“_November 29th._—To-day the Merchants’ Committee [which had applied for an interview early in August] has seen Sir Robert Peel. They strongly urged the necessity for completing the measure—their want of confidence in the Post Office—their confidence in me, and the great satisfaction it would be to the public to see me restored to office. Peel satisfied the deputation that he was sincerely desirous of carrying out the measure, and Goulburn, who was present, assured them that, whatever might have been the feeling originally entertained by the Post Office, all there were now earnest friends of the measure! (It did not occur to the Committee to inquire where, then, lay the danger of ‘collision.’) Peel invited the Committee to send in a statement of those parts of the plan which they still wished to see carried into effect; but he stated that a return from the Post Office showed that, _with the exception of about £100,000 per annum, the net revenue was obtained from foreign and colonial letters_.[336] This statement, which he made in an early stage of the conversation, threw the Committee quite aback; for though I had prepared them, as I thought, to distrust all information derived from the Post Office, their want of familiarity with the subject, and the confident manner with which the statement was made, caused them to believe it.” The Committee at my suggestion subsequently applied for a copy of this return, but it was prudently withheld; and, with equal prudence, no reason was assigned for the refusal. Of this return, however, more will appear by-and-by. Meantime, the question of publishing the correspondence remaining still undecided, I sought further advice. On December 4th I received the following letter from Mr. Baring:— “Brighton, Dec. 3rd, 1842. “DEAR SIR,—I hope to be at Lee on Tuesday, and shall be at your service on Wednesday morning. But if you are not afraid of a bad dinner, which you probably will get the first day of our return, you had better come down on Tuesday, dine and sleep at Lee, and we will talk over the matter on Wednesday. “Yours very truly, “F. T. BARING.”