The post office and its story an interesting account of the activities of a great government department

The honour of first raising the question of the organisation of international postal business belongs to the United States Government, which in 1862 suggested a conference of the delegates of different Postal Administrations for the purpose of discussing the matter. Fifteen Governments at once adopted the proposal, and the Conference took place at Paris in May 1863. The Conference lasted nearly a month, and discussed thirty-six questions which arose in connection with the three fundamental questions of the uniformity of weight, the uniformity of rates and the simplification of accounting, including naturally an amelioration of the system of transit. From a postal point of view the delegates represented nine-tenths of the commerce and nineteen-twentieths of the correspondence of the whole world. They represented, moreover, 400 millions of persons belonging to the most civilised and the most industrious nations of the world. The outcome of the labours of the Conference was the proposition for an International Postal Union. This idea was set forth in 1868 in the official journal of the Postal Administration of Northern Germany, by Herr Von Stephan, who deserves a place of honourable mention among postal reformers. He suggested a Universal Congress to consider the matter, but the Franco-Prussian War interrupted the negotiations. They were reopened when peace was established, and the first move came then from the little republic of Switzerland, which from its neutral position was better able to take the lead at a time when national animosities were strong in Europe. The Government of the Swiss Confederation invited representatives from Europe, the United States, and Egypt to meet at Berne in 1874, and it was here that the Postal Union was called into existence. The man of the hour was Herr Von Stephan, who came fresh from carrying out a similar scheme among the numerous small German States. Dr. Von Stephan was a man of ideas who also possessed eloquence, and he was the leading spirit of the Congress.