DISCONTENTS IN THE OFFICE. (1855-1859.)
While, however, content thus prevailed at the Post Office, and while
reports from all quarters spoke highly of the general conduct of those
employed in its service, it was inevitable that amongst so large a body
of men discontent should arise somewhere or other. Promotion by merit,
however satisfactory to the deserving, did little to gratify those
who had no merit to show, and was yet more distasteful to any whose
conduct positively shrunk from examination. Even less gratification was
doubtless felt by men who found themselves deprived of extra pay long
received but never earned,--nay, accorded where, instead of additional
service, even ordinary duty had been so remitted as to become little
more than nominal.
Of course, too, the officials of the Post Office, high and low, like
all other persons employed in whatever service, hold themselves
constantly open to an offer of increased salary or other improvement
in condition; and as, in the nature of things, such advancement does
not always come so frequently as desired, are not a little disposed
to give the matter a helping hand when convenient. It will readily be
imagined that such movements are most frequent in the lower branches
of the service; or at least take there their most troublesome form.
Sorters and letter-carriers, like other handicraftsmen, are more
struck with the amount of their own work than able to appreciate the
superior skill and incomparably greater labour required in the higher
operations; and thus their inequality of condition, though the natural
result of inferiority in qualifications, is too apt to be regarded
as a standing grievance. Unfortunately, the public is somewhat apt to
foster the error; to accept without examination sweeping statements as
to excessive labour and insufficient recompense; and, as in the case
of other operatives, the evil is prodigiously aggravated by men who in
such aggravation find advantage or gratification to themselves, and who
unhesitatingly swerve as far from truth and justice as public credulity
will allow--no very limited tether.
In a weekly paper entitled the "Civil Service Gazette" I was subjected,
from an early period of my career at the Post Office, to almost
constant personal attacks; many of them written with considerable
plausibility, but all void of substantial truth. Every one who has well
considered the subject of slander must know how great an advantage
the unscrupulous journalist has over the object of his attack, in the
dilemma in which he places him of either replying, at much expense of
time and dignity, to unfounded charges, or of allowing to them the
sanction which a very large, though somewhat thoughtless, portion
of the public infers from reticence. The amount of mischief that
may be done in any department of manufacturing industry by artful
misrepresentation addressed to over-willing ears has been painfully
illustrated of late; and this is by no means without its parallel in
that widely-extended department of Government which was so long the
scene of my labours. Some notion of the means employed may be formed by
a perusal of the following hand-bill, a copy of which was most properly
forwarded to the Chief Office by the postmaster of a large provincial
town, who found it in circulation among the clerks of his office:--
POST OFFICE REFORM.
=AGITATE--AGITATE--AGITATE!!!=
READ THE "CIVIL SERVICE GAZETTE,"
Unstamped 5d.--Stamped 6d.
=July 24th, 1858,=
Rowland Hill's Last Ukase!
BREAK DOWN OF THE GAGGING SYSTEM!
WHITE SLAVES OF THE POST OFFICE.
31st,
Rowland Hill's Job Frustrated:
HIS GREAT REVENGE:
The Screw and Gagging System of the General Post Office.
=POST OFFICE REFORMS=
AND THE WAY TO GET THEM:
HOPE FOR THE LETTER CARRIERS.
Coming Emancipation of the White Niggers.
August 7th,
POST OFFICE MANAGEMENT.
OUR MISSING LETTERS AND OUR LATE DELIVERIES.
The Letter Carriers' "Bill of Fare."
14th,
Post Office Reform by Merit,
REVELATIONS FROM ST. MARTINS LE GRAND.
=HOPE FOR THE OPPRESSED.=
THE POST MASTER GENERAL AND THE
LONDON LETTER CARRIERS.
Communications addressed, =pre paid=, to C. W. No. 9, East Mount Terrace,
LONDON.--E. will meet with immediate attention.
Self-answering as such exaggeration must appear to the thoughtful and
well-informed, it is not without its effect on the unthinking and
ignorant, particularly when the demands it implies correspond with
their own natural desires. In some hope, therefore, of averting, or at
least lessening, mischief, I drew the attention of Lord Colchester,
then Postmaster-General, to the intrusion of this hand-bill into the
department. It must be added that the copy received at the provincial
office was enclosed in a circular signed by a former postmaster who
had been dismissed for misconduct. His lordship entered into the
matter with interest, and suggested further inquiry; which, being
made, showed that the offensive paper had been sent to various other
large offices. Nothing, however, resulted from these measures; and,
as I had long ago directed my private secretary to make no report of
what appeared in that journal, save in cases of absolute necessity, I
was generally able, when a good-natured friend inquired if I had seen
the last attack, to reply in all sincerity that I did not read the
paper. The attacks, I understand, continued some years longer, many
of them being traced to discharged servants of the office. I cannot
but express my regret that the Civil Service should not have seen that
it was disgraced by the support of a paper which condescended to such
disreputable means for accomplishing its objects. Be this as it may, it
is easier to shut one's eyes to a fire than to put it out or prevent
its spreading, and, as will be seen, the sparks thus maliciously
scattered were not altogether without effect.
The eligibility of a letter carrier's position at the time to which
I refer was shown, not only by the large number of respectable men
constantly applying for appointment, but by the advantages attached
to the service in respect of rate of wages, supply of clothing,
opportunity for rising into the class of sorters, the pension provided
for old age (combined with assistance in life assurance), the
gratuitous supply to a large portion of the force of medical attendance
and medicine, and lastly, the annual holiday granted without loss of
wages; while, with all this remuneration, the hours of labour, taking
one day with another, were limited to eight. I may add that measures
were in progress for yet further improving the condition of the
letter-carriers.[202]
Every care, moreover, had been taken to provide for the speedy
rectification of individual cases of hardship, which in so large and
rapidly extending a department might unwittingly arise, by giving the
fullest opportunity for legitimate complaint, by guarding all such
complainants as took the prescribed mode from any consequent prejudice,
however unfounded their allegations might prove, and by allowing to the
lowest man in the service the means of appeal to the highest authority,
that of the Postmaster-General. With such provision it might perhaps
have been hoped that not only would all motive to such insubordinate
proceedings as had frequently troubled the department in previous years
be entirely removed, but even that irregular modes of complaint would
not have been taken, at least until after full trial of the appointed
channel.
Nevertheless, about two months after the circulation of the
inflammatory paper given above, amidst an almost total absence
of formal complaint, and certainly without substantiation of any
grievance in respect of a class, or even of individuals, a meeting of
letter-carriers was held in the South Western district, and reported
in the newspapers, at which "Speeches were made containing statements
which the men who uttered them must have known to be false, but from
the consequences of which they endeavoured to screen themselves
by concealing their names."[203] For the time the misconduct was
repressed; but we felt that without either such a course of concession
as would gradually raise salaries far beyond true remuneration (thus
tending to serious waste and other evils, not less certain though less
patent), or such union of firmness and energy in all the authorities
of the department as would render even an approach to mutiny unsafe to
those concerned, recurrence of trouble was certain, and its imminence
could not but remain a source of anxiety. This will further appear in a
later period of my narrative.
Slander, however, was not the only means resorted to by malcontents;
threats being added. Of these no mention appears in my Journal, as
of course I wished to keep off all apprehension on my account from
my family, and particularly from my wife, who generally acted as my
amanuensis. At least three times, however, notice was sent me that
unless the wages of the letter-carriers were raised I should be
assassinated. The first of these occurrences was, I believe, in 1854,
when I was summoned from a holiday sojourn at Brighton, in consequence
of a letter to this effect being received at the office, where, in my
absence, it had been opened by my brother. On arriving at the London
Station, I found my brother, Mr. Peacock, the solicitor to the Post
Office, Mr. (now Sir William) Bodkin, its standing counsel, and, I
believe, Mr. Bokenham, head of the Circulation Department, who had
all come to meet me, thinking it better that for the time I should
not go to the office. The threatening letter was produced, and I was
informed that the writing was identified by an expert with that of a
certain letter-carrier in the Chief Office, who had lately been giving
considerable trouble. In short, Mr. Peacock, in kind concern for my
safety, advised immediate arrest and prosecution. Upon a careful
comparison, however, of the anonymous letter (which of course was
written in a disguised hand) with a specimen of the suspected man's
usual handwriting, I felt so much doubt as to the evidence of identity
that I declined to concur in the proceeding, which was consequently
abandoned; and I must add that circumstances (though of what nature I
cannot now recollect) seemed afterwards to show that my doubt was well
founded.
Another letter, received a year or two afterwards, was more precise
in its warning, naming a particular day on which, supposing demands
to remain ungranted, execution would take place, notifying also the
mode of death fixed upon, viz., by shooting. To allow reasonable time
for effecting the change, the interval was somewhat long; and, oddly
enough, the day again happened to fall within the period of my holiday,
though near its end. As, however, the notice was so definite, I thought
it well to show myself, lest absence, being misinterpreted, should lead
to further trouble. Accordingly, returning home the evening before,
I went the next morning, at my usual hour and by my usual route, to
the office; my practice at that time being to walk the last half-mile
of the way.[204] I carried no weapon but my umbrella, but of this I
determined to make, if necessary, good use, believing that if properly
handled it would prove a very formidable, not to say deadly, weapon. I
scarcely need say my resolution was not put to its trial.
The last letter I received on such a subject is shown by the postmark
to have been sent on December 23rd, 1858. It certainly was rather
ill-timed, for in the previous month I had induced the Treasury to
abandon its intention of issuing an order forbidding the receipt of
Christmas-boxes, and also had obtained for the letter-carriers some
improvement in their scale of wages, the Treasury granting even more
than was applied for. Of course I took no more notice of this threat
than of its predecessors; and the age to which I have lived is an
instance of the longevity proverbially attained by threatened men.