sixty-seven thousand, for six hundred and
ninety thousand pounds. That is to say,
during that single month twice as many
orders were taken out and paid for than were
issued and paid in 1840 during the whole year.
This astonishing increase will be accounted for
when we explain the apparent hyperbole which
classes Money-orders with prudence, charity,
and commercial activity.

No one will deny, that of all the possessions
vouchsafed to mankind, the most difficult to
keep, is money. That difficulty—a difficulty
universally experienced and felt as pressingly
in Her Majesty's naval and military services,
as in any kind of service whatever—first
brought the Money-order Office into existence.
It is because it relieves that difficulty in some
degree, that the Money-order Office is now
so extensively patronised. Formerly, when
the young English provincial, or aspiring
Scotchman, left his straightened home to
seek his fortune in some distant town—and
found it—the temptations that gleamed from
his hoarded earnings often overcame him; and,
instead of keeping them to remit, at some
uncertain opportunity, to his struggling relations,
he squandered them on his own pleasures.
Now, that temptation is greatly lessened; he
can send home his spare cash by the cheap,
immediate, and safe agency of Post-office
orders: to be applied either in relieving the
wants of the recipients, or to be prudently
invested for himself. The amount of money
which is passed to Ireland in this way is very
great. It can be ascertained, approximately,
by a comparison between the number of orders
issued in England, and paid in Ireland, at
ordinary times, and so issued and paid during
the Irish invasion, at hay-making time. For
instance, during the month of February 1851
(the business during which month affords a
fair monthly average), thirteen thousand orders
were issued in England, and paid in Ireland
with nineteen thousand pounds; but in the
July following, thirty-three thousand English
orders were presented in Ireland, in exchange
for nearly thirty-three thousand pounds; being
an excess over the transactions of February
of nineteen thousand orders, and thirteen
thousand eight hundred pounds. It would be
a curious (but impossible) calculation which
should show us how much of this large sum
would have reached Ireland, under the
respected ancient dispensation, when Irish hay-
makers hoarded their money;—after it had
been hidden in holes and hedges; or screwed
up in worsted stockings; or inserted in the
linings of brimless hats. During the famine
year (1847), the orders transmitted hence and
paid in Ireland, exceeded the average by
one hundred and forty-three thousand,
representing about one hundred and fifty thousand
pounds. This shows how readily the poor
will help the poor, when facilities for so doing
are presented to them.—The Money-order
Office accounts paint the character of Scotland
for prudence, saving habits, and commercial
activity in small matters, in glowing colours.
With a population two-thirds less than
Ireland, her absent sons and daughters sent
home, for various purposes, during the year
which ended on the 30th September, 1851,
two hundred and fifty thousand pounds.
During the same period, the Irish absentees
and their commercial connexions in this
country forwarded to Ireland very little more;
namely, two hundred and ninety thousand
pounds. The poverty of the Irish remitters
is strikingly shown by the smallness of the
average amounts. Less than one hundred
and fourteen thousand orders were issued to
send the two hundred and fifty thousand
pounds to Scotland; while nearly double that
number were taken out to forward the two
hundred and ninety thousand pounds to
Ireland. The average amount of each remittance
to Scotland was two pounds, three shillings,
and fourpence; while the average of each
order on Ireland was not quite one pound,
five shillings, and sixpence. During the hay-
making season, the average of each order on
the Irish offices was only fourteen shillings
and five farthings.

The Money-order system has opened up an
enormous amount of small traffic. In many
country places it has superseded the pedlar,
and has lessened the number and variety of
those commissions with which any member
of a country family is loaded, when he
happens to be "going into town." Whatever
articles may be required by private families,
by small manufacturers, or by petty
shopkeepers, can now be ordered at once from
head quarters in a penny letter. The goods
are sent, through various conveyances, by the
town shopkeeper; and payment for them is
made per Post-office orders. Thus, we find
that in all the great centres of trade or
manufactures, there is a great excess of orders paid,
over orders granted. During the year ending
on the thirtieth of last September, the excess
of payments over receipts, in Birmingham,
was ninety-five thousand pounds; in Liverpool,
eight thousand pounds; in Manchester,
thirty-six thousand five hundred pounds. The
great excess of payments is in the
manufacturing towns; for, by the medium of
Money-orders and penny postage, the
watchmaker at Cheltenham or Plymouth can as
readily write for, pay for, and obtain by
return of post from Birmingham, any tool he
may require, as if the maker were his neighbour
in the next street. In places, therefore,
where trade and manufactures are not the
staple; where fashion resorts; or where—as
in cathedral cities—pursy respectability
vegetates, the excess is the other way. The year's
transactions, at Cheltenham, for example,
leave a large balance of orders issued, over
orders paid. It is found, in effect, that all
small Money-order offices issue more orders
than they pay.

A great many money-orders are taken out
as answers to advertisements. Tradesmen