Page:The life and letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton bt. (IA lifelettersofsi00port).pdf/247

 altered state of affairs. Was it not the Bishop of London who wrote, "Personal contact is the great solvent of all the difficulties in the world."

However it may be, H. H. numbered among his personal friends many of the mandarins of St Martin's-le-Grand, and entertained for at least one Postmaster-General feelings of warm affection.

The following obituary notice appeared in "St Martin’s-le-Grand Magazine," written by the editor, Mr E. Bennett.

"I am quite sure that none of my readers regret more sincerely the passing away of Sir Henniker Heaton than his old opponents 'the mandarins' of the Post Office. He had in his time troubled us in season and out of season, and there was a peculiar venom in his methods which hindered rather than helped his reforms. But in the eighties and nineties, when Sir Henniker was at his best, or his worst, as a fighting man, it often seemed, even to those within the service, that something dynamic was required to upset the non possumus attitude of the Post Office administrator, and to bring home to the Treasury as well as to the Post Office the fact that the British Empire demanded a great deal more from those who were running the Department than the point of view of a retail shopkeeper.

"Mr Massingham has spoken of Sir Henniker as the 'most terrifically concentrated mind I ever met in a Member of Parliament.' That was indeed the secret of his success. He was a man who in public life had only one subject, and in pursuit of his aims he was untiring, obstinate, and often inconsiderate to his opponents.

"During the last few years I have been able to claim Sir Henniker as a personal friend and I have worked with him in an association unconnected with