phrases. He delicately alluded to his proscription from office, regretting that he could not watch the progress of his measure narrowly, and pointed out improvements which were still necessary to give complete efficiency to his reform. Mr. Hill gave ample credit to those who had sustained him in his efforts to carry his plans through Parliament, and especially named Messrs. Wallace and Warburton, members of the special Committee of 1838, Mr. Baring the Ex-chancellor of the Exchequer, and Lords Ashburton and Brougham. We shall have frequent occasion as we advance, to mention Mr. Hill's name in connexion with Post-Office history during the past twenty years; but we may here notice the remaining particulars of Mr. Hill's _personal_ history. On the restoration of the Whigs to power in 1846, Mr. Hill was brought back into office, or rather first placed in office at St. Martin's-le-Grand, as secretary to the Postmaster-General, the present Marquis of Clanricarde. In 1854, on Colonel Maberly's removal to the Audit Office, Mr. Hill attained the deserved honour of Secretary to the Post-Office under the late Lord Canning--the highest fixed appointment in the department, and second only in responsibility to that of Postmaster-General. In 1860 Mr. Hill was further honoured with the approval of his sovereign, and few will question it, when we say it was a worthy exercise of the royal prerogative, when he was called to receive the dignity of Knight Commander of the Bath. The arduous exertions, extending over a quarter of a century, and the ever-increasing duties of the Secretary of the Post-Office have, within the last few years, begun to tell upon the physical system of Sir Rowland Hill, and have more than once caused him to absent himself from the post which he has made so honourable and responsible. During the autumn of last year he obtained leave of absence from active duty for six months--his place being filled by Mr. Tilley, the senior assistant secretary of the Post-Office--a step which was generally understood to be preparatory to his resignation, should no improvement be manifest in his health. Now (March, 1864) his retirement is announced, and he leaves us and passes "not into obscurity, but into deserved repose." May he be long spared to enjoy the rest and quiet which he has so well earned, and the gratitude and sympathy which must be universally felt for him. His early work, that would have been Herculean, even if he had not been assailed by foes without and foes within, must have caused him immense labour of hand and labour of brain; the carrying out also of many important subsequent measures, which may be said to have followed as necessary corollaries of his great reform, must have occasioned him an amount of bodily and mental toil and excitement of which the "roll of common men" have neither experience nor conception. Not to speak of his services to commerce, Sir Rowland Hill, more than any living