"WRESSIL LODGE, WIMBLEDON,
_21st April, 1883_.
"SIR,
"I have received your letter of the 20th, and thank you for its
enclosures on the subject of the invention of the adhesive
postage stamp.
"I have long believed that Mr. James Chalmers was the inventor
of that important part of our present postal system, but I
regret that I cannot suggest to you any means of giving further
publicity to your father's claims to the merit of that most
useful invention.
"I remain, SIR,
"Yours truly,
(Signed) H. B. E. FRERE.
"P. CHALMERS, Esq."
Sir Bartle Frere introduced the adhesive postage stamp into Scinde
during his administration of that province, having obtained his
knowledge and belief as to James Chalmers having been the originator of
same from independent sources thirty years before my own investigation
of the subject.
* * * * *
In some quarters this matter is ignored on the ground that the subject
of this pamphlet is not of sufficient importance or too late to call for
notice. To such I reply--"Then let the issue of the adhesive stamp (see
page 52) be discontinued." Should it be found that such cannot be done
without serious detriment to the public service, then surely to continue
to use a man's indispensable invention and proposal without so much as a
word of recognition, will, if adhered to, prove a course of proceeding
hard indeed to justify, as well as something wholly foreign to the
antecedents of British journalism.
EFFINGHAM WILSON, Printer, Royal Exchange, E.C.
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| Transcriber's Note: |
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| Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the |
| original document have been preserved. |
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| Typographical errors corrected in the text: |
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| Page 56 imformation changed to information |
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