The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-09-22 00:00:00

LETTER THE THIRD
FROM
CHAiIIMAN OF THE BOARD OF STAMPS

THE RIGHT ITON. THOS. WALLACE.

lb s- Let it not be for a moment supposed that in the
pia I have already brought forward of my Song conflict
sidi the ruinous system of fraud which prevailed in the
stamp Department of Scotland, I mean to plead ilium
gt.ices as a set-off against any ackwawledgei subsequent
tailure in my duty to the public. Let me not for a mo-
m::: he hell to admit that your Reports have proved mal-
venation against me, and that I am urging my seal against
official delioquency in Scotland, that it may be received
Into the vale, and weighed against the pages of your Par-
liamentary R 'ports. No, Sir ; the course I have adopted
is that whielt °pram the most conclusive proof that my
character vitt& publicly misrepresented in your Reports.
It .s *kb that view, therefore, and for that pu►pose, that I

hoe adoptel it.
Although no malversation or abuse of any kind-1 use
the terms hi 'lit it known acceptation, as importing a per-
version of official authority to a corrupt or improper par-
pose—although not a single abuse or malversation of any
kind is discovered, or pretended to be discovered, on die
yet of the Board of Stamps, yet my name is so eagerly
~.:wailed into every page—it is so dovetailed into every
topic of examination-1 am disjnined frotn my colleagues
in so pointed and peculiar a manner, and the whole in-
quiry is so strikingly directed against Me Chairman, that
sil who read the extracts which the daily newspapers put
before them are led, and very naturally, to infer that my
known official conduct 1)31 been such as most urgently,
asentially, and beyond every thing, required investiga-
tion ; and in the rear of all this—and while the unfavour-
able surip'cier.s thus created are yet warns—comes the at-
tempt to brand my character with that base opprobrium
which I repelled—with an expression of scorn which
I shall new cease to feel—at the conclusion of my first
Letter.

I havessiel in that Letter, that, when your Appendix ap-
pars, containing the evidence upon which you have en-
deavoured to fasten upon me a charge of corrupt collusion
Rah regard to a fraud which you aver to have been
pranged upon the Revenue by the County Fire Office, I
would dissect the whole, and that I would do it thoroughly
sod openly. To have published your Report, containing so
very grave and weighty a charge, and to keep hack the Ap-
pendix, containing the evidence upon which it is ground& el,
is a circumstance alike unprecedented and unaccountable.
What is an .4ppendix but a document coupled with and ap-
'ended to the Report? Let it appear where it may, it is no
hunger an Appendix. One advantage gained against me by
the withholding it is this, that the charge having once
made its way all over the kingdom, without the production
vl the evidence which went most decidedly to disprove it,
gains general belief ; and when, at a distant day, the Appen-
-411 is published, no one heeds it ; it becomes a last year's
Almsnack. The daily newspapers, which have circulated
the charge, have their columns too fully occupied to return
scan to a subject of Reports, from which they have al-
ready, and so long ago, made such ample extracts; and,
efter my character has been utterly destroyed by the seen-
duo, then appears the evidence which would have re-
futed it, but which is kept back till no one is concerned to
examine it, au& when--for any Tura of -juitrci=if
eight as well never have been published at all.
Being gaily aware of the injurious impression which has
:,ten prolucstl against me by the mode in which your Re-
port it drawn up, and knowing too the pains that arc taken
t. cnifirm and 7:ve ct to this impression, I have resolved
sot to wait for the publication of Me :Ippcndir. I am
eouhlantly prepared to repel everylvaputation contained in
it; I will, therefore, proceed, without delay, to enable the
pake to tee clearly into the epirit in which, so far as I am
concerned, your inquiry lias been conducted, and to decide
—u I have before said—upon the aim and the object of it.
I *in with the following eitract:—

Oa the 3d of June, Mr. Deans was, by the Chairman's ad-
vice, sent to the County Fire Office to investigate the numbers
vane; this person was furnished with %tauten numbers of Po-
lin%, and he was directed to ascertain when the insurance on
each enmminc•d, and when it terminated. Whilst he was In
Ise County Fire Office, and examining the honks is pursuance
et his instructions, in compary with • Clerk of the County
fee Office (of the name of Johnson), Mr. Beaumont, the act-
kg Manager of that Office, came to them; and upon being in-
termed cf the object of Deans' inquiry, he gave directions to
tat attending clerk to supply him with any information he wanted.
" On his examination as to the circumstances occurring at this
iritersirle. Mr. Deans states as follows:
"' I saw in his (Mr. Beaumont'a) hand a paper. containing Iwo
ardent that I thought resembled a paper 1 had seen in Mr.
yis.'s hand in the mornir.g ; he ratite out with it in his hand,
.t to make some comparison with a paper in my hand. I
nerd, that I was directed to inquire shell the Policies commenced,
vd when they terminated; and he folded up the paper and put it
Ttb h:s waistcoat pocket, and I believe. from the appearance of it,
IT us • copy of the same paper that I saw in Mr. Sykes's hand in
to morning.'
" Mr. Deans proceeds to give the reasons which induced him to
Oink that the paper he then saw was the one which he had seen
adore; and further, that on being called before the Bested on the
Ile efJane., to give an account of this transaction, he, on that
setstion, stated, *flat he had seen a paper wi.h tint numbers on it
!rinds of Mr. Beaumont, and that he repented this state-
vest Mr. Mswe, who was required by the Chairman to attend in
e: Iliad-room fur the purpose of hearing such statement made.
It LI! be further seen, that Mr. Deans describes the hand-writing
ea the paprr in question as being recognised by him as that of one
of tie:clerks in the solicitor's office. We, accordingly, examined
e,italividm.l thus referred to, who states, he msdc a copy of the
pry in tittzstian, which be understood was for the use of the
tbsirm,„.

"We have thought it unnecessary he to enter into a more full
&tailor examination of the facts, df which we bare thus submit.
4d a brief statement ;we beg leave, however, to refer your Lord-
klfs to the evidence of t!, several posons named in the margin,
t 1 >tiirh af stilt-torn? trill to and to to jolly borne not, with theil
V!ition of severs! other particulars bestring upon the transaction. '
alto beg to call your Lordships' attention to the evidence of
34. 4edgwiek, on the same subject, in which it will be seen that
44'4041v denies the imputation of his haring obtained the num-
b:Ts, for the purpose of communicting them to 31r. Beaumont
tad we should adil, that this denials so confirmed by the evidence of
!he lastasatned gentleman, who positively asserted that he never re-
71'd soy tads communication from the Chairman."

t, What is the inftr:nce in.entled to be drawn from this?
ti„,,.
'Cult it is manifestly meant to be implied that 1, pt.:-
ra:t1::, having been accessary in procuring the returns of
4211 Lyon these two Policies, had privately furnished the
Managing Director with their numbers ; anti thus, if pos-
ible, to prevent the undue rdurn if dui!, upon them from
itiug investigated with effect ! Can any charge convey
mere of infamy with it ? Now, how stands the fact ?
Wi:y, when I come to inquire into the period at which
lona said two Poticiev were issued—for I knew nothing at
all about them when ander examination—they relate to a
)•rioti as far back as the years 1811 and 1814, at which
tree I was Chairman of the Excise Bogy,l in SCOTLAND,
dtgi ditl not even know that such cia establishment as the
11 PC 1,,1y Fire Office existed!!
It is as if a man should be accused of having set his
l'ott4e on fir, when the fact turns out to be, not only that
/' It house never tot:l6l4rd time:), but that the charge against
-It L laid ten yirars before he was tenant !
I !low proceed to another extract:-
- As several stele policies to which suspicion attached purported
. ,'are been issued to parties residing in Edinburgh, Mr. t'lkes
directed to aderess a letter to the Solicitor of Stamps in that
tl, erekrine 1 Ina of p..11ci.:: effected there. rr.Ticctlng whit&
l'i
''' irreg !linnet' were suspected, and requesting him to Obtain all
information in his power at to the'r commencement. continu-
4, and tnaliwatioo. By tie answer to Ws letter. your Lordships