To give further relief to Sunday labour, Rowland Hill proposed “so to arrange the work as to have the greatest practicable amount of sorting done in the travelling offices on the railways; the earlier portion ending by five on Sunday morning, and the later not beginning till nine on Sunday evening. The pursuit of this object led to a singular device.”[190] He was puzzling over the problem how to deal with letters belonging to good-sized towns too near to London to allow of sorting on the way. The railway in case was the London and North-Western; the towns St Albans and Watford. The thought suddenly flashed upon him that the easiest way out of the difficulty would be to let the _down_ night mail train to Liverpool receive the St Albans and Watford _up_ mails to London; and that on arrival at some more remote town on the road to Liverpool they should be transferred, sorted, to an _up_ train to be carried to London. No time would be really lost to the public, because, while the letters were performing the double journey their destined recipients would be in bed; nor would any additional expense or trouble be incurred. The plan was a success, was extended to other railways, and the apparently eccentric proceeding long since became a matter of everyday occurrence. In 1851 prepayment in money of postage on inland letters was abolished at all those provincial offices where it had thus far been allowed. Early in the following year the abolition was extended to Dublin, next to Edinburgh, and, last of all, to London—thus completing, throughout the United Kingdom, the establishment of prepayment by stamps alone, and thereby greatly simplifying the proceedings at all offices. To save trouble to the senders of many circulars, the chief office, St Martin's-le-Grand, continued to receive prepayment in money from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M., in sums of not less than £2 at a time: an arrangement, later, extended to other offices. An extract from Rowland Hill's diary, under date 29th October 1851, says: “A clerkship at Hong-Kong having become vacant by death, the Postmaster-General has, on my recommendation, determined not to fill it, and to employ part of the saving thus effected in giving to the postmaster and each of the remaining clerks in turn leave of absence for a year and a half,[191] with full salary, and an allowance of £100 towards the expense of the voyage. By these means, while ample force will still be left, the poor fellows will have the opportunity of recruiting their health.” Early in 1852 Rowland Hill also writes in his diary that “The Postmaster-General has sanctioned a measure of mine which, I expect, will have the effect of converting the railway stations in all the larger towns into gratuitous receiving offices.” The plan, convenient as it has proved, was, however, long in being carried out.