The Reports of the surveyors concurred in strongly recommending the adoption of the proposed improvements; not, however, without showing some apprehensions of inconvenience, and consequent complaints, from the proposed restriction to one delivery; for the cases in which there were more deliveries than one on the Sunday proved then much more common than I had supposed. Still, I was of opinion that, with whatever inconvenience the improvements might be attended, they would be accepted by the public if accompanied by another measure conferring an equivalent advantage. Such a measure was at that time under consideration, and had long been regarded as a desideratum, viz., the transmission of the "forward letters"[60] through London on the Sunday, with a view to their delivery on the Monday morning; a measure which I felt confident might be effected, not only without any addition to Sunday labour, but, even when taken in all its bearings, with a great reduction of Sunday labour. Nay, more, I saw reason to believe that, even in the London office, on which alone the labour of such transmission would fall, the improvement might, in the end, be made to yield similar relief. This expectation was fully confirmed by experience. Accordingly I took an early opportunity of consulting the Postmaster-General on the subject. I found that he concurred in my views, but wished to consult Lord John Russell before anything was done. This was on January 9th, 1849, and six days later he informed me that Lord John Russell had no objection to consider the question, and wished to see the proposed plan. I prepared a careful statement on the subject, which was sent in without delay. A few days later, Lord John Russell having approved of the plan for transmitting the forward letters through London on the Sunday, I got my brother Arthur's help, and threw my memorandum into the form of a minute; and as it fully explains the grounds on which I proceeded in this matter, I insert it at length in Appendix D, giving here the following summary. After referring to the suspension of money-order business on Sunday, I reported that investigations made showed that a further very important relief as related to Sunday work might be effected in all the provincial offices, but that the consideration of this question was closely connected with the Sunday transmission of letters through London, a measure which had been urged by various authorities, and which was the more important, because the number of letters to which it related had advanced within the last thirteen years by ten-fold. I next pointed out that the evil of detention had been found so serious that in several cases the rule had been evaded, either by making use of other existing channels, or by the actual establishment of Sunday cross-posts, an expedient which, besides its other evils, obviously involved additional Sunday work.