postage on which was somewhat reduced and made a uniform rate in 1835. In the course of four years after this reduction,

have done, that journal might be kept afloat, and perhaps rendered a little profitable. The witness has no doubt he should pay a vast deal more for postage than he does now; it would be worth his while to do so, as he would get so much value for it.

Mr. MATTHEW CLARK is one of a firm which, acting both as receivers upon consignment of foreign wines and spirits, and as brokers to foreign houses who receive upon consignment, sells one-thirteenth part of the 154,000 casks of foreign wines and spirits which are entered annually for home consumption in this country. The wine and spirit trade was for many years in the hands of wholesale houses of large capital, who trusted the country dealers at long credit, and charged a considerable profit. His firm, instead of limiting themselves to the wine and spirit trade of London, have sent circulars throughout the country, giving advice of the nature and source of supply, the state of the vintage, the prospects of the year, and of reduction. One occasion for issuing these circulars is immediately on the making up the official accounts of the annual consumption of wine and spirits in the country. Critical periods in the progress of the vegetation of the vine on the Continent present other occasions for doing so. If, in consequence of a severe frost, the vintage is in a very uncertain state, those who hold articles, the produce of the grape, will act on their knowledge of that fact; and many, on hearing of it, will be inclined to speculate: deep and large interests are at such times involved; both those who hold stock, and those who have to supply themselves, are affected. Every variation in this trade should be brought within the knowledge of every dealer; and he should have the best information that can be supplied to him. The consequence of issuing these circulars has been, to bring their firm into contact with the retail dealer in the country, who is now placed close to the source of supply, and obtains his wine and spirits without that profit he was accustomed to pay to the wholesale middle house. They were the first who attempted this; and their advices to the dealer have been so much founded in fact, and the dealer has so much confidence in them, that he is glad to receive their circulars, and willingly pays postage. Of these circulars they issue annually about 1400.

That which now restrains the 26 other brokers in the wine and spirit market from doing the same thing, is, that on going into it, not having to the same extent the confidence of the dealers, they would have to pay postage, which, on a single circular, would amount to 401. or 50%. One cannot get to those men without travelling, or without paying postage. If the postage were reduced to 1d., there is not a broker in London, either in the wine and spirit department or in any other branch of commerce, who would not issue letters throughout the country. This would occasion a very considerable increase of competition and correspondence. There is a certain quantity of wine and spirits consumed: each person endeavours to get the major part of that business. Were the restraint of postage taken away, the other brokers would endeavour to get into the country business, and would immediately come in contact with his firm. He is quite sure that his position would be attacked in that way. The moment his firm found they were to meet with competitors, they would send out circulars; and, in order to hold their ground, they must do it extensively, and often; and if that would not do, oftener. had, at first, a strong impression that this would be injurious to him individually; he is not clear now that it would not be injurious to him; but he does not think his firm would be pressed to the extent he at first conceived; but it would make them the more active; and having pre-occupied the ground, they must use double diligence to keep it. Assuming that the 26 brokers in their market were to issue only annual circulars, that would immediately occasion 35,000 circulars a year. This would probably lead to their being issued more frequently; and he would not wonder to see them sent out weekly; and this would amount to 1,800,000 circulars a year. Besides the brokers, there are in the wine and spirit trade a

He

ship-letters had increased nearly fourfold, as shown by the following return:

A return of the number of Ship-letters which have been sent out of the Kingdom through the Post-Office, received and made up by the Post-masters of Liverpool and Hull, in the five years ending 5th January, 1838.

A reversed case, showing how an enhanced price lessened the number of letters, is seen in the London Penny Post, which existed so recently as 1801. The number of letters in that year at a penny was 9,221,280; but when the penny was raised to twopence, the number of letters in the year following sunk to 6,587,160.

Analogous cases, proving that cheapness provokes increased consumption, might be brought forward without number.

The consumption of soap increased one-third, when its price fell about one-eighth only.

In 1783 the duty on coffee was eighteen-pence per pound, and the revenue derived 28697. 10s. 10d. In 1784 the duty was reduced to sixpence, and the revenue ascended to 72001. 158. 9d., or nearly threefold.

The extent to which cheapness in this article affected the consumption is shown in the following table:

great many little sub-agents, wine-coopers, who are getting a livelihood by their care and pains, and who, in case the postage were reduced to the rate of 1d., would, by pushing forwards their information, and forcing themselves into attention and employment, be brought within the reach of the consumers throughout England. This, it appears to him, would produce a great revolution in their trade. There would, probably, be no more drunk, but the competition would be so urgent, as to make it somewhat inconvenient. The public would be benefited by being supplied at a cheaper rate.

The witness frequently sends samples off, and frequently, at the desire of the parties, puts letters containing the particulars into the sample-boxes. The parties would like to receive the letters by post, to know what was coming. The samples are not uncommonly delayed, and sometimes meet with an accident: then the information is delayed also. This would not happen if the postage were lowered.

The treasurer of the city of Edinburgh, a cotton manufacturer, adduced to the Committee an instance in his own business, in which a reduction in the price of a very trifling article produced an enormous increase in the quantity sold. The article was common tapes and shoe-ties; a new mode of manufacturing them of cotton instead of flax, reduced the price from a penny to a halfpenny a yard. And "although,” says the witness, "it is not easy to see how parties would use "more shoe-ties or tapes merely because they were cheap, yet "it is an undoubted fact that this reduction increased the quan"tity sold at least from ten- to twenty-fold."

It is said that the public admission to the Tower exhibitions, lately reduced from 68. to 3s., has increased the number of visitors from 9000 to 34,000, in a corresponding period of time. And a still stronger case is shown by the reduction of the postage, which is reported to have taken place between Nailsworth and Stroud, from 4d. to 1d., and to have realized a fourfold increase of letters. We pray Lord John Russell's attention to this fact, when the cabinet determines its course on the uniform Penny Postage.

But it is high time our article was closed; though we have said nothing about the other improvements involved in Mr. Hill's plan :-payment in advance, by means of stamps ;-increased deliveries of letters;-or the gradation of charge by weight. The reader will find all we could say on these subjects better said than we could say it, in the very admirable report of the Select Committee, to which we refer him as one of the most convincing Parliamentary documents ever issued. To the justice, possibility and profit of a uniform Penny Postage we have mainly confined our attention, and we are confident that our article has fairly led to the same triumphant

conclusion as the Parliamentary Report*. We cordially agree with an excellent paper in the Morning Chronicle, that the Report relieves the Chancellor of the Exchequer of all anxieties about revenue, and unless he can convince the public that the Report is at fault, he has no option about adopting it.

Never was a financial experiment of such glorious promise attended with so little risk of failure. But the experiment must be made in an honest spirit. We dread the blunderings of the Post-Office functionaries, and gladly indeed we believe would the public entrust its Post-Office to better heads. The Post-Office opposition, in this case, is just a repetition of its conduct when William Pitt, on Palmer's advice, caused the mails to start regularly at one hour, to travel eight instead of three miles an hour, and to carry a guard. The Colonel Maberlys of that day pronounced Palmer's scheme,— as Colonel Maberly of this day pronounces Rowland Hill's, -"preposterous and absurd;" but William Pitt listened to common sense, and not to the Colonel Maberlys of 1784. May we hope that Mr. Spring Rice will follow Mr. Pitt's example? Nothing less should be accepted than the entire plan of a Uniform Penny Post. We ought to prefer even the present system to a mere reduction, too small to check smuggling, or materially increase correspondence, which therefore would be a dead loss to the revenue, requiring to be made up by other taxes, and the failure of which would be triumphantly quoted as the failure of the principles of a uniform penny postage.

*The evidence of all but some Post-Office functionaries is decidedly favourable to these changes. The effect of the adoption of Mr. Hill's plan in the details of the management of the Post-Office department would be, to use the words of Sir Edward Lees, secretary to the post-office at Edinburgh, (an honourable exception to most of his official brethren,) [Appendix to Report 11., p. 35.] "that considerable time would be saved in the delivery of letters; the expenses in almost every branch of the department, but principally in the Inland and Letter-carrier offices, much reduced; the complex accounts of the Bye and Dead-letter Offices greatly simplified, and the expenses greatly diminished;-that the system of accounts between the Deputy Postmasters, which presents so many opportunities and facilities for combination and fraud, would disappear; the labour and responsibility of surveyors be curtailed; a system of complex and intricate duty, inseparable from the existing nature of the country part of the Post-Office, give way to one of simplicity and uniformity; and the entire principle and machinery of the Post-Office be changed in its character, greatly contributing to the security, comfort, and advantage of the community, in its connexion with the public correspondence."

ARTICLE VI.

Speeches of Henry Lord Brougham, etc. Edinb.: 1839.

OUR account of these four large volumes must necessarily be partial and incomplete; for the period during which these speeches have been delivered extends nearly through the present century, and embraces almost every point of English and European history. To discuss each speech properly, perhaps the reviewer should write a volume, where the orator has only produced a few pages: for vast as the latter's genius and labours are, great as have been his services, and keen as are often his views regarding the events and circumstances of his own time, we suspect that there are very few who would be disposed to take his ideas for their own, and to believe implicitly in his story. Lord Brougham's exploits in literature, law and politics have been chiefly those of a partizan; and as he has had, to our thinking, too strong a wit and too weak a character to allow him to enter the foremost rank of great men of his time, he has likewise too great a vanity and too small a principle to be its historian. You may hope from such a person much brilliancy of remark, and occasional truth; for his genius is great, and his heart good and generous in the main but the entire truth cannot be expected from him. Much of it he cannot see, and much he does not choose to tell. Ceaseless puffs of spleen ruffle the surface of his mind, and distort the proportions of the images reflected in it. His vanity is employed in making perpetual excuses for his principle, and thus it continually thwarts his genius. While the one is wide and kindly, the other is meanly uneasy and jealous; as is commonly the case, of the two adverse principles the latter is the more active; and as we have often seen in marriages, how a wise man will give himself abjectly over to the guidance of a shrew, Lord Brougham's wisdom is perpetually at the feet of his vanity, which in the contests between them is pretty sure to have the last word.

In truth the defects which we have here at the outset deemed it our duty to notice, are common to many besides the author of the volumes before us; and the reader in his study of historical characters has doubtless examined most of them,