My attention, on my return from France (in October of this year), was mainly directed to the means of introducing the system of penny postage as promptly as was consistent with safety, much care being obviously necessary to put the office in order for the expected flood of letters before the sluices were opened. The Chancellor of the Exchequer suggested that in the outset stamped letters should not be admitted later than 3 p.m.; the time to be extended when practicable. The heads of the two chief departments in the Circulation Office urged, as a preliminary, the erection of the galleries already spoken of; a measure to which I objected, both because of the time that it would take, and because I thought a large outlay at the chief office (the estimate, without including any arrangement for better ventilation, being as high as £8,000) would delay the establishment of those district offices on which I relied so much both for public convenience and for the maintenance of the revenue. As a temporary expedient, I suggested the use of a part of the Bull and Mouth Inn, which happened then to be vacant; a suggestion which, unluckily, found no favour at the Post Office; so that, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer could not make up his mind to adopt the district system, immediate alterations were resolved upon, at the reduced cost, however, of £6,000. One cause of delay was found in an invitation issued by the Treasury, accompanied with the offer of reward, for plans of collecting the postage, whether by stamps or otherwise; a proceeding which precluded any positive action until all the plans, which poured in from various quarters, should have been duly examined. The communications were more than two thousand five hundred in number, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who had intended to read all himself, was obliged to delegate the task to the Junior Lords of the Treasury, who must have had dry work of it, as I better knew when a considerable portion of the work devolved ultimately upon myself. Foreseeing much delay, I suggested to the Chancellor of the Exchequer the expediency of allowing, in the first instance, prepayment by money, though, as I pointed out, this course might increase the difficulty of introducing the stamp.