The most amusing part of Mr. Lowe's speech was his
com- mendation of the stamp on matches, "not matrimonial engage- ment3," which he proposed to borrow, he said, from America, as a token of admiration of her finance and good-will towards herself. The cost of matches is so inappreciable that they are wasted in a most reckless and dangerous way, and are often the cause of most serious fires, as when matches are flung down into areas in which dry straw from unpacked hampers is lying. The Americans, who put id. on every bundle of 100 matches, had realized £400,000 a year from the tax. In this country the number manu-
factured is quite incredible,—no leas than 560,000,000 boxes of wooden matches, and 45,000,000 of wax matches and fusses. Mr. Lowe had devised a motto for the new stamp, "Ex Ince lucel- lam" ("Out of light a little profit"),—a joke not appreciated by the, great majority of his hearers, who had evidently forgotten that the diminutive of lacrum contains no r—and he thought this would be more suitable to them than the "rather watery device" of a Noah's ark, which is usually found upon match-boxes. In America the tax is particularly easy to collect.
