When the volunteer movement was in the heyday of its youth, the Post Office was one of the earliest of the great public departments to establish a corps of its own, whose exploits were humorously related by “Ensign” Edmund Yates, under the heading “The Grimgribber Rifle Volunteers,” in several numbers of _All the Year Round_ of the period. The corps became amalgamated with the “Civil Service” volunteer force, of which fine body it was perhaps the pioneer company. “I wrote,” says Rowland Hill, “to the Postmaster-General, Lord Colchester, on the subject (of raising a volunteer corps), and obtained his ready sanction. Upon my communicating with the heads of departments, I was told that there would be readiness enough to volunteer if only the expenses could be provided for, or reduced to a low rate; that the men would willingly give their time, but thought it somewhat unreasonable that there should be a demand for their money also. The difficulty was overcome by the same means, and I suppose to about the same extent, as in other corps; but from that day to this I have been unable to understand the policy or propriety of making men pay for liberty to serve their country, a practice which must, in the nature of things, debar large numbers from enrolment. The movement was not limited to the chief office, and was especially satisfactory at Edinburgh.”[215] In July 1859 Sir Edward Baines, proprietor of the _Leeds Mercury_, wrote to introduce to Rowland Hill the inventor of the Post Office Savings[216] Bank scheme, Mr (afterwards Sir) Charles Sikes, a banker of Huddersfield—a scheme which has been a great convenience to people of limited means. Depositors and deposits have increased, till the modest venture launched in 1860, under the auspices of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Gladstone, has grown into a colossal undertaking. Sir Charles, with characteristic lack of self-advertisement, never sought reward of any kind for the good work he had initiated. He was satisfied with the knowledge that it had proved of immense benefit to his fellow-men. He long survived the carrying into practical shape of his scheme; and now that he is dead, his invention has, of course, been claimed by or for others.