A statement of the savings which, without counting the rejection of applications for needless increase of force or salary, I had secured by the end of 1850, either by prevention of unnecessary augmentation in expenditure, or by positive reductions, showed an amount of nearly £40,000 a year; although I believe my clerks, in hastily preparing the statement (for it was suddenly required) had made several omissions. _Further Economy in Conveyance._ The surveyor for the South of Ireland had recommended that the night mails to Waterford should be conveyed by a new line of railway between Carlow and that city. The entry on the subject in my Journal (13th of January, 1851) thus concludes:-- "On the Postmaster-General calling for my opinion, I was able to show that the adoption of such recommendation would cost about £10,000 a-year, that it would afford scarcely any convenience, ... but that a day-mail ... might be established at a comparatively small cost, and would be of great service to Waterford. The Postmaster-General has adopted my view. "_May 22nd, 1851._--A short time since certain towns in the West Riding memorialized the Postmaster-General to despatch a mail by an existing express train direct to Boston. The Company (the Great Northern) refused to undertake the service for less than a first-class fare each trip, or £540 a-year. The Postmaster-General called for my opinion. I offered the Company £200 a-year; they refused, and the memorialists were informed that, owing to the excessive demands of the Company, the mail [a very small one] must be withheld. This brought public opinion to act on the Company, and, as I expected, they became suitors to us, first offering to reduce the charge to about £340 a-year, and ultimately consenting to charge the bags as parcels. On these terms we shall give a mail in both directions for about £200 a-year, or for little more than the third part of what was originally demanded for a mail in one direction." RURAL DISTRIBUTION. On July 15th, 1850, I learned that the Postmaster-General had sanctioned what I regarded as a very important measure:-- "Hitherto no posts have been given except daily posts; henceforth, when the correspondence will not justify a daily post, one is to be given thrice, or twice, or once a week, according to a fixed scale, under which the amount of correspondence is compared with the cost of the post. Thus, at a comparatively small cost, the postal system will, I hope, be extended to nearly every house in the kingdom."