The question, therefore, of whether the postmen's wages should be doubled at any time, or whether they might not have to be halved, would not depend only on votes, but, also and primarily, on the extent of the funds available; and in so far as it depended on votes at all, the votes would not be those of the postmen.

They would be the votes of the general public, and any special demand on the part of one body of workers would be neutralised by similar demands on the part of all the others.

Further, if these "employers of themselves" could not determine their own wages, still less would they determine the details of the work required of them.

A postman, like a private messenger, is bound to do certain things, not one of which he prescribes personally to himself.

At stated hours he must daily be present at an office, receive a bundle of letters, and then set out to deliver them at private doors, in accordance with orders which he finds written on the envelopes.