308 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



mercantile circulars been allowed to pass ' under 

 covers, open at the ends, at a penny or twopence each, 

 the clamour for a uniform rate of penny postage would 

 have died away.' 



McCulloch no doubt weighed the matter only as a 

 financist of the day, and took no account of the 

 prospective incentive to commerce of cheap and 

 uniform postage, and the moral and social aspects 

 which it presented. He expressed a wish that he 

 could come back in about three hundred years to see 

 the result of the political and economical principles in 

 action in 1842. 



Colonel Maberly was only thirty-eight years of age 

 when he became Secretary, and was, therefore, in the 

 prime of life. He had served in the army from 1815 

 to 1832. ' When my husband and I were quartered 

 at Bermuda,' said the wife of an old sergeant of 

 sappers, forty years ago, ' there was much insub- 

 ordination, and a good deal of flogging in consequence. 

 Some fresh troops arrived, and with them Colonel 

 "W. L. Maberly. He took command as senior officer 

 on the station. From that day, sir, there was not a 

 smgle case of flogging, but excellent discipline was 

 restored and maintained.' 



The Colonel had long been a Member of Parliament ; 

 in fact, with short intervals, from 1819 until 1834, or 

 later. He had represented during that period West- 

 bury, Northampton, and Shaftesbury in the unre- 

 formed House, and Chatham under the Reform Act of 

 1832. So he was a practised politician. As Clerk of 



