Page:The life and letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton bt. (IA lifelettersofsi00port).pdf/231

 unions, would not require a single additional ship, train, horse, cart, or man. The machinery is now ample. The 12,000,000 letters from France would not count beside the 2,624,000,000 inland letters now dealt with by our British Post Office, more than an additional rivulet flowing into the Thames.

8. No less than 780,000 passengers cross the Channel every year—all good customers of the Post Office. British children to the number of many thousands are educated in France, and we have colonies of English residing in that sunny clime; while there are also thousands of French people in our foggy land, who would all write five letters at a penny for one letter at the present high rate.

9. Penny postage would cost neither country one penny more than is at present expended. It would bring a rich harvest of trade and good feeling. The estimated minimum increase of letters would cover the cost in a remarkably short period.

10. An Anglo-French Postal Union would be a graceful, opportune, and popular demonstration of "l'entente cordiale," a practical, substantial fulfilment of the kindly aspirations of the two peoples, so eloquently expressed by representative men; a stimulus to commerce, a boon to all, a memorial of the greatest achievement of Edward the Peacemaker.

When, in 1910, Lord Blyth issued a circular letter inviting Members of the House of Lords to express their views on Franco-British Penny Postage, 230 signified their desire for the reform; and Lord Dartmouth in his reply summed up the matter succinctly: