The Post Office of Fifty Years Ago. (Cassell and Co.)—Of
the many books springing out of the Queen's Jubilee, this, though one of the cheapest and least pretentious, is . by no means one
of the least valuable or interesting. After giving a vivid sketch of the condition of postal communication fifty years ago, and the incon-
venience and even misery, as well as loss of revenue, resulting from the high rates of postage then in force, it describes the beginnings of the present system, a system which has contributed as much as any other influence of the age to the great advance in commercial prosperity and general enlightenment which has marked the present reign. The story of Sir Rowland Hill's gallant fight for his scheme of a uniform penny postage throughout the Kingdom, the shabby treatment to which he was for a time subjected, and his ultimate triumph and reward, is well told, and an opportunity is afforded to the reader of studying the great postal reformer's proposals exactly as put forth in his pamphlet published in February, 1837. The pamphlet was well worth reprinting, if only as a model of close arga- went and clear arrangement of details, and will repay a careful perusal. We can confidently recommend this little book, all profits on the sale of which, we observe, are devoted to a Post Office charity, —the Rowland Hill Benevolent Fend.
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