"It having fallen to my official duty to execute the alteration of this post proposed by my late colleague Mr ----, to whose memory I must bear testimony, not only of his abilities, but his impartiality in the duties of his office, and under the authority of the late respectable and worthy Postmaster-General Mr ----, whose memory is far above any eulogium of mine, I considered the measure as proper and expedient, equally for the good of the country in general, and the revenue under the department of the Post-office; and I can with confidence deny that it was 'hastily, inconsiderately, or partially' gone into, as this memorial would wish to establish. In this capacity, and under these circumstances, it is no wonder I could have wished the epithets used against this official alteration, of _ignorance, arbitrary and oppressive proceedings_, to have dropped from a person less honourable, respectable, and conspicuous than I hold the Honble. ---- at the head of this memorial. Before this last memorial was presented, I understood from Mr ----, Secretary, in the presence of Lord ----, that any further opposition upon the part of the Blairgowrie gentlemen to a re-alteration was now given up; indeed this cannot be surprising if they had learned, as stated in the memorial, page 9, that they had protested, did now protest, and would never cease to complain loudly of it, until they obtain redress. Whether this argument is cool or arbitrary I have not time nor inclination to analyse, but having been removed from this ancient district of road, and given my uniform opinion upon the merits of the alteration itself, I have no desire to fight the memorialists to all eternity. Before, however, taking final leave of this contest, and of a memorial said to be unanswerable, I consider myself in duty and honour called upon to vindicate the late Mr ----, as well as myself, from the vindictive terms of '_ignorance, arbitrary, and oppressive_' implied in the memorial, and which, if admitted _sub silentio_, might not be confined to the mismanagement of the Post-office, but to every other department of civil government. In order to this, I shall as briefly as I can follow the general track of the memorial, as of a long beaten road in which, if there is not safety, there is no new difficulty to encounter. It is needless to go over the different distances,--I am ready to admit them--they have not formed any material part of the question,--and the supposed ignorance of the surveyor here is not to the point. The alteration neither did nor should proceed upon such mathematical nicety. The idea of posts is to embrace the most extensive and most needful accommodation. In establishing a post to Blairgowrie it was neither _ignorant nor arbitrary_ to take the line by Isla Bridge, which was the centre of the country meant to be served by it--that is, the Coupar and the Stormont and Highland district. It is of some consequence to observe here, that with all the great and rapid