The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-06-25 00:00:00

THE PaTING OF TRADE CIRCULARS

IN BELGIUM.

In the Rouse of Commons, on Mondayevening, Mr.
M. Guest loked the Postmaster-General whether his
attention had been called to two letters. which appeared
in The Times of the 13th and 14th of June, relative to
a certain British Coal Company, carrying on their
business in England, who by posting their trade cir-
culars in Belgium at a cost of one halfpenny, thereby
dminishing the Imperial revenue, which under exit-
ing Conventions they were obliged, in order to obtain
that low rate at postage, to print abroad ; and whether,
in his judgment, her Majesty's Government could in.
triable° some measure to prevent the recurrence of this
Practice, by which not only must the Imperial Revenue
suffer, but by which the general printing trade in
England might be damaged.
The Marquis of Hartington : My attention has been
called to the proceedings of the firm in question, and
it is no doubt true that under the existing Postal Con-
vention between this country and Belgium circulars
can be posted in Belgium at the rate mentioned by my
hon, friend and have to be delivered in England. In
reply to the latter part of the question, I may say I do
not think there is any necessity for the introduction of
a measure to prevent the recurrence of this practice,
which will be most effectually checked as noon as the
intended measure of the Government reducing the
postage of circulars in this country to a halfpenny
comes into operation. There will then be no longer
any inducement to people to send circulars abroad to
be posted.

THE LATE LORD ARTHUR CLINTON.

Lord Arthur Pelham Clinton, against whom a war-
rant was lately issued for his alleged complicity in the
Park and Boulton CHAP, died at an early hour on
Saturday morning, the 18th inst., at Christchurch.
He was attacked with scarlet fever a short time
ago, and his constitution gradually sank under the
disease. Before his death he solemnly denied the
truth of the accusations which had been made
against him. His lordship was the third Poo of
tie late Duke of Newm.tle, and was thirty years of
age. Ile was educated at Woodcote School, near
Lading, and at Eton. He entered the navy in 1854,
served in Captain Peel's Naval Brigade in India, re-
ceived two medals, and was made a lieutenant in 161.
At the general election of 1865 Lord Arthur Clinton
was returned without opposition for Newark, in con-
junction with Mr. Grosvenor Hodgkinson. He de-
scribed himself as a Liberal, but voted against Mr.
Gladstone's Reform Bill of 1856, was opposed to the
ballot, and to the total abolition of church rates. After
his retirement from the House of Commons in 1868, his
lordship passed through the Court of Bankruptcy.
The following has been published in the Loudon
papers :

_ _
in confirming the announcement which hal appeared this
eseninc in the columns of some of your contemporaries of the
death of my unfortunate client, Lord Arthur Pelham Clinton,
I beg you oil allow mu space in your journal to enahle inn to
carry out his last wishes in reference to the charges preferred
against him, the awful nature of which in no slight degree
accelerated his end.
. .

It wa, only on Friday morning that I was advised by tele-
gram front his medical attendants of his critical state, when
immediately proceeded to Christchurch, where he had been
staying for some time past, and remained there until his
death, which occurred this morning at 1 5, from exhaustion,
resulting from scarlet fever.

In pursuance of his Instructions I had previously prepared,
and he had approved, the letter of which 1 encloae you Copy,
and which I beg you will, in Justice to his memory, insert
With this. Ills state, however, of utter prostration did not
permit him to sign the copies which were made, although in
lull possession of his mental faculties.
It may he satisfactory to his relatives and friend, to know
that, in the presence of Dr. Wade and myself, he, when coli-
seums of his approaching end, in a mobt earnest manner
reiterated his denial of any complicity whatever in the
wretched case and alleged conspiracy, and his entire Inno-
cence of the graver charge imputed to him —1 am, Sir, your
obedient servant, W. 11. ROBERTS, 46, aloorgate-street,
J uue 18.