at the communication between London | letters which pass through the Post-Office e radius of Carlisle is equal to that by are prepaid in money instead of in stamps! telegraph; for though it consumes As long as the choice of franking a letter by time, yet, the nation being sound either means continues to be culpably offered it is, practically speaking, time of no to the public, they cannot be reasonably blamed for acting as, on the whim or caprice ill be evident to our readers that in of the moment, they may feel inclined; and urnal ebbing and flowing system, by accordingly, although at all our great clubs, all the secret thoughts, feelings, and the porter in waiting is ready from morning ons of the British people are safely, till night to sell stamps to any member who , and confidentially imparted to each requires them, yet there are daily quantities the pulsations of London must neces- of persons who, brimful and half asleep, ffect the whole of those simultaneous will sit down to write notes merely to get rid sverse transmissions of letters through- of the vulgar rattling of some halfpence in e country by cross mails, commonly their coat-pockets. Now the mischief to the cross posts;" for as a main object of community and the expense to the country ubsidiary arrangements is to convey of prepaying letters, requires, we believe, ags from all points to the arterial only to be fairly stated to be at once rems, it is of course necessary that their edied. at the various stations thereon should, 1. Every person who prepays a letter, not t of time, be so arranged as to corres- only creates a temptation for his clerk, for his with the passage up or down of the servant, or for his postmaster to pocket the nd trains with which they are respect- money and destroy the letter, but, from the docproceed; and yet, self-evident as is ument not reaching its address, he inflicts upon cessity, a portion of the public have, the Postmaster-General the trouble, and upon ral instances, considered themselves the community the cost, of making for many ly aggrieved, because the Postmaster- weeks, and occasionally for many months, a 1, notwithstanding their numerously- series of searching inquiries which, though petitions, has declined to order the of course ineffectual, but too often end in ostmasters to despatch their bags at leaving suspicion on some postmaster who is which, though undeniably more con- innocent; indeed, in the Secretarial Departto particular localities, would disturb ment, in which sixty clerks are employed, a ally organized circulation of vital im-large portion of the business consists in ane, in which the smallest obstruction swering complaints of the non-arrival of preulsion would produce very serious paid letters.* very unwillingly, we must now briefly series of petitions of much graver nee. AYMENT.-Judging from the returns ed to Parliament, it may be stated the million of letters which on an are daily transmitted through the ice, about 65 per cent. are franked ps, about 30 per cent. prepaid in and 5 per cent. unpaid.* Dears, therefore, that although stamps purchased with the greatest facility, ists on the part of a portion of the either a prejudice or a ris inertia lamentably induces them to neglect , that very nearly one-third of the however, of the latter, 3 per cent. are for "communications, a large proportion of e not even permitted to be prepaid, it is hat the trifling fine imposed on unpaid let 2. Even when the letters and their satellite pennies are faithfully brought to the windows of the Post-Office, there is often created confusion and disorder highly discreditable to our postal system. In large cities, and especially in London, the pressure for prepayment is often so rude, that money and letters forced from the hands of their owners have repeatedly been picked up from beneath the crowd that has been trampling upon them. At times the impatient group in attendance is obliged to wait until, at nearly the very last moment, the windowclerk can weigh, calculate, and charge the proper amount of postage on ten or twelve bundles of " circulars" of the dullest description, brought by one man. Then again the angry crowd are detained by the altercations and occasional imprecations of a powerful virtuous woman who is insisting on * Of "missing letters," one was stated by the requiring change for a sovereign in payment | surely admit that the general benefi of the postage of a penny letter! on. 3. Supposing even that, notwithstanding the confusion above described, all the letters presented can be duly prepaid, there remain. fiscal and moral evils of great magnitude. For instance, it becomes necessary for every postmaster, especially in the country, to close his office upon the public sooner than would otherwise be required, in order to have time enough to sort and tie up all prepaid letters in a separate bundle, accompanying it with an account in which he acknowledges that he has received the amount of postage thereOn the arrival from all parts of the United Kingdom of all the mail-bags in the London Office, each of these bundles of letters and each of these accounts have to be compared together to see that the postmaster has charged himself with enough. The accounts have then to be sent to the Accountant-General's office, in order that the amounts due, may in his ledger, be separately carried to the debit of every postmaster. This process has to be repeated not only at every dispatch of letters to the metropolis, but to every other town to which a bag is made up. In London, the Post-Office has in its service officers of high character who honorably prevent any fraud on the revenue, but between two provincial offices the same securities cannot be obtained; in truth, they only check each other! We most earnestly recommend, as an effectual cure for the evils we have just mentioned, that the Treasury should, without delay, under the powers vested in it by Parliament, authorize the Postmaster-General to charge 3d. for, the prepayment of every single letter; for as it is quite as easy to buy a postage stamp as paper, pens, ink, sealing wax, and wafers, a portion of the public are not justified in not only bringing discredit upon a great national undertaking, but unnecessarily embarrassing and demoralizing the servants of the Post-Office; and, at all events, such as from whim, inclination, or accident may wish to be permitted to do so, cannot reasonably complain if, in declining to fall into the rules necessary for the wellworking of the new system, they are required to pay rather less than one-half of the average postage of the old one. In short, as there exists, we believe, no doubt whatever in the minds of any who are conversant with the working of the Post-Office that the postage we have named would effectually put a infinitely exceed the grievance of a tional twopence, occasionally inflicte indolent or improvident portion of the A postage-stamp is a new coin realm expressly devised for the prep of letters; " 'and," said an Irishman scribing it to his mate," the only di I can see between it and a donkey the one you lick with a stick, and the you stick with a lick!" ET TRANSMISSION OF SOVEREIGNS, POST.-There exists another very abuse, by a small portion of the comm of the advantages of the penny postag tem, which we trust will, without del corrected. Under the old system of charges, especially on inclosures, it of did not practically answer to send gol silver coin by post. As soon, howev the public were allowed to forward p to any portion of the United Kingdom rate only of 2d. per ounce, the pract sending metallic money was at first tho lessly and then recklessly adopted; an cordingly gold and silver, from having most carelessly packed, have repeatedly found at the bottom of the bags in quantities, that in one year there were p up in the London office alone, in sover and silver that had escaped out of le no less than £62 8s. 6d. In one ca man who had stuffed £4 17s. 6d., loose an envelope, very bitterly complained at of his sovereigns having fallen out! Postmaster-General, by printed Noti over and over again remonstrated with public; his recommendations, however, not only unheeded, but the windowwho obediently repeated them, were o sionally insulted. "Oh!" said a n sneeringly, only the other day to one of t gentlemen, who was earnestly advising not to send by post a letter evidently o taining a sovereign, and which he insisted prepaying, "if You will let it alone, it go safe enough!"-implying that if he not steal it, no one else would. But t alas! is not the case. The books of the partment contain a long and most affect list of the names of active, intelligent sort and letter-carriers who have proved unal to resist a temptation to which, as N Charles Dickens in his masterly sketch Valentine's day at the Post-Office has wi great truth and feeling observed, they oug 1. ly resting upon many innocent men, | bring upon himself by such a frolic is infiequence of the immense number of such nitely less than those we have enumerated. es that have not yet been detected. these evils before the mind, there ely exist no doubt that-inasmuch as da safe and ready means for conveyll sums BY POST to all parts of the Kingdom, there has been expressly hed that enormous and extensive system," the Money-Order Departwhich we have already described, small fraction of the community ought opposition to the remonstrances of ajesty's Postmaster-General, to the ization of the servants of the Postand to the discredit of a new system, the interests of all classes of society olved, to be allowed any longer to broadcast over the country, sovecrown-pieces, half-crowns, shillings, ences, practically speaking, with little ncealment than a mere label, stating masters and letter-carriers, but too adequately paid, to whom they wish o be delivered. For the benefit, e, of the public in general and of the of the Post-Office in particular, we y recommend that any letter apparntaining gold or silver coin shall be ed by all postmasters to the London Department, to be opened at the etter Office, in order that the sender may be informed of the same, as also payment of an extra postage of one the money enclosed, and the letter tained it, will be delivered to him. it has gravely been said, "supposing nstead of a sovereign, chooses to send er by post a brass button?" Of a of evils, surely the trifling inconvewhich such a 66 "would wilfully LASTLY-If an additional postage of one penny per letter were to be charged to every person who prefers making the postman, or rather the public, wait until his servant shall think proper to open the door to receive a handful of prepaid letters, which could rapidly be dropped, exactly as they were posted, through a receiving slit into a tortuous receptacle, from which it would be impossible for any but the right person to extract them, the delivery of the correspondence of the country would be PERFECT. man We are no admirers of unreasonable, arbitrary measures; nevertheless there can be no doubt that by the new and startling experiment of penny postage, Parliament have induced the Governments of other countries to join with us in an attempt to lengthen and strengthen the pinions by which, under the blessing of the Almighty, the family of mankind now communicate with each other; and accordingly, in the United States of America the stamped head of Washington, in Belgium that of King Leopold, in France that of the Goddess of Liberty, already frank letters at moderate rates to every portion of their respective dominions; indeed, Russia and Spain have lately adopted a uniform rate of postage. As, therefore, the civilized nations of the globe are thus eagerly following our example, it is no less our interest than our duty, for their sakes as well as our own, that the system which we thought fit to originate, and from which no sane person can now dream of retreating, should be, in all possible respects, fairly, scientifically, and effectually developed. From Tait's Magazine. LOVE OVER THE WAY. y pretty neighbor's window-blind— I see it go and come; o doubt she's peeping there behind, To see if I'm at home. The fond and foolish jealousy, The pretty dear, I needs must own, Anecdote relative à M. de Laplace. Par M. J. B. BIOT. Journal des Sa Paris, 1850. M. BIOT has long held a very high place, possibly, since Monge, the highest place, among the mathematicians of France. But the scene of this short and interesting memoir is laid in his younger days, when he was wholly unknown, having become, from pupil in the Ecole Polytechnique, professor in the small college of Beauvais, at the age of 25 or 26. He then repaired to Paris principally with the view of making the acquaintance of the luminaries of the age, and acquiring new lights on his favorite geometrical science. He respectfully wrote a letter to Laplace, asking leave to see the sheets of the Mecanique Céleste, then going through the press: The great man received him as courteously as if he had been a person of known consideration, but politely refused his request on the ground that he was unwilling his work should be submitted to any one's judg. ment before it was in a finished state. The young aspirant replied that he was very far from the presumptuous thought of sitting in judgment, but only desired to profit by the instruction which the perusal would convey; and he offered to undertake the task of correcting the press, that is, of noting typographical errors. This humble urgency disarmed Laplace, and he acceded to Biot's wishes. This led to continued intercourse, and great was the benefit which thence flowed to the junior; for the frequent use of the expression, "It is easy to see" so and so, which was not so easy to see by less learned eyes, led to constant explication; and often the sage had forgotten himself the steps omitted, nor would take less than perhaps one hour to recover the lost thread of his investigation. Had all the blanks been filled up, M. Biot says, the Mécanique would to hit upon what he deemed a discove some importance in analytical science. memoir gives the outline, though in g terms, of the step thus made, and to he gave the name of equation of mixe ferences (aux differences mélées). He ca his work to Paris, and communicated Laplace, who read it with some surprise said, "This is a very good method, and have taken the proper mode of reso such questions directly; but I recom you not to carry it beyond a certain as you would there meet with diffic which the present resources of the sc do not enable us to surmount." After attempt at defending his own cours which Laplace was perfectly patient, yielded, and was told that he should day present his memoir to the Institute, after the sitting, dine with Laplace. "M while," said he, "let us go to breakf A very interesting account of the inter with Madame Laplace is then given; her conversation, with her general kind toward young scientific men, is so descr as to leave a most amiable impression of disposition and deportment. The sitting of the institute (then called Classe) came, and Biot explained his met upon the celebrated and venerable b board to the assembled members. Am them were Monge, his old master at Ecole Polytechnique, and Lagrange; bu was 1st Brumaire, An VIII. (Nov. 179 and General Bonaparte, ever fond of sho ing himself among mathematicians, also tended. Biot, however, confesses himsel have stood in more awe of the philosoph than of the conqueror, and that he sho have been alarmed still more at submitt Citizens Laplace, Bonaparte, and LaM. Biot went home to dine in Rue ine, and in the evening heard from his n approving comment on the manner ch he had performed his part at the Board. After saluting Madame Lahe was asked by the great man to folm into his study; he there opened a r, and took out a paper, dirty and yelith age, which, to the young geomes no small astonishment, contained his own supposed discovery, and also ed the author as having stopped short = point where he had been advised to stop. It was very natural that Ost unexpected communication should onflicting feelings in the young manappointment at finding he had been ated-the gratification to find that his essor was Laplace; but he seems not e felt, what nevertheless might have him, that Laplace's keeping his disso long secret rather indicated an unfavorable to its value; for it is not oubted that when Laplace hit upon hod, he had attained little of the cewhich he afterwards reached. We sorted to the memoir itself (Divers tom. i. p. 296), and we are of opinthe method is curious, and that it merit;, but we do not pretend to ne whether it was of great originalirtainly Euler in his "Memoirs on the method of Tangents" was on the ound; and the most profound and of analysts may have thrown out ng which seemed to anticipate the Be this as it may, Laplace's delicate proceeding can hardly be noticed much approbation. He added to gation conferred on M. Biot by refrom him the strictest secrecy; and anction has only now been violated - lapse of half a century had seemed by by prescription, he says, the force bligation. o's WORKS.--Arago announces that at last begin the printing of his long but not yet published works. His deeply shattered. When the Proovernment ceased to exist he was so at he could scarcely walk, but since pose has considerably recruited his but he does well to undertake the 97 We are, however, obliged to add that Laplace's conduct on other occasions was far from being so praiseworthy. No man, on the whole, seems to have been more slow to record the claims of others, or more ready to advance his own, when the question arose of scientific discovery. You may read the Mécanique Céleste, and hardly suppose tha t its author had any predecessor in either physical astronomy or dynamics, or even the calculus in general. D'Alembert, and Clairaut, and Lagrange are hardly mentioned; all is Laplace-nay, he even mentions the celebrated theorems which are familiarly known to all geometricians by the name of their authors, Maclaurin and Taylor, without any name at all! This has always been considered as a great stain on the memory of that illustrious man, and it is a stain which one such creditable anecdote as M. Biot has recorded in this interesting paper--or even a few such--never can wash away. He was, in truth, a great geometrician, and a little man. the Restoration government, as gravely anHis grief over the blindness of nounced to a friend of ours, because it had not made the whole peerage hereditary, he being one of the peers for life only, was almost comic; but what shall be said of his omitting the dedication to Napoleon in his second edition after the Emperor's downfall, when in his first he had had, the effrontery to avow that his statement of his patron's greatness was the truth he most cherished and esteemed in all the pages that it prefaced? Perhaps his vote on one important question, dividing his name, and putting La' in one column and Place' in the other, when the one meant Yes,' the other 'No,' exceeds in baseness all that the history of the littleness of great men has left in its not scanty records. It leaves us to apply to his character the jest of Napoleon upon the practical talents of his learned Minister of the Interior--that he had imported into affairs the infinitesimal spirit (des infiniment petits. ) |