hose which are for delivery in port from the
rest. A fine day is always chosen, generally towards the end of the
voyage, when amusements become scarce and the passengers are growing
weary. It is pleasant to sit on the rail and see the passengers gather
round the heap of letters, and to hear the shouts of merriment when any
exceedingly original superscription comes under notice." Such liberties
with the mails in the present day would excite consternation in the
headquarters of the Post Office Department. Nor is this all. Miss
Martineau makes the further remark--"The two Miss O'Briens appeared
to-day on deck, speaking to nobody, sitting on the same seats, with
their feet _on the same letter-bag_, reading two volumes of the same
book, and dressed alike," etc. The mail-bags turned into footstools,
forsooth! It is interesting to note the size of the packet in which this
lady crossed the Atlantic. It was the _Orpheus_, Captain Bursley, a
vessel of 417 tons. In looking back on these times, and knowing what
dreadful storms our huge steamers encounter between Europe and America,
we cannot but admire the courage which must have inspired men and women
to embark for distant ports in crafts so frail.[4] It is well also to
note that the transit from New York occupied the period from the 1st to
the 26th August, the better part of four weeks.

Reference has been made to the fact that a century ago the little
packets, to which the mails and passengers were consigned, were built
for fighting purposes. It was no uncommon thing for them to fall into
the hands of an enemy; but they did not always succumb without doing
battle, and sometimes they had the honours of the day. In 1793 the
_Antelope_ packet fought a privateer off the coast of Cuba and captured
it, after 49 of the 65 men the privateer carried had been killed or
disabled. The _Antelope_ had only two killed and three wounded--one
mortally. In 1803 the _Lady Hobart_, a vessel of 200 tons, sailing from
Nova Scotia for England, fell in with and captured a French schooner;
but the _Lady Hobart_ a few days later ran into an iceberg, receiving
such damage that she shortly thereafter foundered. The mails were loaded
with iron and thrown overboard, and the crew and passengers, taking to
the boats, made for Newfoundland, which they reached after enduring
great hardships.

The introduction of the uniform Penny Postage, under the scheme with
which Sir Rowland Hill's name is so intimately asso