[71] The Government can grant a release to any ship fixed for this service. It will be remembered by many readers that after the _Peterhoff_ was taken by Admiral Wilkes of the United States' navy, February, 1863, the proprietors of the vessel, who had other ships on the same line (with all of which the Post-Office sent ship-letters), asked the Government for the protection of a mail-officer. On the principle of choosing the least of two evils, and rather than take such a decisive step, which might lead to troubles with the United States' Government, Earl Russell relieved the _Sea Queen_ from the obligation to carry the usual mail-bag to Matamoras. [72] The Duke of Richmond, though opposed to the Reform Bill, was a member of Lord Grey's Cabinet. Indefatigable in the service of the department over which he was placed from 1830 to 1834, he refused at first to accept of any remuneration of the nature of salary. In compliance, it is stated, with the strong representation of the Treasury Lords, as to the objectionable nature of the principle of gratuitous services by public officers, "which must involve in many cases the sacrifice of private fortune to official station," His Grace consented to draw his salary _from that time only_. [73] The salary of the Secretary to the Post-Office in the last century was 600_l._ a-year, and a commission of 2½ per cent. on the produce of the mail-packets.--(Vide _Pitt's Speeches_, vol. i. p. 53-5, Debate of June 17, 1783.) In 1830 the Secretary's salary was 300_l._ a-year, but what with compensations, fees, and other emoluments, his annual income is stated to have amounted to no less than 4,560_l._--(_Mirror of Parliament_, 1835). The clerks, according to a Parliamentary return, were paid small salaries, regulated on different scales, but their income consisted principally of emoluments derived from other sources. The _established_ allowances, charged on the public revenue, consisted of sums for postage, stationery, payment in lieu of apartments, and for continuing indexes to official books. The remaining emoluments, of course not chargeable against the revenue, arose from _fees on deputations_, commissions, expresses, profits on the publication of the _Shipping_ and _Packet Lists_, payments for franking letters on the business of the Land-Tax Redemption, and for the Tax-Office, &c. and from Lloyd's Coffee House for shipping intelligence, &c. There were, besides, other gratuities for special services. [74] We give the following simply to show the vagaries of clever, scientific men. Speaking of London, the Professor said:--"Perhaps if the steeples of churches, properly selected, were made use of--as, for instance, St. Paul's--and if a similar apparatus were placed at the top of each steeple, and a man to work it during the day, it might be possible to diminish the expense of the twopenny post, and make deliveries every half-hour over the greater part of the metropolis." P. 221.