The statement which will be found on a subsequent page relative to improvements in hand during the last month of 1854, shows, in some measure, the increased progress consequent on the important change effected within the year. Command of the secretary's staff--many of them able officers--enabled me more rapidly to devise and mature measures of improvement, relieved me, to a great extent, from the necessity of dealing with details and from the toil of throwing my conceptions into the form of well-considered and elaborate minutes, and allowed me, when due authorization had been obtained, to carry them out without impediment or loss of time, or over-watchful care against the introduction of some thwarting modification. Provided only I could obtain the approval of the Postmaster-General, and, where needful, of the Treasury, my course henceforth would be uninterrupted so long as health of body and mind should be vouchsafed for its continuance. I did not however, expect, though such a notion seemed to be very common abroad, that the approval of the Postmaster-General and the sanction of the Treasury were to be had for the mere asking. These authorities frequently have views of their own, and, though they naturally pay much attention to the advice of their highest permanent officers, nevertheless they occasionally delay or modify action, and sometimes, though very rarely, exercise their absolute veto. All who had the pleasure of knowing Lord Canning, the Postmaster-General of the day, must be aware that he was not a man likely to act upon advice in great matters without being first convinced of its soundness; but, at the same time, they will remember that his great ability, diligence, and candour, were likely to bring the means of substantial conviction within his reach. In working under such a man, though one may be sometimes subjected to delay or disappointment, there is, nevertheless, much profit, as the necessity for convincing often leads to closer investigation and more careful consideration than might, at first sight, appear necessary, and occasionally tends, even where measures are perfectly sound in themselves, to more careful inquiry as to the best mode of presenting them in an acceptable form to the public. I entered now, therefore, upon the most satisfactory period of my whole official career, that in which the course of improvement was steadiest, most rapid, and least chequered. The work of organization, to which I was now able to give most of my time and attention, had long been to me of all occupations the least difficult and the most pleasant; and perhaps, but for the effect of past struggles, the course now opening to me might have continued, though not without some abatement from causes to be mentioned hereafter, unto the present day.