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 in ‘The West Indies and the Spanish Main’ (1859), a highly entertaining book of travel, considered by the writer as the best of his work of this kind. In 1861 he visited the United States, not, however, at the public expense, but on a nine months' furlough, granted after ‘a good deal of demurring.’ His account of his travels, entitled ‘North America’ (1862), is disparaged by the author himself, but was eminently useful at the time in aiding to direct public opinion at home into a right channel. If the mother had done America any wrong, the debt was amply discharged by the son. After his retirement from the post office he visited Australia and New Zealand (1871–2), and South Africa (1877), producing books upon these countries more fertile in instruction than in entertainment, as, with regard to the former countries, he admits. Trollope's series of colonial volumes extended to seven volumes in all, and despite their statistical character achieved some vogue. The earliest, ‘Australia and New Zealand,’ appeared in 1873 in two volumes. A one-volume edition followed in 1875. ‘South Australia and Western Australia,’ ‘Victoria and Tasmania,’ and ‘New South Wales and Queensland,’ each formed a separate volume in 1874. Trollope's account of ‘South Africa’ came out in two volumes in 1877, and reached a fourth edition in 1878.

In 1859 Trollope was transferred from Ireland to the charge of the eastern postal district in England. In the internal affairs of the post-office he had always been antagonistic to Sir Rowland Hill. It would certainly have been difficult to find two men less alike in manner, temperament, and disposition. Sir Rowland's retirement in 1864, so much desired by Trollope, indirectly terminated his own connection with the post-office, for when he became a candidate for the assistant-secretaryship, vacated by Sir John Tilley's promotion to Sir Rowland Hill's office, mortification at being passed over was, by his own admission, chief among the causes which led him to retire eight years before becoming entitled to a pension. He took two years to arrive at this decision, and evidently felt the separation very keenly. The authorities, nevertheless, were right: a man so accustomed to field sports and country life that, although prepared to give the necessary daily attendance at his office, he would, as he admits, have considered it ‘slavery,’ was clearly not the man for an assistant-secretaryship. Conspicuous as his extra-official work had been, no one could accuse him of having neglected the duties of his post, and, in addition to his services in regulating foreign mails and country deliveries, he claims the credit of one very important improvement—the postal pillar-box.

The years between Trollope's return to England and his retirement from the post-office had been fertile in literary work. He had formed connections with the ‘Cornhill Magazine,’ the ‘Fortnightly Review,’ and the ‘Pall Mall Gazette.’ For the ‘Cornhill’ he commenced in January 1860 ‘Framley Parsonage,’ not only one of his best books, but one which brought him 1,000l., nearly twice as much as he had received for any former work. The rapid development of his celebrity and the enhancement of authors' gains by the magazine system were evinced by the much higher prices subsequently paid by the proprietors of the same magazine, 3,000l. for ‘The Small House at Allington’ (1864, one of his best novels), and 2,800l. for ‘The Claverings’ (1867). Still ampler were the proceeds of the novels published in monthly parts: ‘Orley Farm’ (1862), ‘Can you forgive her?’ (1864, for which he received 3,525l.) ‘The Last Chronicle of Barset’ (1867) yielded 3,000l. All these works constitute his more remarkable fictions. ‘Rachel Ray’ (1863) and ‘Miss Mackenzie’ (1865) are of less account. ‘The Belton Estate’ (1866; French translation, 1875) was contributed to the ‘Fortnightly Review,’ for which at a later period he wrote papers on Cicero, published separately in 1880, and others in defence of fox-hunting, in reply to attacks upon the sport by Professor Freeman in the same periodical. Much amusement was occasioned by the collision of these two very rough diamonds. He contributed frequently to the ‘Pall Mall Gazette’ for some years after its commencement in 1865, and some of his papers were reprinted. Upon his retirement from the post-office he entered into an undertaking from which much was expected, the editorship of the ‘St. Paul's Magazine.’ This was really a very good magazine, but failed to attract public favour to the extent of becoming a paying speculation. It published one of Trollope's better novels, ‘Phineas Finn, the Irish Member’ (1869), the precursor of a series of similar books—‘Phineas Redux’ (1873), ‘The Prime Minister’ (1876), ‘The American Senator’ (1877), and ‘Is he Popenjoy?’ (1878)—in which the political vein was worked as the vein of country life had been formerly. The vein was not so rich nor the workmanship so skilful; nevertheless these political studies have decided interest, and are the most remarkable of Trollope's later works, except ‘The Way we live now’ (1875), a novel with a decided moral purpose; ‘The Eustace Diamonds’ (1873); and the two highly