This proves that it would be well for us, notwithstanding the sources from which it is derived, to adopt the practice introduced half a century ago on the other side of the Channel, of prosecuting only one reform at a time. It is slow, it is wearisome; but it leads to some result. Here we have a dozen reforms on the anvil at the same time. They hustle one another, like the ghosts at the Gate of Oblivion, where no one enters. "Ohimè! che lasso Î Una a la volta, per carità." Here is what Jacques Bonhomme said, in a dialogue with John Bull, and it is worth being reported:-- Jacques Bonhomme, John Bull. Jacques Bonhomme: Oh! who will deliver me from this hurricane of reforms? My head is in a whirl. A new one seems to be invented every day: university reform, financial reform, sanitary reform, parliamentary reform, electoral reform, commercial reform, social reform, and, last of all, comes postal reform! John Bull: As regards the last, it is so easy and so useful, as we have found by experience, that I venture to give you some advice upon the subject. Jacques: We are told that postal reform has turned out ill in England, and that the Exchequer has lost half a million. John: And has benefited the public by ten times that sum. Jacques: No doubt of that. John: We have every sign by which the public satisfaction can be testified. The nation, following the lead of Sir Robert Peel and Lord John Russell, have given Rowland Hill, in true British fashion, substantial marks of the public gratitude. Even the poorer classes testify their satisfaction by sealing their letters with wafers bearing this inscription: "Public gratitude for postal reform." The leaders of the Anti-Corn-Law League have proclaimed aloud in their place in Parliament that without cheap postage thirty years would have been required to accomplish their great undertaking, which had for object the removal of duties on the food of the poor. The officers of the Board of Trade have declared it unfortunate that the English coin does not admit of a still greater reduction! What more proofs would you have? Jacques: But the Treasury? John: Do not the Treasury and the public sail in the same boat? Jacques: Not quite. And then, is it quite clear that our postal system has need to be reformed? John: That is the question. Let us see how matters now stand. What is done with the letters that are put into the post-office? Jacques: The routine is very simple. The postmaster opens the letter-box at a certain hour, and takes out of it, say, a hundred letters. John: And then? Jacques: Then he inspects them one by one. With a geographical table before him, and a letter-weigher in his hand, he assigns each letter to its proper category, according to weight and distance. There are only eleven postal zones or districts, and as many degrees of weight. John: That constitutes simply 121 combinations for each letter.