arged by the
post-office authorities in this country; and it requires little more
than a stroke of the colonial secretary's pen to extend the same
invaluable privilege to the thousands of emigrants who leave this
country every month for some one or other of our numerous colonies.
What Mr Gibbon Wakefield says of the free-postage plan of that time,
would apply with nearly equal force to the proposed Colonial
Penny-Postage:--'In this way, not only would the necessary evil of
going to a colony be diminished--that is, the emigrants would depart
with the pleasant assurance of being able to communicate with their
friends at home--but the poorer classes in the mother-country would
always hear the truth as to the prospects of emigrants; and not only
the truth, but truth in which they would not suspect any falsehood.'
He goes on to say, that the statements published about that time, by
an emigration-board sitting in Downing Street, shewing what high wages
were obtainable in the colonies, 'though perfectly true, have not been
received with implicit faith by the harassed, and therefore suspicious
class to whom they were addressed; nor would any statements made by
the government ever obtain so much credit as letters from the
emigrants themselves.' All who have ever paid any attention to the
subject of emigration, and who have mixed familiarly among the poorer
classes, will agree with Mr Wakefield. All the government returns that
ever were made, backed by ever so many extracts from colonial
newspapers, about the high rate of wages, and the cheapness of
provisions, will not make half the impression upon a poor man which a
single letter from an emigrant brother, a son, or a trustworthy
friend, will produce.

We should be glad to see the country rouse itself on this important
question, regarding which numerous meetings have already been held.

SURVEYING VOYAGE OF THE RATTLESNAKE.

Since war went out of fashion, many officers of the British navy have
been employed in exploring seas, and surveying coasts, in different
parts of the world, for the laudable purpose of facilitating
navigation; and there would be little harm in supposing, that there
might be as much glory in verifying the position and extent of a shoal
or sunken rock, as in capturing an enemy's frigate. At all events,
these surveying voyages furnish useful occupation, not unattended with
danger; and they involve the necessity for a good deal of hard work,
of a dry