e truth of this statement elicits the fact that,
although it was the original intention of the department that the
new stamp should not come into use until the 25th inst., the demand
from the public for it has become so pressing that the department
has decided to issue it at once, and permit its immediate use to
the extent of its face value for all postage purposes. In other
words, as soon as it reaches the public it may, if preferred by the
purchaser, be used instead of the ordinary two-cent stamp. The
two-cent inter-Imperial rate does not, of course, come into effect
until Christmas Day.

Under date of December 7th the Canadian correspondent of the _Weekly
Philatelic Era_ refers to the actual issue of the stamp, viz.:--

The new Imperial stamps referred to in past numbers of the _Era_
were issued this morning, and although the new Imperial rate does
not come into effect until Xmas-day, and they bear that
inscription, they are receivable for ordinary postage now.

The general design has already been described, but it may be well
to say that the stamps are printed in three colors. The frame is in
black with white letters, the seas are in a pale blue, or rather a
lavender, and the British possessions are in a bright red. The map
of the world is on Mercator's projection, which magnifies high
latitudes; consequently the Dominion of Canada, which occupies the
middle of the upper part of the stamp, looks bigger than all the
other British possessions put together. The border of the stamp is
of cable pattern and measures 32 mm. in width by 22-1/2 in height.
The stamp is printed on medium, machine-wove, white paper, similar
to that used for the Jubilee and subsequent Canadian issues, and is
perforated 12.

[Illustration]

The design is well-known to all our readers and as it has already been
extensively dissected in the above quotations, further comment is hardly
necessary. The new stamps naturally caused lots of criticism on account
of their somewhat bombastic legend "We hold a vaster Empire than has
been". This was taken from the jubilee ode written by Sir Lewis Morris
on the occasion of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, the last stanza of
which reads as follows:--

We love not war, but only peace,
Yet never shall our England's power decrease!
Whoever guides our helm of state,
Le