756 



POSTS POTATO. 



since which time no increase has taken place. By 

 the 6th of George IV. the postage of Id. on votes, 

 proceedings in parliament, and newspapers, was 

 virtually done away with by the repeal of the re- 

 gulation requiring that a member's name should be 

 written on the covers. In 1837 the entire body 

 of acts relating to the post-office were repealed, 

 and their chief provisions consolidated into one 

 general statute, 1st of Victoria. 



Early in the year 1837 a pamphlet was published 

 by Mr Rowland Hill, developing a plan of a uniform 

 postage, at the rate of one penny per half ounce. 

 The pamphlet commenced with a view of the state 

 of the post-office revenue, and showed that the 

 cause of its stationary condition was the enormous 

 rate of taxation charged upon letters, which was 

 proved to be several hundred per cent. The great 

 extent and universal prevalence of the custom of 

 sending letters by private carriers and by parcels 

 was also shown to be the natural result of the 

 same heavy rates of postage, and that a very low 

 charge, by including all these, would tend in a great 

 measure to make up the loss to the revenue from 

 such low charge being made general. Attention 

 was also called to the certain increase of corres- 

 pondence, commercial, literary, and domestic, that 

 must result, if the postage were thus reduced. 

 Lastly, the almost incredible fact was stated, that 

 the cost of transit for a letter from London to 

 Edinburgh was only the 36th part of a penny, con- 

 sequently that there was no coin small enough to 

 denote the difference that should be made between 

 letters transmitted the longest and shortest dis- 

 tances. From all this was deduced the conclusion 

 that Id. should be the general charge for letters 

 throughout the country. The statements and pro- 

 positions were illustrated by a great amount of 

 various and interesting information, and by details 

 evidently well calculated for the safe and effectual 

 operation of the plan. The public were at first 

 surprised: some small portion of it, perhaps, thought 

 the scheme simply ridiculous ; another, that it was 

 practicable and excellent ; but the larger propor- 

 tion looked upon the idea as too good to be true. 

 Three editions of Mr Hill's pamphlet were called 

 for in the space of a few months ; objections were 

 made, but so successfully answered that they for- 

 warded rather than retarded the measure ; public 

 bodies began to petition ; the press gave its cordial 

 assistance ; a committee of the House of Commons 

 was appointed, and the report was highly favour- 

 able, though it did not venture to recommend for 

 the time more than a partial adoption of the scheme. 

 Government accordingly prepared to make a partial 

 trial, but by this time the nation had become 

 thoroughly satisfied of its entire excellence and 

 practicability, and the Houses of Parliament and 

 the government were at last fairly petitioned into 

 its complete adoption. 



Previous, however, to the entire reduction of 

 the rate of postage to a uniform penny charge, an 

 intermediate measure was brought into operation, 

 by which all single postage rates between places in 

 the United Kingdom which exceeded 4d. should 

 be reduced to that sum : inferior rates to remain 

 undisturbed. This rule continued in practice only 

 from the 5th December, 1839, to the 10th of 

 January, 1840, when the uniform penny postage 

 commenced. On the 6th of May in the same year, 

 the postage stamps, consisting of a profile of the 

 queen on adhesive pieces of paper, and postage 

 envelopes, came into use. 



POTATO, (</.)* In the beginning of the 

 sixteenth century, the Spanish sweet potato, a 

 species of Convolvulus, was common in gardens 

 over Europe. It was first introduced into Spain 

 from the West Indies, and bore the Indian name of 

 Battata. There is also a possibility of its having 

 come to Europe from the east, as it is a native 

 both of India and China. These sweet potatoes 

 were long used in England as a delicacy, and were 

 imported, in considerable quantities, from Spain 

 and the Canary islands, being supposed to have the 

 peculiar property of restoring decayed vigour in 

 men. The famous kissing comfits, so much in 

 vogue in Shakspeare's day, and with which our 

 ancestors were imposed upon, as we are by universal 

 pills, and other modern omnipotent remedies, were 

 made principally of these and eringo roots. Fal- 

 staff says in the Merry Wives of Windsor, 



" Let it rain potatoes and hail kissing comfits." 



The Battata grows abundantly in Jamaica, Bar- 

 badoes, and the other West India islands, and it is 

 propagated, not like our potato, but by slips. The 

 pounded or grated roots make excellent puddings 

 and cakes ; and, when mashed and fermented, a 

 cooling and refreshing drink is made from them, 

 called Mobby, somewhat resembling small-beer. 



The potato now in use, the Solanum tuberosum 

 of botanists, according to the Spanish historians, 

 was found in cultivation on the first arrival of the 

 Spaniards in Chili and Peru. Peter Cieca informs 

 us, in his Chronicle, published in 1553, that the 

 inhabitants of Quito, and its vicinity, have, besides 

 maize, a tuberous root which they eat, and call 

 Papas. Molina, in his Natural History of Chili, 

 vol. ii., quotes the authority of several ancient 

 writers to prove that the plant is indigenous there. 

 He describes two species or varieties, the one wild, 

 and with small bitter roots, the other the one under 

 cultivation ; but appears to consider both to have 

 been the same originally, cultivation rendering 

 the wild plant sweet and succulent, exactly as in 

 the case of our carrot. The Spaniards having intro- 

 duced these roots into their own country, did not 

 retain their Peruvian name, but, from their simila- 

 rity in nature to the sweet potato already in use, 

 called them also Battatas. From Spain they were 

 carried into Italy, where they were known by the 

 same name as truffles, taratoufli. The first Euro- 

 pean writer (after those alluded to), who takes any 

 notice of them, is the famous German botanist 

 Clusius, who mentions having received two roots, 

 in the year 1588, while residing at Vienna, from 

 the governor of Mons, in the province of Hainault ; 

 who, it seems, had himself procured them from 

 the attendant of the pope's legate, under the name 

 of Taratoufli. He gives a plate of it among his 

 rare plants. So much for its introduction on the 

 continent of Europe. 



In the year 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh, under the 

 authority of a patent granted by queen Elizabeth, 

 for discovering and planting new countries not pos- 

 sessed by Christians, sent out a number of colonists 

 to Virginia. Now, although no absolute proof 

 can be brought forward on the subject, yet, from 

 concurring circumstances, and from tradition, it 

 appears highly probable that the potato now in use 

 amongst us was first brought to Ireland, either by 

 Sir Walter himself, on his return from his voyage, 

 or was afterwards sent to him by the governor of 

 Virginia. The general opinion is, that he had 



* Abridged from an article by Mr Robert S. M'Adam, read 

 before the Belfast Natural History Society. 



