The penny itself is a matter which leads one into thought.  The vastness of mind which has been brought to bear on the production of the coin is itself worthy of consideration.  Before any coin can be sanctioned by the realm, it has to go through the ordeal of Her Majesty’s Government, and after all has been done to the satisfaction of the authorities, a little bit of copper—­though now, for the good of our pockets, mixed with an alloy—­is made to minister to our wants in ways which I hope to lay before you as plainly and shortly as possible.  First and foremost we must have that great and valuable thing heat, for without heat generated by fire we could have no penny.  One of the first things required to produce this heat is wood.  Now the wood must be grown,—­trees attended to with care and at great cost.  Years pass before they are either fit for beauty or use, yet, during the time of their growth, the smaller branches that are lopped off form just what is required to set on fire the coal and coke to produce the heat which is necessary for smelting and blast furnaces, for our own domestic fires, and various other uses.  A faggot of these lopped branches can be bought for a penny.  Having thus found out, as a beginning, one thing which can be obtained for a penny, let us go on to see what has to be attended to and encountered before this valuable coin can be made.  Sums of money have to be spent, risks very great have to be entered into, and beautiful machinery constructed before it can be placed in our pockets.  The mines of Cornwall have to be reached for both copper and tin—­a matter of great cost to the pockets of speculators, and of anxiety to the minds of engineers, who lay themselves out to gain the material.  Furnaces have to be built to smelt the ore and bring it into a workable condition.  The Mint is then, after the metal is ready, called into requisition to produce a coin which, after all this labour and expense, is only a penny.

I come now to tell some of the things which can be accomplished and produced for a penny.  One of the earliest publications of any note was the “Penny Magazine,” which is endeared to my memory as having shown me the earliest of George Stephenson’s great works—­the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.  This magazine has now passed away, but it has been amply replaced by others of equal merit, carrying out its principles of giving a sound and cheap literature to the people; it was a boon to all who cared for instruction, and at the same time had to take care of a penny.  Now we have our daily papers at a penny, and of the 1711 newspapers issued (1876) in the United Kingdom, 808 are sold at this small price.  Look at those papers, the “Telegraph,” “Standard,” and many others; are they not a light that has shone over our world, showing what man has been enabled to do for his fellows, in being able to disseminate the knowledge of what is transpiring over the world to their readers, both near and far off, and all for only one penny!