393
my
hours.
has been made. It is however difficult to make these attempts at accommodation evident where there are perhaps three or four hundred letters in the division; and when A.B. has to sign each one to his own, and feels called upon to take his time, he will only take his own or perhaps a friend's letter, and is offended unless permitted to spell through the whole. Unless there is an abundance of time on hand, some reluctance is necessarily felt to encounter the certainty of being detained for a considerable time.
As clerks in this department are very punctilious about their hours, and my time is generally occupied pretty fully during the hours at which the office is closed in the private business office, I can hardly think that the Naval Officers in general can accuse me of a want of disposition to accommodate them in their strictness.
I cannot pass this opportunity of mentioning a plan which I have at different times discussed with many Naval Officers for their opinion, and it has appeared to meet with general approbation. It is that the Admiral should furnish me with a flag, and a letter bag for the fleet or for particular vessels. When letters arrive here, the flag would be hoisted, a letter bill made out, and the bag sealed and addressed to whomsoever the Admiral might appoint.
The advantages to the Navy of such a system are too evident to need being pointed out.
(Signed)
J. Scales
(True Copy)
Frederich Mr. A. Bruce