while a huge basket of letters is borne in by a sturdy porter.
The Postmaster-General: It is satisfactory to know that the annual profits of the British Post Office exceed five millions sterling. It has occurred to me to ask you for a list of the requirements and grievances of the public.
The Secretary: We have been forced to grant over fifty so-called reforms during the past twenty years. What is the result? Here are a bundle of letters asking for at least fifty more!
P.M.-Gen.: What is that in your hand?
Sec.: Another long lecture from the hon. member for Canterbury, urging us to institute universal penny postage, and to purchase the cables for the State. He says there is intense feeling in commercial circles on both subjects, and declares that the attitude of the department will sooner or later be recognized as one of criminal neglect; that in this crisis in our economic history the Post Office is strangling every nascent industry, and facilitating foreign competition; that we resemble the savages in the Pacific who cut down trees for the sake of the fruit, etc., etc.
P.M.-Gen.: That will do—I will reply to that myself. Give it me. Thank you. He will send our response to "The Times"; and your inexorable head-masterly style would be meat and drink to those ravening leader-writers.
Sec.: Here are two letters on which action should be taken. They reveal a gross evasion of the law. A New York lady says that all letters sent to her in Canada from England are redirected to her in the United States without extra charge. It is one penny postage from Canada to the United States, so that she
