Nothing can be more ridiculous than the contrast between the English and French mail coaches. The French post waggons are huge unwieldy machines, drawn by cart horses, harnessed with ropes and moving at a slow pace, their arrival is nevertheless always announced by tremendous cracks of whips. When this is compared with the smart dress and cheerful horns of our coachmen and guards, the elegant neatness and convenience of our mail coaches, the beauty of our horses, and the expedition with which they are received and despatched to pursue their different routes almost to a minute, it is impossible not to feel a proud opinion of the “little nation of shopkeepers” as the _Master of the Earth_ is pleased to call the inhabitants of our islands. I shall conclude this account of the Post Office with observing first, from official documents on my table, that I could sail with a light wind to Jamaica before a letter in France would arrive at some of the cross posts in the Interior. For instance, between Bourges and Sancerre, in the Department of Cher, there is at present no communication. Between Orleans and Montargis, in the Department du Loiret, there is no established mode of correspondence. But the Prefect hopes later to accomplish the matter by putting a tax on all the inhabitants. There is no communication between Langagne and Genvielhac, in the Department of Lozère; none between Roquefort and Bordeaux, in the Lower Pyrenees, although the merchants of Pau have proved it would be a shorter route than through Toulouse. In the Eastern Pyrenees the correspondence of the Department with that of the Department of Aude takes up five days; it should be done in one. The most egregious villainies having been perpetrated in the Department of the _Haut Rhin_, it has been thought _wise, prudent, and politic to suspend the postal arrangements there altogether_. Unless letters addressed to Ministers and officers of the Government are _prepaid_, they will never reach their destination. The Ministers make an annual charge of postage, and cabbage the difference. At first sight this perquisite may seem trivial for the fingers of an officer of State. But these officers are Ministers who have their fortunes to make. Hence every little helps. It should seem that circumstances, times, places, persons, things are of more importance in France than elsewhere. This was a common mania under the old Government, but _it_ had the great resources of commerce, arts, and the wants of a great number of rich proprietors, who, unhappily, have now, with arts and commerce, been destroyed. Nevertheless, the opinion still prevails that the Government can command the harvest, and compel persons to sell and buy.