It is a noteworthy fact that nowhere in the Press or among public men had the thought apparently occurred that anything would be done in this way while Australia held out against the Penny Post, and the first outside thought of the partial adoption of the system came with the Duke's official announcement of it, und the Duke made haste to proclaim the terial intention before the Press and the outside world should have time to make the suggestion.
A GREAT COMMITTEE, In several ways this is one of those weeks which loom large, and will put a great. responsibility upon' the historian by and by. On Wednesday I found myself invited to Stafford House, to the inaugural meeting of the promotors of what promises to be a great and far-reaching movement—that of the Anglo-American Committee.
was, one may' perhaps he pardoned for feeling, an honour to be on the list of invita-sto that gathering of dignitaries and distinguished personages of all degrees, since the occasion was not open to mere journalists as such, and reports of the proceedings—except an official report drawn up by the Secretaries—were interdicted. On this Provisional Committee list—and none were asked to go whose names were not on that list—there were two Orel shops, one Cardinal, twenty-three Bishops, five Dukes (including a grandson-in-law of the Queen), four' Marquises, eleven Earls, one Field-Marshal, and an appalling show of Pri Baronets, Knights, M. Ps.
Deans, Canons, Doctors of Divinity, distinguished authors and artists, Lord Mayors and Mayors, and the like. And our business was to cultivate international friendship with the people of the great Republic of the West.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.