A copy of this document is given in the Appendix (G). The prediction therein set forth was much longer in fulfilment than I anticipated—the gross revenue not having been made up till 1851, the twelfth year of penny postage. Probably, like most projectors, I was over-sanguine. Probably also I was unduly influenced by the evidence proceeding from the public in support of my recommendations. But the reader will find from the following narrative that after the adoption of my plan by the Legislature many circumstances occurred, which could not possibly have been foreseen, tending to delay the apparent success of my scheme of Postal Reform. Among these are the following:— 1st. Delay in the adoption of stamps, and the still greater delay in effectually supplying the public therewith. 2nd. While my plan applied to inland postage only, large reductions were also made in foreign and colonial postage, which, however right in themselves, of course had their effect in delaying the time when the amount of the gross revenue should have recovered itself. 3rd. The additional facilities to be afforded the public—more especially by a great extension of rural distribution—though a most important part of my plan, were, to say the least, for a long time delayed. This I conceive to have been a main cause of delay in the recovery of the gross revenue. 4th. Above all, the execution of my plan was, during the early years of penny postage, entrusted almost entirely to men whose official reputation was pledged, not to its success, but to its failure. Even after I entered the Post Office, near the close of the seventh year of penny postage, obstacles were so continually thrown in my way that for many years I could do comparatively little to promote the measure; and it was not till the fifteenth year, namely, when I became Secretary to the Post Office, that I could exercise any direct influence therein.