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1
435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
325
For
eight
long
years,
the
English
people
may
be
said
to
have
enjoyed
a
complete
monopoly
in
postage-stamps.
Towards
the
close
of
1848,
they
were
introduced
into
France,
and
subsequently
into
every
civilized
nation
in
the
world.
Last
year
they
even
penetrated
into
the
Ottoman
Empire,
and
strange
as
it
appears,
when
viewed
in
the
light
of
Mohammedan
usage,
the
Sultan
has
been
prevailed
upon
to
allow
his
portrait
to
appear
on
the
new
issues
of
Turkish
stamps.
In
pursuance
of
a
recommendation
of
a
select
committee
of
the
House
of
Commons
which
sat
in
1852,
a
perforating
machine
was
purchased
from
Mr.
Henry
Archer,
the
inventor,
for
the
sum
of
four
thousand
pounds.[177]
The
same
committee
could
not
decide,
they
said,
on
the
"conflicting
evidence"
whether
copper-plate
engraving
or
surface
printing
would
best
secure
the
stamps
against
forgery,
but
they
considered
that
the
accurate
perforation
of
the
sheets
would
be
a
valuable
preventive
against
forgery,
"inasmuch
as
it
would
be
exceedingly
difficult
to
counterfeit
sheets,
and
sheets
badly
done
would
at
once
excite
suspicion
when
offered
for
sale."
The
invention
of
the
perforating
machine
is
said
to
have
been
attended
with
considerable
labour,
as,
undoubtedly,
it
was
by
skill
and
ingenuity.
To
the
Post-Office
and
the
public
the
patent
was
sufficiently
cheap.
For
a
number
of
years
the
stamps
had
to
be
separated
from
each
other
by
knives
or
scissors;
now
one
stamp
may
be
torn
from
the
other
with
ease
and
safety.
The
process
of
puncturing
the
narrow
spaces
round
each
stamp--an
undertaking
not
so
easy
as
it
seems--is
the
last
the
sheet
of
stamps
undergoes
before
it
is
ready
for
sale.
Marker
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Purify
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