Issued in Sardinia, 1818: the earliest use of Letter Sheets with embossed stamps.] The next proposal of stamped covers the historian has to note, is that embodied in a Bill introduced in the Swedish Riksdag, March 3, 1823, by Lieutenant Curry Gabriel Treffenberg. His proposals included: "Stamped paper of varying values, to be used as wrappers for letters, should be introduced and kept for sale in the cities by the Chartæ Sigillatæ deputies, or by other persons appointed for that purpose by the General Chartæ Sigillatæ Office at Stockholm, and in the rural districts, by the sheriffs and other private persons." Private persons were to be granted the privilege of selling these "Postage Charts" by the local officials representing the Crown authorities on obtaining proper security. The actual proposals for the distinguishing character of the stamped covers were:-- "The Postage Charts should be made of the size of an ordinary letter sheet, but without being folded lengthwise as these are. The paper should be strong but not coarse, and in order to make forgery more difficult, should contain a circular design, easy to discover. It should also be of some light colour. "In the centre of the paper two stamps should be impressed side by side, occupying together a space of six square inches. One of the stamps should be impressed into the paper and the other should be printed with black ink. Both should contain, besides the value of the Chart, some suitable emblem which would be difficult to imitate. The assortment of values should be made to meet all requirements." The letters were to be folded so that the stamps would be outside, and so easily cancelled or otherwise marked if required; and in the case of the despatch of packets too large to enclose within a chart, the latter could be cut down, preserving the stamped portion, which was to be sent along with the packet, both packet and chart bearing marks by which the two could be identified and associated in the course of the post. The Bill did not pass the Riksdag, and so Sweden was deprived of the national credit of giving a lead to the nations of the world in a postage-stamp system, not very different in principle from that of Great Britain in 1840. [Illustration: THE HIGHEST DENOMINATION, 50 CENTESIMI, OF THE SARDINIAN LETTER SHEETS.] [Illustration: ONE OF THE TEMPORARY ENVELOPES ISSUED FOR THE USE OF MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS, PRIOR TO THE ISSUE OF STAMPS AND COVERS TO THE PUBLIC, 1840.]