On the 23rd of November, Parliament having meantime reassembled, Mr. Wallace renewed his motion for a committee on my plan, and though but ten months had elapsed since my first publication, such was already the progress of public opinion that the committee was not only granted, but, as would appear from the silence of “Hansard,” without even a debate. The nomination of its members, which took place four days later, gave the following list:—Mr. Wallace, Mr. Poulett Thomson, Viscount Lowther, Lord Seymour, Mr. Warburton, Sir Thomas Fremantle, Mr. Raikes Currie, Mr. Morgan John O’Connell, Mr. Thornely, Mr. Chalmers, Mr. Pease, Mr. Mahony, Mr. Parker (Sheffield), Mr. George William Wood, Mr. Villiers.[144] The reference or instruction to the committee was as follows:— “To inquire into the present rates and mode of charging postage, with a view to such a reduction thereof as may be made without injury to the revenue; and for this purpose to examine especially into the mode recommended for charging and collecting postage in a pamphlet published by Mr. Rowland Hill.”[145] Three members of this committee, viz., Lord Seymour, Mr. Parker, and Mr. Poulett Thomson (afterwards Lord Sydenham)—were also members of Government, and, as I soon found, sat as opponents to the plan.[146] I need not say, however, that the appointment of the committee, whatever adverse elements it might contain, filled me with high expectations; so well assured was I by this time of the soundness of my views, and so confident that they would derive abundant support from the examination to be made, whatever might be the ultimate decision of the committee. Three days later the Duke of Richmond, who had formerly filled the office of Postmaster-General, in presenting a petition from Elgin, took occasion to recommend at least a considerable reduction of postage rates. Lord Lichfield, in reply, declared that “were the plan [of penny postage] adopted, instead of a million and a half of money being added to the revenue, after the expenditure of the establishment was provided for, he was quite certain that such a loss would be sustained as would compel them to have recourse to Parliament for money to maintain the establishment.”