." (Little
Grigs was going to repeat "Hear! hear!" but thought better of it and
checked himself.) "Of course there was opposition to the stage-coaches.
There always is and will be opposition to everything in a world of mixed
good and evil." (The Scotsman here thought of repeating "Hear! hear!"
but refrained.) "One pamphleteer denounced them as the `greatest evil
that had happened of late years in these kingdoms,--mischievous to the
public, prejudicial to trade, and destructive to lands. Those who
travel in these coaches contract an idle habit of body, become weary and
listless when they had rode a few miles, and were unable to travel on
horseback, and not able to endure frost, snow, or rain, or to lodge in
the fields.' Opposition for ever! So it ever is. So it was when
foot-runners gave place to horsemen; so it was when horseflesh succumbed
to steam. So it will be when electro-galvanic aerial locomotives take
the place--." (The remainder of the sentence was lost in laughter and
rapturous applause.) "But roads were still intolerably bad. Stage-coach
travelling was a serious business. Men made their wills before setting
out on a journey. The journey between Edinburgh and London was
advertised to last ten days in summer, and twelve in winter, and that,
too, in a so-called `flying machine on steel springs.' But, to
return:--Our infant, having now become a sturdy youth, advanced somewhat
more rapidly. In 1792 a money-order office was set on foot for the
first time. It had been originally undertaken by some post-office
clerks on their own account, but was little used until the introduction
of the penny postage. Great reforms were made in many departments.
Among them was an Act passed to authorise the sending of letter-bags by
private ships. This originated the ship-letter system, by which letters
are now conveyed to every part of the world visited by private ships.

"Another mighty influence for good was the introduction (about 1818) of
macadamised roads, which brought travelling up to the point of ten miles
an hour. So also was the opening for use in 1829 of St.
Martin's-le-Grand--a _grand_ event this, in every sense of the word."
(Here a member objected to punning, and was immediately hooted out of
countenance.)

"With mail-coaches, macadamised roads, security, ten miles an hour, and
a vastly increased revenue, the Post-Office seemed to have reached the
highest heights of prosperity. The heights from whic