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dispose of 3,500,000 pounds' worth of goods annually in the American market. Certainly not the humble folk who keep up correspondence with sons and brothers living under the Stars and Stripes. The first year's cost would be a comparative trifle, but the rapid ensuing multiplication of correspondence would in a short time raise the postage receipts to the present total. For there is here no costly land transit to pay for. An Anglo-Fhench Union. So far the entente cordiale has produced a certain quantity of speeches, more or less eloquent, and some excellent music by the band of the Garde liepublicaine. Has not the time arrived for establishing an object-lesson of a more solid character 1 Let us have one that will touch the imagination of the dullest, that will benefit equally trading Britain and thrifty Gaul, that will be familiar in every home, and repeated in every transaction of international commerce and travel. Advance Australia. At this moment the Postmasters-General of Australia (Mr. Austin Chapman) and New Zealand (Sir J. G. Ward) are on their way to attend the Postal Union Congress to be held in Rome. Their mission is to ask, on behalf of Australasia, for universal penny postage, the motion for which will be proposed by Sir J. G. Ward and supported by Mr. Chapman. It is natural that the " Great Lone Land," isolated in the pathless ocean from the sister States of civilisation, should plead for the means of closer and more frequent intercourse with them. It is gratifying to know (Lord Cromer will be proud of it) that the appeal is to be backed by Egypt, which we remember a helpless prey to Ismael, Arabi, and the Mahdi in turn, and which is now one of the most prosperous, and, from a postal point of view, most progressive, countries in the world. But the view of Englishmen will undoubtedly be that expressed by the Dean of Norwich in the eloquent letter appended: " The great England of to-day should set this matter going. . . . W T e should not suffer this honour to be won by any other power on earth." We look to you to table the proposal, and if it be for the moment unacceptable this wide Empire of ours can well afford to be, not for the first time on great questions, in a minority on the council of the nations. At the Congress. The probability—let us say the certainty—that many States would object is no reason for hanging back. On every conceivable ground —bscause our mails are the heaviest; because England is the pioneer and torch-bearer of postal reform j because we have already almost worldwide penny postage —the first, as well as the last, word is with us. I, for one, am confident that the gifted and accomplished dialecticians on the Secretary's staff would be more than competent to defend the universal penny rate on its merits. The bigoted foreign official's mind is like the pupil of the eye: the more light we pour on it the more it contracts. But one may suspect his opposition to be based on the foolish fear that the reduction would benefit England almost exclusively; or, in the case of France and Italy, that the existing exorbitant railway transit charges would be cut down. An Alternative. Let us assume, however, that England's magnanimous offer of the penny rate is misunderstood and rejected. Following what is likely to be classical strategy in face of a stout resistance en bloc, we can still secure universal penny postage '.' by instalments." We may regret the aloofness of Persia or Turkey, but we may console ourselves by arranging restricted Unions with the United States, France, Germany, Japan, and a goodly number of minor States, such as Belgium, Holland, and Denmark. The knowledge that you are prepared to take such action if necessary may induce the Congress to grant the request of New Zealand, and in any event such a declaration on your part would but anticipate near history. For cheap postal communication between two friendly peoples is now as inevitable as it is between the oceans separated by an isthmus. The " Foreigner " Argument. It may be confidently assumed that you are not likely to sympathize with the objection to an extension of the benefits of Imperial penny postage to "foreigners." As is pointed out in the enclosed copies of my letter to the Times, the extension must benefit both senders and receivers of letters; and the "foreigners" include more millions of British blood in the United States than there are in all our colonies. On this question of the untaxed exchange of thought lam a free-trader. If penny-postage facilitates commerce with British possessions it cannot fail to stimulate commerce with foreign countries. Roles reversed. In this connection may I draw your attention to the striking contrast between the recent attitude of your Department and that of the Egyptian Post Office? When Imperial penny postage ■was established between this country and Egypt, certain notices were issued on either side which I have set out in parallel columns, as taken from the Times of Dec. 6th, 1905.