WAR AND PEACE ON POSTAGE-STAMPS.
1-1` nations obtain the Governments that they deserve, it 1 may be hoped that they do not always deserve their postage-stamps. If that were so, we should be a less deserving nation than we were in the twenty or thirty years which followed the introduction of "adhesive labels" in 1840. when we had some of the finest stamps that have ever been issued. The black penny, the red penny, and, above all, the blue twopenny stamps of 1840 to 1880 have never been surpassed for strength of colour and simplicity of design. When 1880 brought the brick-red penny, and 1881 began a pale procession of lilacs and greens, surely England fell far. When in 1911 the first issue to bear the head of King George saw the light in English post-offices, and was eagerly bought by collectors, who wanted to see what the chosen artist and printers could do for a nation whose King is a philatelist, we possessed what is probably the worst series of stamps ever printed. We are rather better off now, but if the current of our national being-is to be judged by the shades of our inks, British blood runs discouragingly thin.
National emblems might be expected to find their way on to postage-stamps, to rept esent their separate countries among other nations, in postings at home and abroad, in times of peace and of war. But not all the national animals are on the stamps. The Prussian and Austrian and Russian eagles are in their places, but the Gallic cock does not crow from French envelopes, and the British lion does not roar; indeed, he only made his first appearance on any stamp three years ago, when he was depicted asleep, and, indeed, very nearly dead; now, after his doze. be has been put on the shelf again. The modeat retirement of the British lion is the more remarkable in that the stamps of British Dominions, Colonies, and Protectorates make up a gallery of animals almost representative of the fauna of the globe. Canada's first stamp, issued in 1851, shows a beaver ; Western Australia began with a black swan, and her swan has swum now for sixty years; New South Wales has chosen to be represented by a lyre-bird, an emu, and a kangaroo; New Zealand has a kiwi ; and Tasmania an ornithorhyncbns. Tigers bound and growl on the stamps of Pahang and Perak, and elephants march side by aide on the issues of the Federated Malay States. Perhaps the most representative series of wild beasts belongs to British North Borneo, which musters bears, alligators, orang-utans, elephants, rhino- ceroses, tapirs, hornbills, and rusa deer. But a more indi- vidual collection is that of Newfoundland, which embraces a cod, a Newfoundland dog, a seal, and an animal which, so far as its natural history is concerned, might be described, like Trincnlo's monster, as " no fish, but an islander that bath lately suffered by a thunderbolt." It is a seal which, instead of flippers, has paws and claws like a big dog. As an effort of philatelic imagination the portrait of this curious creature is only to be compared with the elephant in the 1912 issue of Sierra Leone. These are stamps of a generous design. which have offered the artist many opportunities. King George's head appears on a medallion at the top of the stamp, and under- neath is another medallion showing an elephant trumpeting under a palm tree. The elephant has hocks like a horse.
Here and there history writes itself on postage-stamps plainly enough. Nothing could be simpler or more emphatic than the change from '• Repub. Franc." to "Empire Franc." over the head of Napoleon in the French issues of 1852 and 1853, or the change back again in 1870, first with the rough lithographs of Bordeaux, and then the fine engravings printed in Paris. Spanish history, in the same way, if it is not easy reading, is on the stamps to be read. Queen Isabella's head disappears from the currency in 1870. to be followed in turn by the bead of Liberty, King Amadeus in 1872, Don Carlos in 1873, Justice holding the Scales of the Republic in the same year. and King Alfonso in 1875. The inscription "Impuesto de Guerra" of the war tax stamps of 1873 occurs twenty-five years later, when the enemy was the United States. Stamps of other countries are intentionally reminiscent or commemorative. The Canada stamps of 1908, issued for the tercentenary of Quebec, make an epitome of the history of the city ; on the one-cent stamp are Cartier, the discoverer of the St. Lawrence, and Champlain, the founder of the fur-trade settlement, whose troops fought Admiral Kirke after his victory over the French Fleet; and on the seven-cent stamp the portrait of Wolfe is side by side with that of Montcalm. Another picturesque commemorative series is the Columbus issue of the United States, and another the Colonization series of Newfoundland, which ranges for subjects from Guy's ship, the ' Endeavour,' to the paper mills of Grand Falls. Such series must begin, of course, with ancient history. Modern history is less deliberately illustrated; it may even set itself in a series by accident. The Servian issue of 1904 is one of the most remarkable of all. It was intended to commemorate the coronation of King Peter, and to celebrate the centenary of the Karageorgevitch dynasty ; and it was issued the year after the assassination of King Alexander and Queen Drags. King Peter's head and that of his ancestor Kara George are shown side by side in a medallion in the centre of the stamp ; and almost as soon as the series was issued it was discovered that if the stamp was turned upside down the chins, moustaches, and noses of the two beads combined to make a ghastly portrait of the murdered King. The country people believed that the death-mask had been placed on the stamp by divine intervention, and the series was withdrawn. The Near East has added other records of battle and sudden death to the issues of the present decade. In 1913 Greece printed a series to commemorate her victories of 1912, and the inscription 'EAAds 1912 iKeprpaTEta will doubtless be spelt out by schoolboys of the future as carefully as the more peaceful legend axeparaurol a-yiiaas—words which the present war has probably made certain will never be placed again on a stamp, since the next games were to be held in Berlin. A less triumphant series than the Greek war stamps is the Russian " charity " issue of 1905. This was an issue of four large stamps marked three, five,. seven, and ten kopecks; but the public paid more than the face value for these stamps. the proceeds being devoted to the assistance of the widows and orphans of the troops who fell in the war with Japan.
It might be possible, though it would lead to no conclusive argument, to trace some kind of connexion between the designs of postage-stamps and the national aspirations of the countries which made use of them. British ideals, judged by this standard, would seem to be simple enough, at all events in years gone by, when we were content with a head and a plain statement of value. Can we trace any conflict of ideals between the designs adopted by other nations— between those of France, say, and Germany P France since the establishment of the Republic in 1870 has been uniformly and consistently pacific. Her issues of 1870-6 show Peace and Commerce joining bands across the inhabited globe. When she changes the design in 1900 it is to a figure of Liberty bolding a tablet inscribed "Droite de l'homme." Three years later she takes as her ideal figure a girl sowing—sera ineesaupatet dea ; her goddess is agricul- ture. Her neighbour's ideals are different. In 1900, which is the year of the great naval programme, Germany sets for the first time on her stamps a goddess in full armour, mailed and crowned, her hand on the hilt of the sword. Bellona still franks the envelopes that leave the Prussian frontier. German colonies receive a new stamp in the same great year. For the first time the Cameroons and Togoland behold the future of the Empire—a white liner riding up to the horizon. " The future of Germany is on the water."
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