On further consideration, I determined to take no further action at present; and, indeed, my attention was soon afterwards engrossed in other matters. CHAPTER XVIII. SUNDAY RELIEF. (1849-50). I now come to one of the most painful passages of my whole life. Perhaps, even had I been in possession of every external advantage, the trouble and anxiety now approaching would have been very considerable, but certainly by my anomalous position they were so aggravated as to become almost more than I could bear. The call constantly made upon me to check unreasonable demands for augmented force or increased salary had necessarily raised against me a hostile feeling, which was but too ready to break out when occasion offered. To explain how such a contingency occurred, I must go somewhat backward in my narrative. At the time of my appointment to the Post Office, Sunday was very far from bringing to the department the amount of rest at present enjoyed there. Even at the chief office, which was usually spoken of as completely exempt from Sunday duty, more than twenty persons were regularly employed during several hours of the day, partly in sorting out the letters for Government and foreign ambassadors resident in London, letters technically called "States,"--which had to be delivered the same day--and partly in doing other work which, under the existing arrangements, could not safely be deferred until the Monday morning. Elsewhere offices were, as a rule, open during most of the day, not only for general purposes, but even for the transaction of money-order business. Applications, indeed, began to be made by particular towns for the suspension of this latter duty at their respective offices; but, owing to the various difficulties and objections by which the change was beset, and in particular the apprehended risk of opposition from without, no progress was made until towards the end of 1847. In that year, in consequence of a memorial presented from Bath by Lord Ashley (now Earl of Shaftesbury), then one of the members for that city, the Postmaster-General directed inquiry to be made whether, by extending the hours on Saturday night, money-order transactions on the Sunday might not be discontinued without injury to the working classes. A report on this subject from the surveyor of the district having come into my hands, I drew up a minute (January 27th, 1848), in which I advised that for the present, at least, the Bath office should be closed for money-order business on the Sunday, and I suggested that in the event of its success a similar arrangement might be extended to other towns. The Postmaster-General having adopted this recommendation, the Bath office was closed on the Sunday for money-order business, though it still remained open for ordinary purposes nine hours on that day, as before. Even thus limited, however, the alteration excited