"My Lords do not forget that it has been by the powerful agency of the railway system that these results have been rendered practicable. Neither do they enter into the question, as foreign to the occasion, what honour may be due to those who, before the development of the plans of Sir Rowland Hill, urged the adoption of the uniform penny postage.[237] Nor are they insensible to the fact that the co-operation of many able public servants has been essential to the work performed. But after all justice has been done to others, Sir Rowland Hill is beyond doubt the person to whom it was given to surmount every kind of obstacle, and to bring what had been theretofore matter of speculation into the world of practice, without whom the country would not have enjoyed the boon, or would only have enjoyed it at a later date, and to whom, accordingly, its enjoyment may justly be deemed due. "Nor is it in this country alone that are to be perceived the happy fruits of his labours; the recognition of his plans has spread with a rapidity to be accounted for only by their excellence from land to land, and truly may now be said to have met with acceptance throughout the civilised world. "Under these circumstances, it may justly be averred that my Lords are dealing on the present occasion with the case not merely of a meritorious public servant, but of a benefactor of his race; and that his fitting reward is to be found not in this or that amount of pension, but in the grateful recollection of his country. "But my Lords discharge the portion of duty which belongs to them with cordial satisfaction, in awarding to Sir Rowland Hill, for life, his full salary of £2,000 per annum. "Let a copy of this Minute be laid before Parliament. "Transmit copy to the Postmaster-General, with a request that it may be communicated to Sir Rowland Hill." The following is my letter to Mr. Gladstone:-- "(Private and immediate.) "Hampstead, March 15th, 1864. "MY DEAR MR. GLADSTONE,--I have just received through the Postmaster-General a copy of the Treasury minute of the 11th inst. "I need not say how much I feel indebted for the very handsome terms in which my services are acknowledged, and for the liberal retiring allowance which the Treasury has granted me. "There is, however, one part of the minute which I trust their lordships may be induced to reconsider. It is that in which the original conception of the _uniform_ penny rate is attributed to others than myself. As this forms the main feature of my plan, and as its discovery and first proposal were wholly my own, you will, I am sure, pardon me if I press that in a formal document like the one in question a mistake on so important a point may be corrected.