[Lord Grey and colonial postal arrangements, 1850.] Two printed Colonial Office documents: a copy of a letter from W. L. Maberly of the General Post Office to H. Merivale of the Colonial Office; and a covering circular dispatch on ‘Book Posts’.

Both items scarce: no other copies traced. In good condition, lightly aged. Disbound from a volume and paginated in manuscript. ONE: Copy of letter from W. L. Maberly to ‘H. Merivale, Esq., / &c. &c. &c. / Colonial Office’, dated from General Post Office, 14 December 1850. 2pp, 8vo. Paginated in manuscript 257-258. Begins by explaining that the Postmaster General has been ‘desirous of extending to the British Colonies the existing regulations under which Printed Books, Magazines, Reviews, and Pamphlets, (whether British, Colonial, or Foreign) are transmitted by Post, within the United Kingdom at reduced rates of Postage’, and that he has ‘received the permission of their Lordships to carry the measure into immediate effect as respects those Colonies who Postal arrangements are under His Lordship’s controul. [sic]’ TWO: Printed ‘Circular’ dated from Downing Street, 27 December 1850. Printed in copperplate font. Headed in manuscript ‘Book Posts’. At end in manuscript (not Grey’s handwriting): ‘/sd/ Grey’. 2pp, 8vo. Paginated in manuscript 255-256. Explaining the background to Item One, and calling on the recipient to ‘bring the subject under the early consideration of your Executive Council’.