Evening star., 1936-09-27

been improved. Prices manifest the
customary elevation.
More new stamps were produced
in 1920 than in any other year on
record. The number was 3.153. as
compared with / l.65l in 1888, 1907 in
1884 and approximately 1000 In 1885.
II the "lost" colonies OF Germany
are returned to the Reich, renewed
interest in the early stamps of those
territories may be expected to de-
velop. Meanwhile, the philatelic world
takes notice of the fact that Ethi-
opia has not yet become an Italian
possession-the League Of Nations re-
fuses to expel the Abyssinian repre-
sentatives and thereby continues to
recognize Emperor Halle Selassie Is
an independent sovereign.
Lord Macauley, in his classic His
tory of England" tells the following
story Of the early postal facilities Of
Great Britain: THE mode in which
correspondence was carried on be.
tween distant places may excite the
scorn of the present generation; yet
it was such as might have moved
the admiration and envy Of the pol
ished nations Of antiquity, or Of the
contemporaries OF Raleigh and Cecil.
A rude imperfect establishment Of
posts for the conveyance Of letters
had been set up by Charles I, and
had been swept away by the civil
war. Under the Commonwealth the
design was resumed. At the Restora-
lion the proceeds Of the post once,
after all expenses had been paid, were
settled on the Duke Of York. On
most lines of road the mails went out
and came in only on the alternate
days. In Cornwall. in the fens Of
Lincolnshire and among the hills and
lakes Of Cumberland. letters were re-
ceived only once q week. During Q
royal progress q daily post was dis
patched from the capital to the place
where the court sojourned. There
also was daily communication between
London and the Downs; and the same
privilege was sometimes extended to
Tunbridge Wells and Bath at the
seasons when those places were
crowded by the great. The bags were
carried on horseback day and night
at the rate Of about five miles an
hour.
THE revenue Of this establishment
was not derived solely from the charge
for the transmission of letters. The
post Office alone was entitled to furnish
post horses: and, from the care with
which this monopoly was guarded, we
may infer that it was found profitable
If, indeed, q traveller had waited hall
an hour without being supplied, HI
might hire horse wherever he could
ITO facilitate correspondence be-
! tween one part of London and an
other was not originally one of tn,
objects of the post ONCE. But, in th'
reign of Charles the Second, an enter.
| prsing citizen of London, William
Dockwray. set up, at great expense, &
| penny post, which delivered letter.
and parcels six or eight times a day
in the busy and crowded streets neal
the Exchange, and four times q day ir
the outskirts Of the capital. This i'm.
provement was, as usual, strenuously
resisted. The porters complained that
their interests were attacked and tor,
down the placards in which th<
scheme was announced to the public
The excitement caused by Godfrey
death and by the discovery of Cole
mans papers was then at the height
A cry was therefore raised that tn,
penny post was a Popish contrivance.
The great DR.. Oates, 1t was afirmed
had limited a suspicion that the Jesu
its were at the bottom of the scheme
and that the bags. If examined, woul,
be found full Of treason. The utilit,
Of the enterprise was, however, D
great and obvious, that all opposition
proved fruitless. As soon as 1t be
came clear that the speculation wsul
be lucrative, the Duke Of York com
planned Of it as an infraction of hi