On April 1st of this year, in accordance with the wish of the Postmaster-General, I went to Bristol. As what I found there may be regarded as a specimen, by no means an unfavourable one, of the state of things at the provincial offices generally, I describe it. The first delivery of the day, by far the most important of all, was not completed until twelve o'clock; the letter-carriers, as I was informed, often staying after departure from the office to take their breakfast before commencing their rounds. I was able to show how at a small cost (only £125 a year) it might be completed by nine. The office itself I found small, badly lighted, and worse ventilated. The day mail thence to London was nearly useless, its contents for London delivery being on the morning of my inquiry only sixty-four letters, thirty-seven of which might have been sent by the previous mail on the mere payment of the extra penny. The impression regarding this mail, both in and out of the office, agreed exactly with my evidence in 1843, viz., that all day mails, to be efficient for their purpose, should start as late as is consistent with their reaching London in time for their letters to be forwarded by the evening mails. The satisfaction I felt in such improvements as I had been able to make on the spot was much enhanced by my receiving at the termination of my visit the thanks of both clerks and letter-carriers for the new arrangements. To return to the subject of obstruction:-- "_April 20th._--A letter from Mr. Lettis, a senior clerk of the Money Order Office, written on the 12th instant, and forwarded the same day by Mr. Barth, instead of being sent at once to me, was forwarded, by Colonel Maberly's own endorsement, to the Postmaster-General, then in the west of Ireland, in consequence of which it did not reach me till yesterday, I being all the while engaged on the subject to which it relates." The paper thus retarded I soon found was one amongst many, all of them more or less important to a right understanding of the work on which I was specially engaged. Application, however, to the Postmaster-General for the maintenance of direct communication produced no other effect than an injunction to Colonel Maberly's department against further delay. In the midst of these troubles, petty in themselves, but trying to my health and very injurious in the delay they produced, I saw, for the first time, a fellow-labourer in the great cause of postal improvement, who, in establishing the overland route to India, had surmounted formidable difficulties and rendered invaluable services, without, I fear, securing either to himself or his family any proportionate recompense. My record of the interview is very brief:-- "Lieutenant Waghorn called. He is a man of singularly energetic appearance."