Page:The Post Office of Fifty Years Ago.djvu/64

iv have, in the present edition, been treated more fully than in the former. Knowing that I alone am responsible for the practicability of the plans which I have suggested, I should have considered it my duty to reject every alteration, by whomsoever recommended, the reasons for which did not satisfy my own mind. Fortunately, however, in each instance in which I have not been convinced by the arguments in favour of a proposed modification of the plan, my own opinion has been confirmed by a majority of those who have kindly interested themselves in the matter.

The cordial reception which the plan, as a whole, has hitherto met with, has tended to confirm my conviction of its practicability and importance; and it is now submitted to the more severe ordeal of public opinion, in the confident hope that it will receive that candid, though searching, examination which should ever attend the pursuit of truth. Such an examination I respectfully invite from the public press; well knowing that however it may affect the plan here put forth, it cannot but greatly promote the object I have in view, which is not to establish the merits of any peculiar system of management, but to lead to the adoption of the best system, whatever that may be, and thus to render the Post Office efficient in the highest degree.

Fortunately this is not a party question. Whether