Meanwhile, willing to try what could be done with the existing laws, I devised a new application of them. Being pressed to supply Ayr and the neighbouring towns with a more direct communication than they then enjoyed, and finding that the railway company to be dealt with, though having suitable trains actually running, refused to carry the mails, except at prices far beyond what the correspondence would justify, I devised a new kind of notice, which the solicitor to the Post Office regarded as strictly legal, requiring the company to carry the mails by the existing trains, but leaving them at liberty to alter or withdraw these trains altogether on giving us fifteen days' notice. Under such a notice our arbitrator was of opinion that the remuneration awarded would be, as it ought to be, very low. This plan succeeding, I obtained its extension to some other lines, but at length met with resistance from one of the companies. On reference to the law officers of the Crown, our claim was pronounced untenable, they holding that by the law as it stood, the Postmaster-General was bound (whether he desired it or not) to _fix_ the hours for the mail-trains without reference to the arrangements of the companies. The Post Office is thus kept in a position quite unintelligible to the public, who cannot understand why existing trains, obviously capable of employment for postal service, are not used wherever convenience requires; the real obstacle being that the amount of correspondence in question, though sufficient to justify the expense of conveyance at a moderate rate--a rate, however, fully remunerative to the company--is often quite insufficient to meet the heavy cost of a regular mail train.