“Let me add, that though clearly entitled to act as I have done, I would at once have given up my claim and adopted the suggestion contained in your note, if I were not convinced that to resort to the formality of Treasury Minutes in the numerous instances in which inquiry is necessary would seriously retard the progress of business.” The former order being thus re-established at the Post Office, there remained to seek a similar restoration at the Treasury. Here, however, Mr. (now Sir Charles) Trevelyan (Assistant Secretary to the Treasury) had kindly intervened on my behalf, strongly recommending that the opportunity of checking the Post Office expenditure should not be taken from me, and had procured from Sir George Clerk a promise to consult with Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Goulburn on the subject. As no further result was obtained, I wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, suggesting that, in my present lack of employment, I should either proceed with measures for the further introduction of my plans, or that if this were at the time impracticable, I should be allowed an interval of entire repose after the heavy labours of the last two years. This letter produced an immediate effect, Mr. Trevelyan, Sir George Clerk, and even the Chancellor of the Exchequer all speaking to me on the subject in the course of the same day; explanations were given, arrangements made (a kind of compromise which I hoped would, in operation, gradually put all things right), and the desired holiday most readily granted. “Everything,” says my Journal, “was said in the most polite and, to all appearance, friendly manner, and altogether things have assumed a much more favourable aspect.” My term of holiday was certainly very little interrupted with business, nor did I find more than three or four papers awaiting me on my return a month afterwards. One intervening incident, however, I must not omit to mention. The original conception of a uniform penny rate has been more than once, of late years, attributed to Mr. Wallace. How far that generous-hearted man was from making such a claim himself may be gathered from the following passage in a speech delivered by him at Aberdeen, and reported in the _Aberdeen Herald_ of October 2nd:— “And here let me say, once for all, that to Mr. Hill alone is the country indebted for that scheme; for he is the real inventor, and its only discoverer, while the honour conferred to-day upon me can only apply to working it out in Parliament.” The benefit derived from my holiday was not checked by my first interview with the Chancellor of the Exchequer:— “_November 5th._—Got through much business with the Chancellor of the Exchequer very satisfactorily.”