However, we pass over these minor and insignificant points, to come to the very serious misrepresentation which is embodied in the foot-note. If the reader will be so good as to read it again, he will see words, which, if they mean anything, mean that the number of newspapers circulating through the post was 25,000,000 less in 1855, than it was in 1854, the object being to show that although 3,000,000 of book packets were carried through the post in 1855, railways were not sufferers thereby, as these packets only formed one-eighth of the number of newspapers that had been withdrawn from postal circulation, owing to the abolition of the compulsory stamp duty. Now we know that in consequence of the reduction in 1836 of the Stamp Duty upon newspapers,[30] from nominal 4d. and real 3¼d. each, to 1d., the number posted had steadily increased each year. Therefore, if the assertion of the foot-note were correct, newspapers posted would have suddenly fallen, in 1855, to 46,000,000, that is to only 1,500,000 more than they were in 1839; yet at page 19 of the identical Second Report, it is stated that 71,000,000 of newspapers were posted in 1855. Thus at page 15, to serve one purpose, figures are given which would show that only 46,000,000 were posted, but four pages farther, to serve another purpose, that of showing how postal business has increased, they are stated at 71,000,000. Let us now turn to the Third Report. At page 10, the number of newspapers transmitted through the post in 1856, is stated to be 71,000,000. If this statement be correct, it would show, either that the number transmitted in 1855 had in reality been about 71,000,000, or that, on the mechanical principle of action and reaction being equal and contrary, there had been a fall of 25,000,000 in 1855, and that precisely the same rise had taken place in 1856. This rise in one year would have to be considered all the more remarkable, inasmuch as the total number, not only of newspapers, but of _book post packets_ transmitted in 1865, was 97,250,000 according to one statement, 2,766 more according to another. Owing to the unceasing changes in the mode of imparting information to the public by means of the Postmaster-General’s reports, the number of newspapers, exclusive of book post packets, cannot be given, but, including these latter, there was, according to the Postmaster-General’s Twelfth Report, an increase of only 26,250,000 in ten years, as against an alleged fall of 25,000,000 in one year, and a recovery to the same amount in the next. We come now to deal with the Report, dated the 29th February, 1856, by Mr. Edward Page, an excellent officer within the limits of his duties as Inspector-General of Mails, as well as a courteous and agreeable gentleman. He is consequently much esteemed and respected.