The climate of Central Africa is of course exceedingly trying to the white man, and there is a rather well-known story of the English applicant for a Central African postmastership asking the Colonial Office what were the arrangements as to pension. And he received the gruesome reply that the question had not yet arisen. In an old country like England, where vested interests oppose the reformer at every step he takes, where conservative influences dominate all classes, the individual statesman can achieve comparatively little. Go to a new country and you will find a different state of things. Even in the adoption of modern conveniences and scientific improvements, the colonies are often ahead of the mother country. And this is mainly due to the fact that in these countries precedent has not been elevated to the position of a divine commandment. It was therefore only to be expected, that the first move towards making Imperial Penny Postage an accomplished fact should come from the colonies, and it was natural, and in accordance with the law which seems to govern these things, that the old country should have been only too willing to hold to the old ways so long as it was possible for her to do so with dignity. To the Hon. William Mulock, K.C., Postmaster-General of Canada in 1898, belongs the credit of having forced the hand of Great Britain. While Great Britain was considering the matter, his Government announced that on and from a certain date one penny would be the charge for letters weighing two ounces from Canada to Great Britain. For other colonies to follow suit was then only a matter of time, and in fact they very soon adopted the new policy. It was the year following the Diamond Jubilee that saw the great change: there had been created in people's minds the sense of the oneness of the British Empire, and it was felt that the most tangible way of bringing this fact permanently home to the nation was in making 1d. the uniform charge to and from every country which gave allegiance to the British sovereign. To many minds there must be something wrong in the idea of the postage being 2½d. to Paris and 1d. to Quebec, but there was something which appealed to the imagination in even this distinction. It was the privilege of the British subject. Canada at that time was deriving no revenue from her Post Office; and it is a fact that nations in such circumstances seem more inclined to be liberal in Post Office matters than those which are making a profit out of the business. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: THE RIVER POSTMAN.] Numbers of letters have to be delivered to the various vessels anchored within the port of London, and the postman is seen here on one of his rounds. ------------------------------------------------------------------------