Not liking this anomalous state of things, I consulted confidentially with Mr. Jones Loyd, mentioning also my uneasiness at the slow progress of improvement, and referring to the expectations held out to me through him and Mr. Warburton before I entered the Post Office.[36] These expectations, however, I did not suppose were likely soon to be fulfilled, as I had just learnt that a large addition was about to be made to Colonel Maberly's staff. Mr. Loyd, while recognising the expectations held out to me, advised me temperately to press the Postmaster-General to assign to me a department, or at least to leave in my hands till ripe for his own decision all matters connected with any specific improvement which may be assigned to me. On this advice I resolved to act as occasions arose. I presently had further evidence that I was advancing in the confidence of my official superiors. The Postmaster-General placed the secretarial management of the Money Order Department in my hands, and directed that all returns to Parliament should be submitted to me before being sent to the Treasury, with free leave for me to attack any such as seemed unfair to penny postage, while the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his place in Parliament, spoke highly of my services. At the same time, I felt obliged to remind the Postmaster-General of our slow progress. I again called his attention to the delay of my measures after their leaving my hands; showed, in short, that all my measures were standing still, and told him I was very anxious to bring some one improvement to a successful issue, a view in which he agreed, thinking, however, that much had already been effected. As regards minor matters this was true enough, but my continued anxiety was justified by the fact that I had now been nearly four months in office without being able to bring into effect any improvement important enough to require the sanction of the Treasury.