ed friend or
relative is worth far more than many shillings; indeed, the value
cannot be estimated in sterling coin. But, unfortunately, the first
mode in which the emigrant discovers that the social luxury of
correspondence has advanced 1100 per cent. in price, is not in the
tempting shape of a letter from home. He must first write to his
friends before he can expect them to write to him, and that is a task
which nine persons out of ten, on the most charitable calculation, are
very strongly tempted to procrastinate, from day to day, even without
any pecuniary obstacle. But how much stronger the temptation to put
off the writing of 'that letter' from day to day for weeks, and at
last for months, when the poor emigrant, still struggling with
difficulties, finds that, instead of only a penny for each letter, he
must now pay a shilling? What wonder though many thousands, who have
left friends and relatives behind them, all anxiously on the outlook
for some tidings of their welfare, should defer the task of writing
home for a month or two, finding it so dear; and, having got over the
first few months, gradually become careless, and never write home at
all? There are few people who have not known many instances of this
kind; and we have little doubt that it is owing mainly to this cause
that they have given up all correspondence with the old country.

It is strange that Mr Sydney Herbert, Mrs Chisholm, and the rest of
those honourable men and women who have taken so much pains to promote
emigration, should not have seen the importance of obtaining colonial
postage reform. Mr Gibbon Wakefield, in his _England and America_,
published nearly twenty years ago, lays much stress upon the impulse
which healthy emigration to our colonies would derive from any measure
which should enable the poorer class of emigrants to write home more
frequently. As a proof of this, he remarks, that the great emigration
from England which had recently taken place--an increase of about 200
per cent. over former years--had been mainly caused by the publication
of letters from poor emigrants to their friends at home. With a view
to encourage such correspondence, he suggests that, for some years
after their arrival in a colony, poor emigrants should be allowed the
privilege of sending their letters free of postage. Thanks to Rowland
Hill, we have learned that letters can be carried at so very small a
cost, that even the poor can afford to pay the sum ch