One more change may be spoken of, but on this point I rather suggest inquiry than advise action. The abandonment of the Post Office monopoly has much to recommend it, but yet is not a one-sided question. On the one hand, it implies the removal of an offence from our statute book, and the probable rise of a wholesome competition wherever the service is performed with less than the greatest efficiency and cheapness; a competition which, more perhaps than any other external circumstance, would tend to compel the department to have due regard to simple merit in its officers, and economic efficiency in all its arrangements.[246] On the other hand, it must be remembered that the operations of the Post Office, extending over the whole country, provide for the correspondence of many districts where the population is too small or too sparse to yield any profit whatever; and that although its general rule is not to go further than this, by providing for districts which cannot be served without loss, yet for purposes of Government the rule is in many instances set aside. It must be added that there are many reasons in favour of affording a service, not indeed day by day, but at least week by week, to every house in the United Kingdom (a completeness already attained in France, Prussia,[247] and Switzerland); and it would seem hard that the Post Office, while called upon to continue all this ill-remunerated or non-remunerated service, should be exposed to competition in that more profitable part of its business, which alone rival establishments would undertake. Upon the whole, however, I am so impressed with the evils attaching to every monopoly, that I cannot but regard the abandonment in question, after due preparation, as a desirable step. Before taking leave of my readers, I would express an earnest hope that my narrative, besides describing the progress of a remarkable change, may prove especially useful to all who may at any time contemplate a devotion of their powers to the cause of departmental reform; that it may be serviceable alike for encouragement and for warning--for encouragement, as showing that the field is open, and success, with its rewards, not unattainable; for warning, as showing with what difficulties it is beset, how serious the obstacles, how long the delays, how galling the mortifications, and how deep the disappointments, to be encountered even by one who is happy enough to attain at length the goal towards which his long, laborious, and anxious race has been directed. BOOK III. CONCLUSION. "_He that dies in an earnest pursuit is like one that is wounded in hot blood; who, for the time, scarce feels the hurt; and therefore a mind fixed and bent upon somewhat that is good doth avert the dolours of death; but, above all, believe it, the sweetest canticle is_ 'Nunc dimittis,' _when a man hath obtained worthy ends and expectations_."--BACON.