"If further correspondence on the subject of the
enclosed communication be necessary, it is requested
that the number as well as the date may be quoted.
All letters transmitting accounts or answers to queries
should relate to such matters only. All letters and
papers should be properly secured."

The Inland Revenue has but two requests:—

"OBSERVE:—In case of further correspondence on
the subject of the enclosed letter, you are requested
to quote its number and date."

The Poor Law Commissioners are particular:—

"All communications to this office on public
business should be addressed to the Poor Law
Commissioners; the postage on all such communications
must be paid by the writers. In case of further
correspondence on the subject of the enclosed letter,
you are requested to quote its number and date."

Not less so (though in a different way) are
the Educational Commissioners in Ireland:—

"You are requested to write, at the head of the
letter, the name of the school to which your
correspondence relates, and also of the county in which
it is situated; and all letters to be addressed to

                      " MAURICE CROSS, )
                      "JAMES KELLY,         )   Secretaries.
     "Education Office, Marlboro' Street, Dublin."

The Ecclesiastical Commissioners for
Ireland make an excellent request:—

"It is requested that correspondents will not write
on more than one subject in each letter."

The Inclosure Commissioners are not particular
in their grammar, though they are in
what they ask:—

"It is desirable that all letters should be written
on foolscap paper, and must be addressed
      " To THE INCLOSURE COMMISSIONERS
                          "FOR ENGLAND AND WALES.
                                                                "LONDON."

The Tithe Commissioners seem to have
a frightful quantity of large-sized
correspondence:

"All communications on Public Service to the
Commissioners must be directed as follows:—
       "To THE TITHE COMMISSIONERS
                        "FOR ENGLAND AND WALES,
                                                           "LONDON."
"In case of further correspondence on the subject
of this communication, it is requested that the number
as well as the date of the enclosed letter may be
quoted.

"It is also desirable that matters relating to
different parishes or townships should be written on
separate sheets of paper, and that all letters whatever
should be written on paper of the size of foolscap.

"The Tithe Commissioners request you will be
careful to forward all letters and packets not exceeding
three feet in length, addressed to this Board,
through the Post-office; and to send such packets
only as exceed the above length by coach or van."

The Paymaster General works, it would
appear, as much from the envelopes as our
communicative friend west of Temple Bar:—

"All letters to the Paymaster General's Office
should be addressed as under, the department
(Army, Navy, Ordnance, or Civil Services) to which
the letter relates being stated in the corner:

  "To H. M. PAYMASTER GENERAL,
              " WHITEHALL,
                     " LONDON."
       Army,             )
       Navy,              )  (as the case may be).
       Ordnance,      )
       Civil Services,  )

There are other offices equally precise, but
without effecting much good. Nor are the
railways less particular. Here is a copy of
an engraved heading to a letter from the
Secretary of the Great Northern Railway:—

"Please copy this Reference in your Answer. B.558."

Now, to show the propriety of keeping
letters flat, our clerkly friend took the trouble
to show us a press containing one year of
folded letters, and another press containing
a year of open or unfolded letters. The space
gained was perfectly wonderful—the folded
letters occupying nearly double the room of
the unfolded; besides, as our friend observed,
"Here are our letters in bundles of five
hundred each, with mill-boards at top and
bottom, and a good strap to keep them
together. This is the system that has been in
use with us since 1849; and the facility of
reference afforded by the new plan over the
old is perfectly marvellous: only try!" It is,
perhaps, needless to say that we were quite
convinced of the truth of our friend's
remarks, without putting his favourite plan to
the test proposed. ."This plan," he continued,
"saves us work, and saves us trouble.
Remember what Sir Robert Peel has told us in
his evidence before a Committee of the House
of Commons, that the Treasury, in 1800,
received only five thousand letters a year; that,
in 1849, the number received was thirty
thousand. Yet the Treasury still fold their
letters—why, I know not: our plan is in
force at the Admiralty, Audit Office, and
elsewhere."

We should be doing an injustice to our
friend, if we did not observe that he is an
excellent clerk—one willing to red-ink his
fingers between ten and four, and quite as
willing to wash the red ink away between
four and ten; in short, that he is not one of
"Her Majesty's hard bargains."

        THE ROVING ENGLISHMAN.

           A GERMAN JOE MILLER.

I PASSED the evening of the thirty-first of
August at a little village inn, where I had
arrived to be near our shooting-ground on
the first of September: for, whether it is an
institution of nature, or whether the Germans