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1
435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
319
[168]
The
amount
of
sea-postage
collected
has
never
reached
within
late
years
to
more
than
half
the
entire
cost
of
the
mail-packet
service.
In
1860,
this
cost
was
863,000l.
and
the
postage
collected
amounted
to
409,000l.
[169]
Postmaster-General's
Ninth
Report,
p.
84.
CHAPTER
IV.
ON
POSTAGE-STAMPS.
The
history
of
postage-stamps
is
somewhat
remarkable.
First
used,
as
many
of
our
readers
will
remember,
in
May
1840,
the
postage
stamp
has
only
just
passed
out
of
its
years
of
minority,
and
yet
at
this
present
moment
there
are
more
than
fifteen
hundred
different
varieties
of
its
species
in
existence,
and
the
number
is
increasing
every
month.
The
question
as
to
who
invented
the
postage-stamp
would
not
be
easily
settled;
it
appears
to
be
the
result
of
innumerable
improvements
suggested
by
many
different
individuals.
We
will
not
enter
far
into
the
controversy,
and
would
only
urge
that
the
discussion
as
to
its
origin
has
once
more
served
to
exemplify
the
truth
of
the
saying
of
the
wise
man,
"The
thing
which
hath
been,
it
is
that
which
shall
be,
and
there
is
no
new
thing
under
the
sun."
Post-paid
envelopes
were
in
use
in
France
as
early
as
the
reign
of
Louis
XIV.[170]
Pelisson
states
that
they
originated,
in
1653,
with
a
M.
de
Velayer,
who
established,
under
royal
authority,
a
private
penny
post
in
Paris,
placing
boxes
at
the
corners
of
the
streets
for
the
reception
of
letters,
which
should
be
wrapped
up
in
certain
envelopes.
Shopkeepers
in
the
immediate
neighbourhood
sold
the
envelopes,
some
of
which
are
still
extant.[171]
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
