Page:The life and letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton bt. (IA lifelettersofsi00port).pdf/172



It was in the early eighties that Henniker Heaton returned definitely to the Old Country, by this time a rich newspaper proprietor, at ease with fortune, free to do and go as he pleased, and cager with the desire to find distinction in the land from which a few years before he had gone in search of fortune.

Entering the House of Commons as Conservative member for Canterbury, he had not been there more than a few weeks when he began to devote himself to the subject which was to become the master passion and almost sole purpose of his political life. By an extraordinary instinct he could discover in the Post Office service its weak points, and went for them with unfailing aum. it was Henniker Heaton's strong will, tenacity, patience, and indifference to the comfort or the goodwill of successive Postmasters-General, whether of his own or the other Party, which was the driving force that lay behind his agitation and successful propaganda.

His success was obtained, too, by ways and methods which reveal a side of House of Commons' life not realized by the outside public. He spoke but rarely in the House, and then not with striking effect, and yet he got his way. The first weapon was the persistent and the perennial question to the Postmaster-General. Almost every day, for almost every week, in every session, Henniker Heaton would put on the notice paper of the House of Commons two, three, half a dozen questions with regard to small or large