As mentioned before, I had already published the pamphlet previously circulated as private and confidential, and it is to this publication that I have already made repeated reference, under the title, “Post Office Reform, Second Edition.” The appearance of the pamphlet speedily brought in letters from various quarters, amongst others an amusing one from Leigh Hunt, in which he declared that the reasoning of my pamphlet “carries us all along with it as smoothly as wheel on railroad,” and another from a gentleman known to me in relation to Australian affairs, who advised that my pamphlet should be republished in as cheap a form as possible, offering himself to bear half the expense; an offer afterwards repeated by Mr. Cobden. Why these offers were not accepted I cannot now recollect. The same gentleman also informed me of a remarkable instance of exorbitant postage which had come to his knowledge. The captain of a ship arriving at Deal had posted for London a packet weighing thirty-two ounces, which came to the person to whom it was addressed charged with a postage not of five shillings and sixpence, according to the rate proposed by me, but of upwards of six pounds, “being,” as my informant observed, “four times as much as the charge for an inside place by the mail.” So that, had the captain, instead of posting the letter, sent a special messenger with it up to London, allowing him to travel inside both ways, and paying him handsomely for his time, as well as indemnifying him for his travelling expenses, the result would have been a considerable saving.[136] The following yet stronger case was afterwards thus mentioned in a letter from Sir John Burgoyne to my friend Mr. Moffatt, who obligingly placed the letter in my hands. The name of this gallant veteran I cannot pass over without gratefully mentioning that he was one of those who zealously co-operated in the movement. Even at his present advanced age his interest in postal success remains warm and active. “Office of Public Works, Dublin, “May 8, 1839. * * * * * “A packet of official papers was to be transmitted by one of our officers from a country town: it seems that _parcels_ for the mail were in that town received in the same shop as the letters; and, either by mistake of the messenger or of the postmaster, this packet, which was meant to be a _parcel_, was forwarded as a _letter_. The charge was £11; that is, for a packet that I could readily carry off in my pocket; an amount for which I could have taken the _whole mail_; places for four insides, and three out, with their portmanteaus, carpet-bags, &c., &c., &c.” The following incident I found not less amusing than encouraging:—