Two years later, thinking I had found a favourable conjuncture, I proposed a measure on new terms, which I hoped would prove more acceptable. A bill being drawn accordingly at the Post Office, with the sanction of the Treasury, I hoped that it would be introduced early in the session of 1860; but before the time arrived, my increasing illness took so serious a form that many months elapsed before I was able to do work of any kind; and, in short, my direct attempts to obtain railway legislation here came to an end. To what form the relation between the Post Office and the railways will eventually be brought, by legislation or otherwise, must for the present remain matter of conjecture. The purchase of the whole railway system by the State has of late been much talked of; and, of course, if this should be effected, all such legislation as I sought to procure would be superseded; but the difficulties to be surmounted are very great. Reference has been made to a Royal Commission on Railways, of which I was a member. This was appointed in 1865, and I joined it at the earnest request of Mr. Gladstone. Though unable, through the state of my health, to attend all the meetings, I was careful to examine the report of all such evidence as I did not hear, and both evidence and discussion confirmed the opinions I had previously formed on the subject. These had in the main been put forth some time before by my brother Frederic, who also frequently discussed them with me in conversation, and finally gave them concise but distinct expression in his evidence before the commission. I may add that our joint view was supported by evidence from Mr. Edward Page, Inspector-General of Mails, and Mr. Gregory, C.E., the Arbitrator for the Post Office, and afterwards President of the Society of Civil Engineers.