42 THE COACHING AGE. 



Government in a very parsimonious spirit. I allude 

 to Sir Eowland Hill iand Mr. Palmer, both of whom 

 had to encounter an immense amount of opposition 

 and obloquy before their respective schemes were 

 ultimately accepted. Petitions to Parliament to have 

 their services adequately remunerated, and urgent 

 applications to Government departments failed in 

 producing the desired effect ; but in Sir Eowland 

 Hill's case there was this satisfaction, that the country 

 at large was sensible of the benefits bestowed upon 

 them by his system of the penny postage, and practi- 

 cally gave expression, to its views by the presenta- 

 tion to him of a handsome pecuniary testimonial, 

 independently of which he retired upon a pension on 

 more liberal terms than usual. 



It was not without a good deal of toil and labour, 

 extending over a period of nearly twenty years, that 

 Mr. Palmer succeeded in obtaining a Parliamentary 

 grant of fifty thousand pounds. He, like Sir Eowland 

 Hill, had had a great many rebuffs — to use a mild 

 expression — in the course of his endeavours to 

 establish a mail-coach. 



Some of the disagreeables that Mr. Palmer met with 

 in the course of his connection with the Post Ofiice 

 arose from his own impetuosity and indiscretion, 

 which brought him into hostile collision with the 

 other officials, who, in some instances, were not slow 



