“As this secretaryship was my first public employment, and as the estimation in which I was held at its close was important, if not essential to my subsequent course, I may, perhaps, be pardoned if I give here the letter in which my resignation was acknowledged, and my services referred to. I have only to add that, heavy as were my duties during the four years of my secretaryship, and the year or two that preceded my formal appointment to that post, I was also engaged, throughout the whole period, at one or other of two arduous undertakings. Of the former I shall speak presently; the latter was Postal reform; my facts being collected, my plan devised, my pamphlet written, and my case established before a parliamentary committee, more than a year before I left my post. “‘South Australian Colonisation Office, “‘Adelphi Terrace,[87] September 27, 1839. “‘SIR,—The Colonisation Commissioners for South Australia beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 16th instant, tendering your resignation as Secretary to their Board; an appointment in the Treasury having been conferred upon you by Her Majesty’s Government “‘In communicating their acceptance of your resignation, and in conveying to you their thanks for the zeal, energy, and talent which you have uniformly displayed in the discharge of your duties as Secretary, the Commissioners cannot forego the satisfaction of recording their high appreciation of your successful exertions, in systematising the general business of the Commission, and in devising, framing, and carrying into effect the arduous and complicated arrangements of the Department of Emigration. “‘Though sensible of the loss they have suffered in being deprived of that combination of theoretical and practical ability which you have manifested in conducting their business, yet the Commissioners, while expressing their individual regret, cannot withhold from you their sincere congratulations upon the advancement you have obtained through the important service which you have rendered to the public. “‘I have the honour to be, Sir, “‘Your most obedient servant, “‘ROBERT TORRENS, _Chairman of the Commission_. “‘ROWLAND HILL, Esq. &c. &c. &c.’ “The former of my two interludes—if I may so style a piece of downright hard work—was an improvement of the printing machine, which I took in hand when it yet seemed doubtful whether the South Australian enterprise would yield me an income. My attention to the subject of printing, I may here observe, arose from my connection with the Useful Knowledge Society, then so actively engaged in promoting and cheapening popular literature.