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The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the History of Penny Postage
The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the History of Penny Postage Author:Rowland Hill Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 1843-6] RESIGNATION OF CHAIRMANSHIP. 23 market value at the time when the new directors were appointed—a price, however, which I knew to be in excess of their... more » real value, and which was due in part to the general inflation at the time, for this, it may be remembered, was the year of the well- known "railway mania." I may observe here that, pecuniarily speaking, I had been a gainer by my expulsion from the Treasury ; the rise in the value of my railway property, resulting in great measure from my own efforts and those of my brother directors, having been so great as to render my previous salary comparatively insignificant; indeed, in one year, while chairman, my total gain was as high as ,£6,000. Why, then, did I resign so advantageous a position, especially as I could not but foresee a danger, a fear afterwards too well confirmed, that, in the absence of my own direct supervision and control, these great profits might be exchanged for yet greater losses ? The answer is to be found in the political circumstances of the day. By this time Sir Robert Peel's Government was beginning to totter, and the Liberals to have strong hopes of a speedy return to power. Believing that their return would be followed by my own recall, and feeling that my late efforts had drawn considerably on my strength both of body and mind, I resolved to obtain a long holiday—an indulgence impracticable while I retained the chairmanship. I gave notice accordingly, as appears by the following extract from the Railway Chronicle, which will, perhaps, be the more interesting as it announces the result of the offer to the Post Office already mentioned, and indicates probable consequences :— " The Post Office has accepted the liberal offer of the Brighton Company to carry a bag of letters by every train gratis. A...« less