"_April 29th._--At the Postmaster-General's house. I am to prepare a letter to the Treasury, and a minute recommending the appointment of an assistant-secretary to the Postmaster-General, and let the Postmaster-General see both in draft. Frederic is virtually appointed." "_May 5th._--The Postmaster-General has returned the drafts with some verbal alterations only." "_May 6th._--At the Postmaster-General's house. He was going to the Drawing Room, and could do no more than sign a fair copy of the letter to the Treasury. Will see minute to-morrow. Authorizes me to say that he will appoint Frederic. Intends to transfer the secretarial management of the Railway Department to me." "_June 2nd._--The Treasury authority for the appointment of an assistant-secretary to the Postmaster-General having been received, I lost no time in submitting it to the Postmaster-General, who, on my stating the anxiety on the subject of my poor father (now, I fear, on his death-bed), kindly filled up Frederic's appointment on the instant; and I immediately despatched Pearson [my son] to Tottenham with the news." "_June 7th._--Thanked the Postmaster-General in my father's name for his kindness with reference to Frederic's appointment. Obtained leave of absence for Frederic, in order that he may continue in attendance on my father. I have sent him work which he can do at Tottenham." "_June 13th._--Attending the death-bed of my dear father. Till within a few hours of his dissolution he retained the command of his faculties, and took evident pains by signs (for he was too feeble to speak more than a word or two) to show his recognition of us all, and to satisfy us that he was quite happy. He died, apparently without any pain, about half-past eight in the evening. I shall sadly miss his warm and intelligent sympathy. Nothing was so acceptable to him, even up to the time of my visiting him last night, as an account of any improvements in progress in the Post Office.[86] My father died in his eighty-ninth year--a longevity not unprecedented in our family. So remarkable was his retention of mental power, that in this, his last illness, he devised a new process for ascertaining, by mental arithmetic, the incidence of Easter Sunday in any given year; a process which, at his desire, I put to the test of practice, with a result completely satisfactory.