Canadian imperial stamp (1898)

Canadian imperial stamp (1898)

Postage stamp that shows the extent of the British empire.

Postage stamp that shows the extent of the British empire. Result of an imperial conference on postage at which Canada argued for an imperial system of postage; this was created to illustrate that. Using the phrase "We hold a vaster empire than has been," which comes from a 1897 poem (by William Morris, a Welsh poet) - "A Song of Empire" - written on the occasion of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee:

“We hold a vaster Empire than has been!
Nigh half the race of man is subject to our Queen!
Nigh half the wide, wide earth is ours in fee!
And where her rule comes all are free.
And therefore ’tis, O Queen, that we,
Knit fast in bonds of temperate liberty,"

American Bank Note Company Ltd., Ottawa

Patrick, Douglas and Mary Patrick. Canada's Postage Stamps. Toronto, McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1964, p. 37-38.

Library & Archives Canada
http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/ourl/res.php?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_tim=2018-01-26T20%3A28%3A43Z&url_ctx_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=2242614&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fcollectionscanada.gc.ca%3Apam&lang=eng

1898

Campbell

Public

English

Stamp