The postage of letters was made so cheap, that all people can write to their friends as often as they like. Railroads were made everywhere, even, as you know, under the streets of London. Electric telegraphs were invented, and made to carry messages to almost every part of the world, not only overland, but even across the bed of the seas. Most ships are now made of iron instead of wood, and by the help of steam are able to cross the seas to America and to go round the world; and railways have been made in almost every country upon the earth. The Thames Tunnel was finished and opened; the Royal Exchange, which had been burnt down, was re-built, and opened by the Queen; the Great Exhibition, a vast house of glass half a mile long, was built at the suggestion of the Queen’s husband, the Prince Consort, and all the people of the world were invited to bring all the best things their countries could produce, and display them in it. The new Houses of Parliament, one of the grandest buildings in the world, have arisen; many new streets of splendid houses for the rich, and many new lodging-houses for working people have been made; and instead of burying dead people in churchyards in the middle of towns, cemeteries (that is, “sleeping places”) have been formed outside the towns for all people to be buried in. But what I think the most useful of all are the improvements made in _printing_ books and newspapers. Great machines have been invented to print several thousand of sheets of paper in an hour. New materials have been used for making paper. Besides this, the taxes have been taken off paper and newspapers; so that I can now buy a newspaper for one penny, for which I used to pay seven-pence half-penny when I was little Arthur’s age. I might tell you a great deal more about the taxes that have been taken off all manner of necessary and useful things, and how we have now bread and tea and coffee and sugar and salt and spice and wine, and bricks and timber and glass, and gloves and boots and silks and ribands, and even toys, and many other things, much cheaper because they are not taxed. And yet the Government has plenty of money, because the people can better afford to pay other taxes. This work of lightening the burdens of the people was begun after the battle of Waterloo, when the great Duke of Wellington was Prime Minister to George the Fourth. Indeed, more taxes were taken off in the ten years before the Reform Bill than in the twenty years after it. I must now tell you a few sad things which have happened in this reign.