a district is ten miles from a Post Office, and is inhabited by a hundred cottagers, raising (as all would) produce. Clearly the rural postman who now accepts parcels would (even if trained by Sandow) be unequal to the task. But the postal van, or motor car, would convey everything to the station in time for the appointed train to the town of destination. On reaching that town the parcels would be delivered (if so addressed) to the depôt to be established there, or (if so addressed) to individual purchasers. In this way eggs, milk, butter, poultry, fruit, and flowers might be placed on our tables within four or five hours of leaving the farm of origin.

·

REGISTER OF CULTIVATORS

We may here deal with the objection formulated by Mr. Hanbury, that the Postmaster-General has no opportunity of judging how far each individual parcel contains agricultural produce.' The official mind evidently contemplates a kind of severe inspection, such as the Turkish Customs maintain for caricatures of the Sultan, and the Prussian Customs for Socialistic literature. It would be sufficient, however, to register the cultivators, each of whom would undertake in writing, under a penalty, to send only specified produce. He should then be supplied with books of printed and gummed labels with counterfoils giving a list of different articles of produce something like the following:

And now with respect to rates. The writer would recommend one penny per pound for the cash-on-delivery parcels, with a minimum of twopence for anything not over two pounds; and one halfpenny per pound, with a penny minimum, for parcels consigned to depôts, where the postal work is simply collection. These charges should be paid in adhesive stamps.

The maximum weight should be raised to one hundredweight (as in Germany), to be ultimately higher still. And here one should entreat the Post Office to have as few charges as possible, and to give the 'zone' system, so successful on the Continent, at least a fair trial. Unfortunately, the Post Office, as we know, has to pay fifty-five per cent. of the postage on railway-borne parcels to the companies. That bargain, however, comes to an end next year; and meanwhile the Post Office would pocket all the postage on the parcels sent to the nearest depôt by its motor-car service.

THE MODUS OPERANDI

It would be the duty of the keeper of a road depôt to stamp the date on label and counterfoil after seeing that they were similarly inscribed, in this case with (1) the figure 2 after the printed words 'fowls,' the figures 28. 6d. opposite collected,' and the name and address of Lord Hardcastle (all the rest would be printed). The counterfoil would be retained by the sender of the parcel, the corresponding label being on the parcel. It would now be sufficient if the postal collector, the depôt keeper, and any other official whom it is advisable to check, should simply sign on a printed form for '1' parcel of register '5318.' The parcel could thus be traced throughout its course without elaborate book-keeping. At stated intervals the depôt managers would remit by post payment, on production of counterfoils, for all parcels received, to each cultivator credited in their delivery books.

TWO KINDS OF BUYERS

As to collecting the price, it is well to observe that only a comparatively small class of well-to-do people would at first give orders directly to the cultivators. The masses in our great towns at present prefer to buy goods as required from the shop. There is also the middleman to be reckoned with; the long-established shopkeeper, who has a clan of children and first, second, and other cousins all married and settled near him. It would be advisable to institute the cash-on-delivery system, as extensively used on the Continent and in India, for the small class of direct purchasers. The postman bringing the parcel would receive the price, and this would be remitted by the Post Office to the sender.

With reference to other purchasers, it would be necessary to establish distributing depôts from which the shopkeepers would supply themselves, as they do from the markets.

Such depôts could be cheaply improvised from existing buildings.

Here, then, is a suggested tariff to begin with:

Now for the part the farmers have to play individually. They must see that the produce is perfectly fresh, of prime quality, and both carefully and honestly packed. A friend has made inquiries for me at Covent Garden and Leadenhall Market, and is assured that trickery is as rife among English as among foreign growers. On the other hand, there are cultivators with an established reputation whose produce commands an immediate sale and a higher price. Above all, let them eschew borax and similar abominations, which the swift working of the postal organisation will render superfluous. Success depends largely on the co-operation of their wives and daughters. I was much struck by what the late Joseph Arch once said to me in the Lobby. Why, sir, when I was a boy the farmers' wives and daughters used to come to the market or fair at Leamington once or twice a week with their butter, eggs, poultry, or vegetables for sale. Now you never see them. They are too stuck-up, and give themselves to the piano, and such like.'

MONEY FOR THE DEPÔTS

One essential thing is for the farmers (or small cultivators) to establish the town depôts to which the Post Office would convey their produce, and which would purchase all they could send. As we have seen, 60,000,000l. sterling worth of foreign produce has to be replaced by British produce, so that an enormous profit can be secured with common prudence. It would perhaps be advisable for the Royal Agricultural Society to call a conference on the subject with a view to promote the adhesion of the class concerned, as well as to collect data as to the districts to be worked, and the land still available for occupation. In my opinion, the County and Borough Councils might be confidently appealed to, to rent or build and staff the depôts out of the rates.

The Antrim County Council has just established the first model poultry farm in Ireland. It must not be forgotten that the residents in towns are only less interested than the country people. By resettling on the land the thousands of country people who now swarm into the towns the urban rates would be sensibly relieved.

PERSONAL

Let me here confess that serious difficulties exist; I should be the last to ignore them. I was, however, responsible for the promulgation and discussion of the idea of an Agricultural Parcel Post some eleven years ago, and have never ceased to advocate it, in and out of Parliament (more than once in the pages of this Review). Now that the Postmaster-General has definitely undertaken to examine the question, it is perhaps convenient that I should lay before him and the public my mature convictions as to the nature of the problem and the means of its solution. I will only add that, if the remark quoted from the Times be correct, the rejection of my proposal by the Postal officials, in 1891, has already cost the country 660,000,000%.

J. HENNIKER HEATON.

THE EFFECT OF CORN LAWS-A REPLY

IN the December number of this Review, Sir Guilford Molesworth contends that our grandfathers in abolishing the Corn Laws were the victims of a colossal delusion. To prove this point he reproduces with extraordinary naïveté every statement made by protectionist speakers, while by parading quotations and statistics he creates in the mind of the casual reader the impression of profound research. As I shall presently show, his research, though it may have been deep, has not been very wide. He has failed to notice the frank confessions made by his protectionist friends in their more candid moments; he has ignored facts of fundamental importance, and in some cases has so limited the range of his research as to exclude from a quotation sentences which would have greatly altered the meaning of those which he has quoted.

Before dealing, however, with this quasi-historical portion of his article, I wish to direct attention to the theoretic basis of his argument. This basis is so absolutely unsound that even if all the statements in his article were true, and all the figures accurate, they would have no practical value.

The basis of his whole economic argument in favour of protection is contained in the following paragraph:

The money which is spent abroad in purchasing foreign produce ought to furnish employment for our working classes, and to circulate amongst our butchers and bakers and retail traders; but under our present policy it furnishes capital to the foreigner to arm him for successful competition with us.

Evidently Mr. Seddon's visit to his native land was not wasted. His mantle, woven in cloth of gold with eighteenth-century mercantile fallacies, has fallen upon the shoulders of a worthy successor. Sir Guilford Molesworth comes forth to bar the passage of those 160 million golden sovereigns, whose flight to foreign lands caused such deep sorrow to our greatest colonial statesman. In sober earnest, will Sir Guilford Molesworth or any other protectionist kindly tell the world how we can pay for the goods we buy from abroad except with our own goods? In the daily course of business British importers pay for foreign goods with bills. These bills ultimately represent British goods of equal value. Even in the