposed of without cost, at first the men had to rotate for this purpose, and it generally fell to their turn about once a month. In former days this practice may not have constituted a great hardship; but when, owing to the increased and improved means of transit across seas, foreign mails arrived several times a week, it became a very real grievance. American mails then arrived only about once a month, instead of daily as at present; but there were other mails to be taken account of, and their arrival and treatment were often delayed for disposal by this cheap method. If the practice had stopped at the monthly summons, or an extra attendance for every man every week or so, the strong discontent arising from it might have been averted. But the principle of extorting from men already too poorly paid and harshly treated, this disgraceful poll-tax in time was still further extended after a while.