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

Erected at Berne to commemorate the founding of the Postal Union. On the ledge of a rock is seated a woman, whose hand rests on the escutcheon of the town of Berne. On the summit of the rock a bank of clouds, which to glide into space, bears up a sphere around which float five female figures, symbols of the five divisions of the world, offering letters to each other. Perhaps I may add an extract from a speech made at the conclusion of the same Conference by Sir Spencer Walpole, who was at that time Secretary of the British Post Office: “One word more, gentlemen. We are going back to our duties and our toils: but we shall never forget our meetings in this beautiful city of Washington, where we have worked to improve the postal communications of the world. At this moment I recall the morning on which we found ourselves collected in a little church of this city. The representatives of sixty nations and I know not how many religions were met together to show respect to a colleague unfortunately deceased, and to commend his soul to the God of all nations of the world— both eastern and western. That gathering seems to me a type of our Congress. We, the delegates of sixty nations, found ourselves united in the same thought— I had almost said in the same religion. I hope that this thought will more and more dominate our work, and that the improvement of the communications of the world at which we have laboured will lead to friendship among the nations, to brotherliness among men, and to universal peace.”