unknown in the island. The usual cashboxes of the simple-minded inhabitants were small tortoiseshell bowls in an exposed situation. Such was the general hospitality of the island, that it might be traversed from end to end without possession of the smallest coin!

It is represented as blest with one of the finest climates in the world. To use the words of M. Victor Charlier-if one wished to erect anywhere a temple to physical health, it should be there; then might vessels disembark their sick, and few cases would be so desperate as not to be speedily ameliorated, without physic or physician, by the mere sojourn in so enchanting and salubrious a spot! In this glowing panegyric, of course, such slight drawbacks as insects and hurricanes are totally ignored.

The charm of variety is certainly obtain. able by a sojourner there, for the cultivated land does not extend above five or six miles from the sea. Here grow maize, mandive, sweet potatoes, ignames, haricots, mangos, mangotteens, strawberries, grapes, plantains, pine and custard-apples, vanille, chocolate, coffee, cinnamon, and, in great perfection, sugar. The interior is scarcely inhabited, nor is it likely to be, on account of the sterility of the soil. A large tract of ground is covered by volcanic rocks, the debris of former and the craters of more recent

eruptions. The comparatively large space termed the Grand-pays brûle, or burnt ground, is covered with lava like a vast cuirass of metallic brilliancy, glittering beneath the sun's rays, warm enough to scorch the feet of travellers, and sharp enough, when trampled on, to wear out the strongest soles.

The inhabitants number, perhaps, 120,000, more than a moiety of whom are slaves. Its extreme length is about 40 miles. We may conclude the geographical portion of our sketch with the astounding information, given on the authority of the English Encyclopedia, that the shortest days in the year are two, namely June 12 and December 12!

Very misty ideas with regard to the stamp or stamps (if any) of this island were a long time prevalent in the timbrophilic world. The earlier editions both of Moens' and

Mount Brown's catalogues gave one only, the 30 centimes black on green paper. It is evident that a few, but very few, of these rarities were to be seen in continental collections, but so discoloured that it was difficult to ascertain their normal hue. As far as we can ascertain, the 15 centimes is quite a modern revival, not being noticed by Moens in his manual so lately as 1863. The engravings we give sufficiently portray the curious and unusual design of these longdoubted and mysterious individuals. The date of issue is given by Moens and Mount Brown as being 1862, but Berger Levrault, with more probability and doubtless on good authority, adds half a score years to their antiquity.

What we can gather of their origin is this, that the governor of the time, whoever he was, like his co-equal of New Caledonia, on his own responsibility created the two stamps in question. They are both printed in black on bluish paper, and, as we remarked above, if found otherwise tinted it must have arisen from age or accident.

They were formed by means of some small ornamental dies, common in all printing offices, and usually employed for stamping book covers; in the same way as the large figure impressions of Honolulu and the provisional labels of British Guiana were struck off. With due regard to this, the veritable Réunions may be distinguished from the numerous counterfeits.

On

We have not ourselves ever been privileged to examine any considerable number of the true and untrue of these impressions together, but are assured by those who have, that the great regularity of form in the former could not be attained by any ordinary means from lithography or engraving. similar authority, we learn that among several specimens may be remarked slight differences resulting from the position of the small ornaments. For instance, the balls forming the inner border of the 15 centimes label have the lines of shadows in some specimens turned towards the left, whereas in others they fall towards the margin as if the light were in the centre. There is a discrepancy also sometimes in the two small points marking the abbreviation TIMB:

As might reasonably be expected from the extreme rarity of these stamps the imitations are numerous, and more or less faithful; some are printed on a close copy of the original paper, others are deep blue, grey, or, following the early catalogues as guides,

green.

Although these stamps were some years in use they have now become perfectly unattainable. With the exception of a very infinitesimal minority of philatelists, collections whose owners do not condescend to content themselves with the best fac-similes cannot boast of containing even one of these singularities, notwithstanding the countless epistles, some of them glaring with most illustrious signatures, addressed to the governor and the postal officials of the isle. The reply, more or less courteously worded, according to the rank of the recipient, is always, alas! to the same disappointing effect that the stamps are suppressed, and in spite of every research not one solitary individual can be met with.

One of these replies, signed by a functionary who was for several years postmaster of St. Denis the chief town of the island, and sent to a zealous Parisian collector, gives the intelligence that during the five or six years' duration of the stamps of Réunion, about 8 francs worth were sold in his office,— that is to say, something like a dozen per annum, on an average, in the capital!

The paucity of purchasers is to be accounted for from the fact that the labels were not supplied with adhesive gum; and as each individual had not always the means of fixing them on his letter, from the great difficulty of preserving gum or paste in a liquid state in so warm a climate, prepayment at the post-office was found, on the whole, to be most convenient.

-as these

At last tell it not in Gath!apparently valueless bits of paper seemed only in the way, a general holocaust was decided on. The innocents were collected from all parts, and mercilessly consigned to the flames! What treasures for ever lost to the timbrophilic community!

Immediately after this catastrophe, the institution of a uniform series of stamps for the French Colonies prevented the chance

of a re-issue of these now for ever defunct curiosities.

Comparatively few as were the missives on which any of these stamps had been attached, it is likely that some numbers might have been found on old letters, were it not for another circumstance to which their great scarcity may be attributable. It appears that unless papers are preserved with the greatest care in hermetically sealed metal cases, they are sure to be devoured by an insect called hakerlac in the island, and which is a large variety of the genus Blatta. Cockroach and fire their fury pour

With rage that is not puny, on
The luckless stamps now seen no more
In Bourbon's isle, Réunion.

THE CONNELL STAMP.

IN our last number we inserted without comment, an article on the above stamp, which appeared in the Stamp-Collector's Record (Albany N. Y.); we now feel it our duty to lay before our readers a 'smart,' but apparently well-grounded contradiction of the statements it contains, extracted from the columns of the Stamp-Collector's Monthly Gazette (New Brunswick), and to which we have elsewhere referred. After transcribing the article in question, the writer continues:

'Comment on the above will be altogether unnecessary to any of our readers who are at all acquainted with the real facts of the case; it is quite enough merely to place it before them, and they will at once perceive the vein of misrepresentation and untruth which pervades and-we might safely saycomprises the whole.

'For the benefit of those who may not be very well posted in the true circumstances of the affair, a few remarks may not be amiss.

'Well, in the first place, the writer of the strange medley of humbug and bosh, states that in 1861 Mr. Chas. Connell, "a gentleman renowned alike for his integrity, genius, and benevolence," was Post-master-general of New Brunswick, and as a remarkable proof of his said "genius," he actually discovered that the stamps of the province were "susceptible of improvement." Now it will be remembered that it was about this time that

the decimal currency was introduced into New Brunswick, and the old system of reckoning by £ s. d. done away with. A large quantity of specie was ordered from England, consisting of one, five, ten, and twenty cent pieces, for the purpose of making change. Our "unsightly labels" were three in number, viz., a threepenny, sixpenny, and a, one-shilling stamp. One would think that it would not require a very large stock of "genius" to discover that a set of stamps, representing cents instead of pence, would now be needed. The gifted writer then goes on to show how Mr. C.'s ingenuity was set forth in "putting a different design on each stamp," for example, a locomotive on one, a portrait of Queen Victoria on another, &c. But as a mark of his own appreciation of the great services rendered to his country, he conceived the wondrously brilliant idea of having engraved on the 5 c. stamp a delineation of his "own honest countenance."

'Our talented friend then proceeds to inform his readers how it was that these stamps were not allowed to be used, and imparts to us a little piece of information which has, at least, the merit of being entirely original. His account of the mass meeting," which he says was held for the purpose of expressing the popular indignation of the public with the Post-mastergeneral in his high-handed act, has not one word of truth in it; no such event ever took place, and therefore his silly prating about political opponents, and the request to resign, is altogether unfounded. As for the fumes of "whisky," they exist only in the muddled brain of the author of the story.

The facts of the matter are simply these: when this celebrated stamp was issued, the attention of the government was at once called to it, and it very properly ordered Mr. Connell to stop the issuing of them. The worthy Post-master-general then declared that if the command was enforced he would resign; it was, and he did. And there is the truth of the matter.

precedent as that of Mr. Connell's once suffered to be established, it is hard to say where it might end. In a short time his term of office would have expired, and then most likely, some other individual would have taken his place, and it can scarcely be supposed that his successor would possess such a high opinion of Mr. Connell's career of usefulness as to allow "his honest countenance" any longer to grace the stamp, if he could help it. It is not at all unlikely that Mr. Connell's successor would try to have it removed, and his own substituted in its place.

'We are next informed that Mr. C. got so terribly disgusted with the people, and the government, and every body else, that he

66

retired at once and forever from the political arena." Again the writer has blundered most surprisingly. In 1861, the very year that he resigned his office, he again offered himself as a candidate at the general election; he was defeated, however, and returned to private life, although not "once and forever," for when the election again took place, he again came forward, was returned, and now represents Carleton County in the House of Assembly. So much for the reliability of this account.'

REVIEWS OF POSTAL PUBLICATIONS. The Stamp-Collector's Monthly Gazette.

St.

John, New Brunswick: George Stewart,
Jun.

THE start of another periodical in the far west devoted to the interests of philatelism, should be an object of congratulation to our now-extended community, proving, as it does, not only the non-decadence but the wide spread of the fantasy. As respects the merits or demerits of the publication, the four pages of letter-press sent us for review, as No. 1, are insufficient for a fair criterion. The editor fills the first page with the information of his good intentions. He says he was wanted, and 'HE CAME,' evidently ranking himself as the right man in the right place; though, as the Dean of Canterbury has it, it would be difficult to tell how a right man could be in a wrong place. He also very judiciously tells us, that he intends. giving a synopsis of the contents of other

timbrophilic periodicals every month; in plain words, he purposes the copious use of the editor's sheet-anchor- scissors.

Much more than another page is filled with a long tirade against an article which appeared in the Albany magazine, and which was quoted in our last month's number: we mean that on the Connell stamp. He reproduces the whole, and then cuts it up secundum artem, with no small amount of rancourous irony. He might, however, as the word 'susceptible' appears rightly spelt in the original, have forborne to mis-spell it in his own remarks. We may add that his compositor, or reader, or some one else, has much to answer for in orthographic slips. Two remarks in the United States journalist's paper appear to have excited especial ire his styling New Brunswick an 'obscure colony,' and his giving the New Brunswickers the credit of taking too much whisky! As, however, we have reprinted the greater part of the article in question, our readers can judge for themselves as to its merit.

Notices of new stamps, postal chit-chat, advertisements, &c., fill the remaining space, and altogether the publication is well worth the modest sum of five cents at which it is rated. With every wish for its success, we commend it to the notice and patronage of the world of postal amateurs.

POSTAL CHIT-CHAT.

THE CONFEDERATE POSTMASTER-GENERAL, Mr. Regan, was captured with President Davis.

THOUSANDS OF THE THREE-HALFPENNY ENGLISH were made, but the Bill for a three-halfpenny rate was rejected at the last moment, and so they were never used.

IN RICHMOND a Confederate 3000-dollar bond is worth five cents; will some mathematician favour us, pro ratio, with the value of the Confederate 2 cents stamp?-StampCollector's Record.

ANOTHER INSTANCE OF THE VERITY OF THE OLD SAW that we must go abroad to hear news of home, is exemplified in the communication of a correspondent from the far-distant West, who dates from the Appallachians, in which he informs the editor of a Parisian journal that a 'London Timbrological Society' is in process of formation.

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, POST-OFFICE 5 C. STAMP. -It is not generally known that this stamp was issued by the P. O. Department and by the authority of the United States in the year 1846. The plate is still preserved by the authorities of Providence, and may be seen in the State Library in that city.-Stamp-Collector's Record, Albany (N.İ.)

THREE BLACK LINES and the inscription in type, PAT. NOV. 20, 1855, are printed on the interior of the 3 cents small oval U. S. envelope on white and on buff paper. All the obsolete envelopes are watermarked with the letters P. O. D. U. S.' (Post-office Department, United States), repeated in different parts of the paper apparently without design.

POMEROY'S EXPRESS. Information regarding this being desired by the British journalists, we beg to state that Pomeroy's stamps were issued in 1849,--the large one for delivery of large parcels, the small one for letters. Pomeroy's express, now defunct, was merged in the American Express Company, but was in its day a wellknown institution. The proprietor, G. Pomeroy, resides at present in Toledo, Ohio. The stamps were engraved by Gavit, now vice-president of the American Bank Note Company.-Stamp-Collector's Record, Albany (N.Y.)

PROOF STAMPS.-Before stamps are printed, it is usual to take off from the plate one or more impressions on common paper, and in ink of a different colour from those in which the stamps are officially used, to see if the plates are in a condition to print, so that none but perfect stamps should be issued, and that the government may not be cheated by these prior impressions being used as postage stamps. Such impressions of an unusual colour have been called 'proofs,' they are so in a printer's use of the word but not in that of a collector of engravings.— Dr. Gray's Illustrated Catalogue.

THE WEIGHT OF A STAMP.-The other day, says a Paris correspondent, a gentleman wrote a letter for Brighton, weighed it, and found it the exact weight. He then put on the stamp, which turned the scale, and sent the letter to the post by the concierge. Concierge gave it to the post-office clerk, who weighed it again: Over weight.Impossible!' said the little cobbler, 'impossible; I watched monsieur weigh it before he put on the stamp.'- Then the stamp has made the overweight. You must put on another.'-Ah, joker!' said the cobbler, 'that would make it heavier;' so he took the letter back, and missed the post-of course to the delight of his master.

THE UNITED STATES POST-OFFICE IN VIRGINIA.The pacification of Virginia has been closely followed by the re-establishment of Federal authority within that state, and by an executive order made for that purpose, from which the following extract has been made, the reader will see that amongst other things the United States Post-office has been re-opened in the lately rebellious state. 'Fourth. That the postmaster-general shall proceed to establish post-offices and post-routes, and put into execution the postal laws of the United States within the said state, giving to loyal residents the preference of appointment; but if suitable persons are not found, then to appoint agents, &c., from other states.'

TURKISH STAMP NUMERALS.-The values of the Turkish stamps, 10 paras, 1, 2, 5, and 25 piastres, being in Turkish, not in Arabic characters, may not be easily perceived by new collectors, for whose benefit we propose to give some explanation of them. The number 1 is represented by a kind of comma, thus ; the number 2 by two commas at right angles, thus ; and 5 by a circle. To make 10, a dot, to represent a 0, is added to the comma, thus ; and the dot added to the figure 2 makes 20, Y. 25, the highest stamp-number, is made by adding the figure 5 to the 2, thus . In the old issue the value was given in a circle under the crescent and in the centre of the ornament beneath, in the new issue the value forms the corner ornament.

CORRESPONDENCE.

ESSAYS OR NO ESSAYS?-THAT IS THE

QUESTION.

To the Editor of the 'STAMP-COLLECTOR'S MAGAZINE.' SIR, Mr. Hill, in his valuable letter in the June number of the magazine, denies the right of the Prince Albert stamps to be called essays, on a new ground, namely, that they were never made by any department of the Government.' Of course he would, for the same reason, condemn the majority of the stamps now known as essays, but his definition seems to me to be really too narrow. Together with trial stamps, manufactured by order of the government, I think that stamps which are really offered to the post officials, in reply to a request for the tender of designs, are also entitled to be called essays. This I say, not in defence of Mr. Burns' protegés, which I consider unworthy the title for other reasons, but with the design that collectors may really come to some decision as to what are and what are not essays.

At

With all respect for your experience and knowledge in postal matters, I beg to submit that the stamps described in your last Newly-issued' article, as having been proposed for San Marino and Moldo-Wallachia, and also those for Bolivia, have not been proved to be anything more than an engraver's speculations. Before they are accepted as anything better, I think that it ought first to be proved that they ever were asked for by, or offered to the governments of the respective states named. You state that the San Marino essays' were 'proposed' in 1864,-but who proposed them? You also suppose that the reason of the non-adoption of the Moldo-Wallachian essays' was because the designer was destitute of the necessary friend at court;'--but was the designer himself ever at Prince Couza's court, or did he ever send his inventions to Prince Couza's postmaster? If, as you assert, the San Marino essays really were proposed in 1864, it is somewhat strange that they were not heard of before. the present time every timbro-postal rumour is eagerly spread, yet not a word was whispered of the intention of San Marino to issue stamps; indeed, according to your lately-published account of the 'donkey post' to the town of San Marino, it would appear that the republic hardly possesses more than the rudiments of a postal system, and could scarcely have required stamps. The essays themselves I have seen. They look very new, as if freshly worked off. Neither they nor the Danubian essays have the name of the country on them, but merely blank tablets at the top and sides, and some of the San Marino essays are without any device in the centre. What then is to prevent the engraver from slightly altering the device of the Danubians or of those San Marinos which have the three peaks in the centre, or from putting a new device in the centre of those which have none, and then palming them off as, perchance, essays for some South Ainerican republic, or for Patagonia itself?

I fear that you have accepted these engravings as veritable essays with hardly enough proof. The truth is, that the San Marino, Danubian, Bolivian, Greek, and Mexican essays all emanate from one or two engravers living at Milan, and I do not believe that their productions are any other than fraudulent speculations on the gullibility of stamp collectors; nor do I suppose for a moment that they were ever submitted to the authorities of any of the countries whose names they bear. Beautiful as engravings they doubtless are, and so are a good many Yankee medicine stamps, but no more entitled to admission into postage-stamp albums than the labels on bottles of Bass's ale, or those on tins of Coleman's mustard.

A young friend of mine some months ago showed me a fine essay, quite as genuine as the Italian humbugs, which bore an engraved portrait, and a very accurate one-at any rate, in accordance with tradition-of a gentleman renowned for the possession of horns, hoofs, and tail. in the centre, surrounded by a square border inscribed with cabalistic characters. The stamp was printed in black on white, and intended, since the decline of spiritrapping, to frank communications to Hades.

Seriously, I cannot but think that the mere mention of the Milanese essays, without contemporary condemnation, is very injurious to the pursuit of stamp collecting. If we profess to be stamp collectors, let us stick to stamp collecting pure and simple, for if once we stray off into the gathering of a miscellaneous crowd of unaccredited essays our first object must be lost sight of, and the pursuit itself lose its distinctive character and become what its detractors assert it to be-a senseless hobby. Yours faithfully,

London.

CONSERVATIVE.

ENGLISH STAMPS ON BLUE PAPER, &c. To the Editor of the 'STAMP-COLLECTOR'S MAGAZINE.' SIR,-The value of your periodical, as a medium for the interchange of information and the correction of error, has been prominently exemplified in your recent numbers. Permit me to endeavour to rectify a blunder into which I have fallen, and through your columns communicated to many of our philatelists. It is with regard to my statement that stamps of Great Britain have never been printed on blue paper. I had my information direct from Mr. Pearson Hill and from a gentleman at Messrs. Bacon and Petch's establishment; this, coupled with personal inquiry at Somerset House, certainly convinced me; and I am still satisfied it is, with one remarkable exception, correct. I may here state that, though not printed on blue paper, the stamps so commonly known as such deserve to be taken and classed as varieties; for varieties they are in fact, although the difference is not attributable to the commonly supposed cause. But now to the English stamps on blue paper. Your remarks at page 90 of this month's number induced me to turn to my own series, which is unmounted and waiting to be arranged. I there found a specimen of the fourpenny carmine, no letters in angles, on blue paper, perforated, and also a proof of it printed Specimen' over the centre of the stamp, and I remember recently to have seen a badly-preserved postmarked copy in a lad's album. There is no mistake as to the paper, it is decidedly blue, of a delicate tint and highly glazed. On making inquiries, I find that some few sheets were in 1855 printed quite accidentally on blue paper and put into circulation with the others, but as soon as the paper was noticed no more was used. Hence these stamps are exceedingly rare, and among the points of honour in a good collection. I notice Berger Levrault, a most accurate authority, gives this variety, page 24 of the German edition.

To Mr. Pearson Hill, for his most valuable list of dates of English issues, we all owe great thanks. It seems to me to clear up, not directly but impliedly, a long vexed point.

J. P.,' Torquay, asked long ago, Were there ever British envelopes sixpenny and shilling undated in issue?' All I can say is, I never saw either, or heard of one used or unused. Mr. Hill's list would appear to put the sixpenny and shilling undated and embossed in the same category with the tenpenny, which we know were only adhesive stamps. Can any of your numerous readers show a whole envelope shilling or sixpenny undated? That this question should be still unsettled is a remarkable