THE NEW POSTAGE ENVELOPE.
WE have received specimens of the new stamped envelopes, which are shortly to be issued, in two sizes, to supersede the first figured one. The new envelope is a plain blank cover of smooth Bath paper, with the silk threads running through one corner of the folded side, and on the right-band top corner of the direction-side, a beautiful medallion pro- file of the Queen,'raiscd in white relief on a pale pink ground, and set i in a neatly-ornamented oval border. The effect is simple, chaste, and elegant ; and nothing can exceed the delicacy and sharpness of the head, which is stamped from a die designed and engraved by WILLIAM Wyosr: indeed the medallion alone might be a sufficient protection from forgery. The old envelopes were laughed out of use ; but the ingenuity of the idea and the beauty of the design are not therefore the less : it did not take, because it was symbolical—perhaps a little overdone in this par- ticular—and people who were puzzled to make out its meaning for want of a little attention, were fain to join in the laugh raised by wicked wags, having a spite against the Whig Postage Reform : and then the appearance of the design itself, seen without a margin, and coarsely printed on mean-looking paper, roughened by the damping-process, was very different on the actual envelope from that of the India proof spe- cimens.
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