236 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



General (for although there were two Ministers in 

 charge of the Post-Office, the department was ever 

 punctilious in using in this respect the singular 

 number) — won their hearts by so accelerating the 

 service as to bring in the London letters early in the 

 morning, instead of late in the afternoon, and thus 

 abridge the course of post with Falmouth by a day. 

 The Postmaster of Glasgow (Dugald Bannatyne) 

 happened also to be secretary of the Chamber of 

 Commerce. No wonder that the Chamber declared, 

 under seal, that these improvements ' contributed to 

 the economy of time, the expedition of remittances, 

 and the extension of business,' and so patted the 

 department — Bannatyne's other master — on the back. 



I am not sure that nowadays public bodies are 

 given to thanking the Postmaster- General for his 

 services ; the rather that their energy is sometimes 

 expended in an opposite direction. But perhaps 

 postal benefits are more frequently conferred in the 

 Victorian age than they were in earlier reigns, and so 

 the novelty has worn off. 



My belief is that Bannatyne did much for the 

 community in accelerating the mails. He was still 

 in office when the sixty-six hours by road had been 

 brought down to forty-two. As postmaster, he could 

 offer suggestions to the Deputy Postmaster-General at 

 Edinburgh, and help on his views by private note to 

 Lombard Street or St. Martin's-le-Grand ; as secre- 

 tary of the Chamber of Commerce, he could egg on 

 the merchants to put pressure on the Post-Office, and. 



