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His most burning enthusiasm, however, was postal reform, and to the delight of his fellow business-men, he managed to induce the authorities to speed up the mail between Dundee and London by a day each way, convincing them that this could be done without extra cost.
That he was far advanced in his scheme for an adhesive postage stamp in 1834, six years before the Penny Post was introduced, was later borne out not only by Dundee and Arbroath men of standing, but by employees in his printing-works. These afterwards recalled their work in applying gum to the slips and clipping the sample stamps apart—for the perforation was a subsequent refinement and came from another source.