The nineteenth volume of the above-named standard work, lately published, contains an article headed "Postage Stamps," in which my late father is fully recognised as having been the inventor of the adhesive postage stamp. It is well known that the articles in this work are drawn up by learned experts upon the respective subjects dealt with, having access to and being in the habit of consulting official and historical documents, and edited under a strong sense of responsibility to the high standing of the work itself and to history; so that it is with unspeakable satisfaction that I now find myself enabled to produce from such a quarter an emphatic recognition of my father's services in connection with the great boon of Penny Postage reform. This article, so far as it deals with the origin of the adhesive stamp, is as follows; but in considering same it should be borne in mind that the article was drawn up _before_ the discovery of Mr. Chalmers' plan amongst the papers of the late Sir Henry Cole, with the consequent proofs given in the last chapter as to Mr. Chalmers having taken the initiative in urging the adoption of this stamp, not only to Members of the Select Committee of the House of Commons of 1837-38, but to Mr. Rowland Hill himself, long before Mr. Hill, in his paper of 1839 (see _ante_, page 21), gave in his adhesion to that plan in conjunction with his own:-- "POSTAGE STAMPS.--For all practical purposes the history of postage stamps begins in the United Kingdom, and with the great reform of its postal system in 1839-40." After giving instances in which the _impressed_ stamp had been in use, or had been suggested for postal purposes in this country and elsewhere, the article proceeds:--"Finally, and in its results most important of all, the 'adhesive stamp' was made, experimentally, in his printing-office at Dundee, by Mr. James Chalmers, in August, 1834.[11] These experimental stamps were printed from ordinary type, and were made adhesive by a wash of gum. Their inventor had already won local distinction in matters of postal reform by his strenuous and successful efforts, made as early as in the year 1822, for the acceleration of the Scottish mails from London. Those efforts resulted in a saving of forty-eight hours on the double journey, and were highly appreciated in Scotland. There is evidence that from 1822 onwards his attention was much directed towards postal questions, and that he held correspondence with the postal reformers of his day both in and out of Parliament. It is also plain that he was more intent upon aiding public improvements than upon winning credit for them. He made adhesive stamps in 1834, and showed them to his neighbours, but took no step for publicly recommending their adoption by the Post Office until long after such a recommendation had been published--although very hesitatingly--by the author of the now famous pamphlet entitled 'Post Office Reform.'[12] Mr.