Before the London General Omnibus Company was a year old it introduced the system of “correspondence,” which in Paris had proved profitable to the proprietors and convenient to the public. It was the Company’s idea that a passenger might be able to travel from any part of London to another for sixpence. The passenger would get into the omnibus starting from the neighbourhood in which he resided and ride in it until another of the Company’s omnibuses, going in the direction he wished to travel, crossed the road, when he would change into it. By that arrangement people were able to ride from Bow to Hammersmith or from Starch Green to Peckham for sixpence--a tremendous ride for the price, and cheaper than it is at the present day. The London General Omnibus Company was now increasing rapidly, by purchase and by starting new lines, the number of its omnibuses, and in November, 1857, when the “correspondence” system was at its height, it possessed five hundred and ninety-five on the roads. For these omnibuses, with horses, harness, and good will, the Company paid £400,000--nearly £700 per omnibus. With an increased number of omnibuses the advantages of “corresponding” became greater, and upwards of four thousand people daily showed their appreciation of the system by “corresponding” at the Company’s offices opened for that purpose in Oxford Circus, Cheapside, and Bishopsgate. “The system is only in its infancy,” the directors declared at that period, and promised that it would be improved greatly. Difficulties, however, arose in the working of the system, which, after a time, was discontinued, never to be tried again. While the London General Omnibus Company was giving the “correspondence” system a trial, it was making other attempts to win the favour of the public. On the first day of 1857 it began the sale of packets of omnibus tickets, allowing a reduction of ten per cent, on every purchase of £1, and so greatly was this innovation appreciated that on the inauguration day ten thousand tickets were sold at the Company’s Strand office alone. Later the sales increased considerably, and many linen-drapers in a large way of business purchased thousands of tickets at a time, and retailed them to their customers at a reduced rate. To ladies whose purchases reached a certain sum they presented tickets free of charge.