"Looking then back upon the events of the six years during which my promised promotion has been delayed, I feel bound to state that, if in December, 1846, I could have foreseen what has occurred, I could not have accepted the offer then made, nor do I believe that under like circumstances my friends would have advised me to the step." After speaking of the improvements effected by my brother and myself in the Money Order Department, and showing that this success established the probability of improvement under the same management in the Post Office generally, I mentioned that, owing to the rapid augmentation in the number of letters, no doubt was entertained in the department that in a short time a most expensive outlay, probably not less than half-a-million, would be required for a new post office, a necessity which I did not doubt might, under better arrangements, be averted for years, if not removed altogether. I grounded my expectation on the fact that under the management of my brother and myself a similar and yet more pressing necessity had been so averted in the Money Order Department. I likewise pointed out that, even supposing a new building to be afterwards necessary, it was important that its erection should be delayed until the carrying of the railway system into the heart of the Metropolis should have shown what site and what arrangements would best suit the altered state of things. I observed also, that from overtures made to the department by some of the projectors, I thought it highly probable that whatever changes in the Post Office might be rendered necessary or desirable by the new state of things, they would not have to be made altogether, perhaps not mainly, at the cost of Government. After referring to the almost clamorous demand for further facilities in the transmission of letters, a demand which could not be effectually met without energetic and cordial co-operation in the higher departments of the Executive, and ready obedience and zealous activity in all the subordinates, I concluded as follows:-- "Having written thus far, and having also carefully considered every statement and every remark I have made, I feel it my duty to say that, after all the deliberation required by so grave a question, I have arrived at the settled conviction that the existing state of things cannot continue; and I therefore respectfully request that in considering the present application such continuance may not be regarded as a possible alternative.