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

THE BRITISH P'

abolished, and the duty of It transferred to the Cosuptral-
lees Office, where they have ever since been kept, as the
&port admits, " with order and regularity."
these Copies of the Quarterly Books were not aessinalty,
as mated itt the Report, but actually, in the custody of Mr,
Becket, as Inspector ; and it appeais that, froet Me year
1809 to the year 1819, many of them had been torn and
impaired, but that all the ammo niece Me per 1819
here been carefully kept, and moor hi the Cooptroller's
Office, in a perfect state of presertatien.
A wide field of detail opens upon Me, bit I must be
brief:—There is no evidence so Conelu.siie Ind latfifestory
se dates; for nue will not he Weed out of his astris,
and his testimony cannot be tampered Ist& To diet ter
timony I proceed to refer :—I was eippaisted to Pa Reerd
of Stamps in 1817—thus utmost the whole of this Wind.
from 1809 to 1819, I was at the Excise Rosati of Revenue
in Edinburgh. I trust I need not offer any Other evidence
to exempt myself from all imputtstien of he4ing Partici-
pated in the negligence—very Veritable eeentinly—teith
which the Inspector kept his basking the &amp Oflee to
London.

But let the carelessness of this ffinfreetor hare peen what
it may during this interval between 1809 and 1819, it is
found, and admitted in the Report,-.that since Met period
they are complete, and sows; knony case of protect_
tion, they would be perfectly audible to any purpose to
which they would be applied. Let vs now once more
refer to dales. I was elected one of the Directors of the
County Fire Office on the 14th of February, 1922, be.
foe which time I held no shales in :hat (!fliee, I had never
seen theface of the Managing Director, no► did I Artois Urn
even by name. Now from the year 1819—and I beseech
attention to this--all the accounts are in an entire state of
rrtaervation, arid have been kept with the most perfect
correctness.

Having given this plain and simple statement, I shall
leave it to produce its own effect. It (tarries its comment
along with it.

There is, however, one fact stated in the passage above
quoted (torn your Report, to which I cannot forbear ad-
verting before I conclude this letter. It is the following:
" On our calling for the snnual returns subsequent to 1809, it
was found that no copies of them had been preserved for many of
the years, that the account had been lost, and that others were in
so incomplete a state as to be altogether useless. On our specially
applying for the Distributor's account of the County Fire Office fur
the year 1819, nothing could be produced to us but the fragment of
the cover, and a part of one of the pages."

It struck me, when I read this, as carrying with it an
air of burlesque, almost approaching to disrespect, that
any clerk, when gravely called upon, shoulct produce before
you so ludicrous a remnant. I accordingly sent yesterday
for Mr. Deans, one of the Clerks in the Comptroller's
Office, to inquire from him how this could be; when, to my
surprise, I found that Me Act was not as your Report has
stated it. That true it is that the account of the year
1819 was incomplete, but that two Quarters' Accounts of
that year were produced before you perfect and entire.
That I might satisfy myself of this—for I could scarcely
credit it after the above deliberate averment—l desired
•him to bring me up the two quarters of the accounts which
had been to produced to the Commissioners of Revenue
Inquiry, which he immediately did, and 1l found them
quite consplefis, atul respectively endorsed u follows:

"An Account of Duties received on Su pto ensured Agrila tire
by thc4;ounty Five Ogles, trots the WA eve• ' tar, is Mr
25th March, 1819."
" An Account of Duties received on Sure insured against The
by the County Fire Otlice, from the '2sth 111 arch, 1819, to the 24th
June, 1819."

This single fact, taken in connexion with the train of
statements that surround it, affords matter of very serious
meditation. The most unreflective mist be startled at this
mode of conducting a Parliamentary Inquiry, upon the re-
sult of which the Government are to be called to sit bs
judgment. It is a fearful precedent, and involves conse-
quences far beyond those in which I have any persona)
stake. Let reform be pursued as zealously as you please►
out let it be pursued in the track of justice.
I subscribe myself, Sir,
Your most obedient Servant.
JAMES SEDOWICK.
Stamp Office, Somerset House, Sept. 21, 1026.