The Sun.
London, England, 1837-03-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JO RN A

It would be unjust to deny that many of the opr:-
nents of the new Poor-!aw arc worthy and humane

We willinght make this adirussion, although
we occasionally receive cotrrnun;cations from some of
them who, while enlarging on Christian charity as the
first of ditties, display very little of that charity towards
those who (lifer from them in opinion. In consider-
ing the new Poor-law, we ere not to fix our attention
exclusively on the partial inconveniences 'Attendant on
so great a change in the habits of the country. When
disease invades the human frame, the remedy to w hie!'
recourse is bad inay often be very painful ; and when
society is diseased, the cure cannot be effected without
pain. The question which we should ask ourselves
with regard to the Poor-law is not whether there may
not be evils connected with the new law, but whether
or not it will effect a great improvement in the condi-
tion of the labouring classes ? To dwell on inevitable
inconveniences, when the good greatly outweighs the
evil, is a proof of great weakness or something worse.
Earl Fitzwilliatn took the correct view of this change
in the letter acknowledging a petition against the
Poor Law (copied into yesterday's Chronicle), when,
after stating that he had been upwards of a year en-
gaged very assiduously in the administration of the
hew law, he declared " I can bear the most confident
testimony to its beneficial tendency. I affirm this not
merely with respect to the interest of the rate-payers,
which I deem the least important consideration, hut
more especially with respect to those of the labouring
(-lasses, whose habits, characters, and comforts are of
far more value in my estimation." A correspondent
of an evening paper, strongly opposed to the new
Poor Law, who complains " of the spirit in which
the new Poor Law has been universally administered,
and who contends that a one-sided view has been
taken of the interests of the parties, and any plan
which promised to benefit the landlords has been car-
ried through regardless of the habits, the prejudices,
the feelings, and the sufferings of the poor," yet
admits that the old system was fast hurrying the la-
bouring classes to a state of the utmost degradation
and misery :

111C11.

" I am-fully aware," he says, "of the mischiefs which
were in operation under the misapplied old poor-law. I
know that, by a scheme originally adopted to save their
own pockets, the landed proprietors, by that retributive
justice which appears inevitably to overtake the perpe-
trators of such frauds, were fast becoming merely trustees
for a pauperised population. All beneficial interest in
the rent of land was rapidly disappearing ; and this
pressure upon rent produced the wonderful unanimity
which occurred between Whigs and Tories on the passing
of the Poor-law Amendment Act. Whilst I might have
seen the whole of the landlords' interest in the soil con-
sumed by the poor without regret, had that been the only
evil produced, I could not but mourn over the deteriora-
tion which that system was causing to the morality and
happiness of the poor themselves. Vast as is the power
of :the landowners, and grievous as are the evils which
their selfish legislation has inflicted upon the rest of the
community, I knew that their power and their oppres-
sions would be swept away whenever the people had
courage and knowledge enough to assert their rights.
But had their system depressed the physical condition of
British labourers to an extent approximating to that of the
Irish peasantry, and subjected them morally to a state of
slavery, to both of which there was a rapidly increasing
tendency, I should have felt all hope of national regenera-
tion had been indefinitely postponed. Entertaining such
sentiments, I saw permanent good, with much of partial,
but A hoped temporary, evil, in the new Poor-law."
"It is not easy to conceive a state of things worse
than what is here described. And yet this is the state
of things from which the country has been rescued by
the New Poor-law. The landholders and tithholders,
but more especially the latter, have unquestionably
been great `gaineis by the change in the law. The
Rev. Thos. Sockett, Rector of Petworth, paid 366/.
as poor-rates in 1832 on a yearly receipt for tithes of
600/. ; and in 1836, under the new law, he paid only

1201. for the same sum of 6001. The landholder
does not, of course, gain in the same proportion. The
rates on land were charged on a rent payable after al-
lowing for all burdens. Thus, for instance, 20s. in
the pound poor-rates would swallow up the whole
tithe, but on land without poor's rates worth
21. an acre, 20s. would be deducted by the
tenant from the rent, leaving still 1/. to the landlord.
Both land and tithe owners, however, have greatly
benefitted ; but the labourer has benefitted still more.
It is a great mistake to suppose that the reduction of
the rate has been something taken from the labourers.
It will be found when the evidence is analysed, that
the labourers as a body have received more than for-

merly, in consequence of their labour being more pro

ductive. The roundsmen were burdensome to the
owners and occupiers of the soil, but their labour
was worth little. The labourer now receives the value

of his labour, and the employer the value of his money.
Men with large families no doubt received more under
the allowance system than they do now, and this is
no doubt felt by all labourers so circumstanced. But
then against this evil must be placed the low wages
paid to unmarried men, and married men without large
families. In fact, the one description of labourers got
more than the fair rate of wages, because the other
got less than their fair share. The allowance-system
makes one description of labourers contribute to
maintain the families of the others. So long as the
allowance-system continued, it was hopeless to think
of improving the labourers. With independence,
every thing is possible. The labourers, thrown upon
their own resources, cannot escape from care and
thought respecting their condition. Under the old
law, they had the strongest of all temptations to be-
come careless and improvident. One of the conse-
quences of the new state of things will no doubt be
the extension of benefit societies. So long as men
had the parish to go to, they had no motive to enter
into these societies. There has been on all sides a
disposition to exaggerate the extent of pauperism in
England under the old system. Though it pervaded
a large portion of England, yet particular districts only
were affected. How small a proportion to the whole
sum expended on labour was the whole amount of
money expended on the poor, both in country and
toy, n. This is the best answer to those who contend
that without rates in aid of wages the condition of the
English labourers will sink to the level of the Irish
peasant. How happens it that in Ireland itself wages
in some counties are twice as high as in others ?
Morning Chronicle.
The division of last Thursday on Mr. Emerson
Tennent's motion for the second reading of the " Bel-
fast Waterworks" Bill was a curiosity in House of
Commons proceedings, and must be acknowledged as
such, even by those gross tools of the Ministers who
are capable of denying that there was in it something
more than commonly atrocious. The Bill was a pri-
vate one, for serving two purposes, most essential to the
inhabitants of Belfast, and interesting to the cause of
charity. That important town has been hitherto sup-
plied with water by the use of certain funds vested in
public works under the administration of a society,
which is compelled by Act of Parliament to turn the
profits to the maintenance of a Poor-house for the
aged and infirm. Belfast having tripled in population
since the first establishment of the aforesaid Society,
it had become indispensable to enlarge the works, and
with them the supply of water, from which would also
arise of necessity a more extended relief to the poor.
Such were the objects of the new Bill brought in by Mr.
Emerson Tennent, some clauses of which expressly pro-
vided, that no springs or water should be taken with-
out lcaY, and without compensation to the owners.
Now, it is difficult to imagine any measure more salu-
tary than this, or less objectionable on any ground of
feeling, principle, or sound policy. It is further to be
recollected, that private Bills, of which this is one, are
seldom or never thrown out on the second reading. If
specific objections be made to them, they are reserved
for the Committee. Members, as a general rule, do
not vote on private Bills, unless in some manner con-
nected with the subject of them ; or if Members not
so connected do give their votes, they have generally
during this Session supported the second readings.
What then has happened in the present case ? Cap-
tain Pechell, Member for Brighton, in no degree ap-
pertaining to Belfast, but a sort of mungrel partisan
of the Melbourne Ministry, moved the second reading
of the Bill for " that day six months," on the alle-
gation that the Irish " Municipal Bill" would super-
sede the charitable society in its objects ; inferring, we
presume, that the latter ought, therefore, to be sup-
pressed.. But we beg leave to ask of Captain Pechell,

Ist, ..hat right exists in the framers of the Popish
Corporation Bill to propose to Parliament the e:ttinc-
tion of a charitable society so constituted; the spolia-
tion of its property and vested rights, and the conse-
'fluent i•obbety of the poor, whom it has hithe46 sip- •
ilortecl ? 2d, How Captain Pech',::ll has made sure
that • the Popish Cot-p-ration Bill will be car-lied, and
thus th° htnieficent purposes of \lr. Emerson Ten-
' nat's Bill be at all effected by any other means than
those afforded by the Bill itself ? The Popish Corpo-
ration Bill may pass into an Act or Parliament abcut
the same year of our Lord when Captain Pechell be-
comes First Lord of the Adiniralty-not an hour
sooner. This, however, is not all. Lord Belfast,
the value of whose regular votes for Ministers is un-
impaired by Any frequent efforts of that noble and en-
lightened Lord to illustrate his votes by his speeches,
followed Captain Pechell in objecting to the " Wa-
ter.vorks Bill." Meaning to be both serious and
civil, we shall say nothing about his Lordship's ar-
guments on this occasion, beyond that of his voting
vigorously in favour of the Treasury bench, to whose oc-
cupants on public quest, ns (which the one alluded to
was not) Mr. Emerson Tennent is opposed. But so it
vas, that on a division where the minority for the second
reading was 24, and the majority not more than 32, there
weme enumerated among the latter no less than 12
officials of Downing-street, of whom two were Cabi-
net 'Ministers, viz., Lords John Russell, and Mor-
peth, Sir C. Adam, Lord Dahnenv, Robert Gordon,
Sir G. Grey, Sir Alexander Leith Hay, the Lord
Advocate, More O'Ferrall, Sir Henry Parnell,'
Vernon Smith, E. J. Stanley. Is not this, we ask
them, a flagrant vote ?—upon a Private Bill, brought
in, to be sure, by a political adversary. Twelve of
the Cabinet household troops break through the habi-
tual usages of the House of Commons, debar the Pro-
testant population of Belfast of the comfort of a liberal
supply of water, deprive the aged and infirm poor of
the advantages which they might have hoped to enjoy
from an increase of the capital by the profits on which
they were subsisted—involving at the same time in the
frightful expenses of a defeated Act of Parliament, a
' Charitable Association, which had already laid out
forty thousand pounds on objects exclusively profitable
to others, and gaining no one conceivable good, but
the achievement of a victory over the destitute paupers
of a town, whose electors have sent to represent them
in Parliament Gentlemen opposed to the Rump and
O'Connell policy. This is unquestionably no less
decorous and magnanimous, than huMane and honest.
—Times.

Since the illtimed, indecent, and infuriate demon-
stration made by the Bishops against the. Ministerial
proposition to provide a substitute for Church-rates,
the opposition to the continuace of that hated tax has
every where become more active and determined. Pub-
lic feeling is roused into an indignant manifestation by
the cheat which, under cover of fraudulently manufac-
tured petitions, was attempted to be practised on the
Legislature, and those who were first to sign petitions
in favour of the present system, under the lying and
ridiculous assurance that an attemot was about to be
made " to destroy and pull down the Church," are
they who, on becoming acquainted with the real na-
ture of the measure proposed by the Government, are
most anxious to support it, and to counteract the ef-
fects of the imposture practised upon them by exerting
themselves in every fair and laudable way to promote
the abolition of the rates, or rather, the substitution of a
more just and appropriate provision for the wants of the
Church. To witness the numerous abuses endeavoured to
be screened under the sanction of the Church, one would
suppose that the custom still existed of allowing the
greatest criminals to be intact within its sanctuary.
Wherever an evil is proposed to be redressed, however
unconnected with the Church Establishment, the ad-
vocates of that evil immediately discover some plea to
show that the removal of the abuse would compromise
or endanger the safety of the Church. Thus, to esta-
blish a fair and free system of municipal government in
Ireland—or to provide for the maintenance of the fabric
of the Church out of any source but from the pockets
of the Dissenters, is denounced as tending to the utter
destruction not only of the Church Establishment, but
even of the religion associated with it--nay, of Chris-
tianity itself ; so, that the Orange Corporations of Ire-
land—the tithe persecutions and murders in the same
part of the kingdom—the plunder of the English
Dissenters in the shape of Church-rates, are all
hung upon the horns of the altar, nor should it excite
surprise if the enormities thus accumulated on. such
fragile supporters should precipitate the inevitable ca-
tastrophe. The Church has so many political male-
factions crowded into it for protection—so many false
friends seeking shelter within its walls—that there is
no small danger of the fabric itself being severely bat-
tered in the effort to get at the corruptions which are
ensconced or said to be ensconced in it. The pro-
ceedings at the meeting of the inhabitants of Lambeth,
held at the Horns Tavern last night, which will be
found in another part of this journal, and to which we-
have much satisfaction to direct our readers' attention,
furnish a perfect corroboration of our representation
of the state of public opinion. But a further corro-
boration of our opinion is yet in store, which perhaps
will render any subsequent exertion unnecessary. The
necessity of this demonstration, however, rests on con-
tingencies.—Morning Advertiser.
The Melbourne Ministers prepare two measures
for the benefit of Ireland—a measure upon the
subject of Irish tithes, and a measure upon the
subject of Irish corporations. Now there are
many and obvious reasons to induce them to
give precedence in point of time to their mea-
sure upon the subject of Irish tithes. In the first
place, the grievance which it professes to remedy is of
the widest possible extent, and of the deepest possible
malignity. Whatever may be the defects of the pre-
sent state of the Irish corporations, the institutions to
which the blame is attributed exist only in some par-
ticular towns, and the evil alleged to result from
them consisted of misappropriation of funds and
abuse of patronage. But the mischief arising
from the present state of the Irish Church ques
tion is one which is spreading though every county,
through every hamlet, through every cabin of
the island, and the phenomena by which we
trace its course are destruction of property, defiance of
law, riot, bloodshed, murder. Again, upon the ne-
cessity of immediately settling the Irish Tithe ques-
tion all parties are agreed :—Sir Robert Peel as well
as Lord John Russell, and Lord Lyndhurst as well
as Lord Melbourne, are prepared to express a distinct
and definite opinion upon the matter. But with re-
spect to the Irish Corporation question, the arguments
of the opponents of the Ministerial scheme is ob-
viously rather for postponement than for rejection. The
settlement of the Tithe question on principles which
should secure the Establ:shed Protestant Church of
Ireland against the rapacity of the agitators would
undoubtedly- weaken the objections now justly en-
tertained against a Bill which night legalize in
every borough town a forum for their agitation.
:end, finally, the Tithe Question is the ques-
tion to which Lord Melbourne owes the seals he
holds. The present Ministers are only Ministers
because the House of Commons resolved that the
Tithe Question must be settled in a particular
manner, and that its settlement admitted of no de-
lay. If it is now to be settled in any other man-
ner, or if its settlement is now found to admit of any
delay, it is time for the friends of Mr. O'Connell to
give place to honester men. For these several reasons
we should have supposed that the Government would
have felt it to be both right and expedient to make
their Irish Tithe Bill their first object. Diis aliter
visunt ! We learned from the Morning Chronicle
yesterday, that the Irish Municipal Corporation
Bill is to be forwarded to the Lords imme-
diatelp after the holidays ; and we learned from
Lord John Russell, some days ago, that it cer-
tainly was the intention of Government to intro-
duce a Bill on the subject of Irish Tithes after
the Easter recess—but he could not say at what
period. Seeking a reason for the adoption of this
course by the Cabinet, we can find none but that
which is suggested by a speech of Mr. O'Connell, to
which frequent reference has been made—a speech in
which that Learned Gentleman justified to his un-
learned countrymen his postponement of the Tithe
question, his postponement of the Repeal question,
and his postponement of a dozen other questions,
each in its turn the one thing needful, by a strong
profession of his faith, that, if he had but Corporation

Reftnitt, tli~r rdst would Unavoidably follow. We
imagine that the- same belief reCOnutiends the.
Ministry a 111
pu,tpcine ti-0; ii.b4tieii of the 'Protestant Church
to the establishment of Popish Corporations, be-
cau.se they, like their master, regard the establish-
ment of Popish Corporations as inevitably leading to
the abolition of the Protestant Church: The defen-
ders of the Protestant Church in the Upper House of
Parliament will hilt be blind t 6 these Appearailees.
Cho Will Asti a reason For the continued withholding

of the Irish Tithe Bill by those Ministers who have
hem for two sessions so unanimously agreed upon its

- .
principle and details. And seeing the present c rcum-
,tances of Ireland unfit for the introduction of poFular
municipal institutions—seeing also in the prevailing
excitement upon the Tithe question one of the circum-
stances which most tend to create that unfitness—

they will insist on the production of the Bill which is
to set the Tithe question at Test before they sanction
the enactment of a statute which would encourage and
augment the excitement upon it.—Morning Post.
At the commencement of the present Session ofPar-
liainent, Lord John Russell intimated, in very intel-
ligible terms, that it was the intention of the Adminis-
tration to which he belongs to resign, if they were
unsuccessful in -carrying the Irish Municipal Bill in
the House of Lords. • Whether this was intended as
a threat, or a proclamation of defeat, or an indirectin-
vitation to a compromise upon other matters, which
Ministers have heretofore put forward as vital ques-
tions, we do not undertake to determine ; but whatever
the intention may have been, it seems to have failed in
its effect. Neither Ministers, nor any other portion of
the Parliament or the public, now expect that the Irish
Municipal Bill will: pass the House of Lords. The
interesting question, therefore, which is generally dis-
cussed in political coteries is this—will Ministers ad-
here to the determination announced at the opening of
the Session ?—will the rejection of the Municipal Bill
by the House of Lords lead to the resignation of the
present Ministry ? If the men now in place were men
of eminence in character, in talent, or in what is called
political following, there would be no doubt about the
matter, because such men would lose more by forfeit-
ing a pledge than they possibly could by exclusion
from the Government. But the present men, except as
Ministers, are nothihg ; and of this they themselves must
long have been conscious. To them the sacrifice of
office would be a sacrifice not only of emoluments which
are convenient, of power which is agreeable, and of
patronage which is both one and the other, but it
would be a sacrifice of station as public men. To
make a party by themselves would be ridiculous, be-
cause the number of their Parliamentary adherents is
so small. They should, as they did before, join the
Radicals in opposition, and after the experience which
the Radicals have had, they would no longer suffer
themselves to be led by Lord John Russell or Mr.
Spring Rice. Were the present Ministers thrown
into opposition, they could rank only as second or
third rates in the House of Commons ; and in the

other House as nothing at all. Lord John Russell,
on account of his connections, and a kind of middling
fluency, and artificial dignity; which he possesses as a
Parliamentary speaker, might still command some im-
portance in the House of CommoUs ; but for the rest
they would necessarily give place to those eminsnt Par-
liamentary heroes Mr. Roebuck and Sir Win. Moles-
worth. This being the state of the case, it may be easily
conceived with what extreme reluctance the present Mi-
nisters contemplate a resignation, and how ready they
will be to grasp at any excuse, or any expedient which
may present itself, to relieve them from the pledge
made at the opening of the session. On the other
hand, we may be sure that it will not be pressed upon
them by the Conservative opposition, who have so little
temptation, and, as far as we can at present see, so
little desire, to occupy the seats of the Ministers. If in
their present position they can prevent injury from
being done to the institutions of the country, they will
not seek to change it for that of the Treasury benches.
Their importance does not depend upon official station,
nor are the personal advantages of office in the slightest
degree a temptation to those on the Conservative side
of the House of Commons, who in the event of a change
would probably -become Ministers. - Of this also the
present Administration must be conscious; and there will
be the more inducement to them to seek some excuse
for not fulfilling their pledge of resignation, as they
know that though it may encounter a little sarcasm from
Sir Robert Peel, and some expressions of haughty
scorn from Lord Stanley, it will not be seriously taken
up, or systematically exposed in Parliament. On these
grounds, we doubt that the threatened resignation will
take place, even should the House of Lords, according
to the general expectation, throw out the Municipal
Bill. It will, however be a mortifying case for the Mi-
nisters, even though they have the consolation of still
being in office ;;and if another session should conclude,
in which the Ministers of the Crown have been able
to effect nothing beyond the ordinary details of busi-
ness, it will require all the philosophic indifference of
Lords Melbourne and Palmerston, all the miniature
declamation of Lord John Russell, and all the finesse
of Mr. Spring Rice, to retire to the leisure of another
autumn without stronger manifestations of public con-
tempt than even they would find it possible to endure
with equanimity. Their present object seems to be
to imbue the public mind in England with such
impressions as will cause the rejection of the Irish
Municipal Bill by the House of Lords to be received
with popular disapprobation. They seem to think it not
impossible to get up something like a popular excite-
ment in favour of the Bill. This, we think, is a forlorn
hope ; and if Ministers be well advised, they will look
for some other excuse for staving in than the desire of
the British people to see tried in Ireland the experi-
ment of popular municipalities. We think they ought
to give the people of England credit for more depth of
observation than to suppose they allow themselves to
be deceived by mere similarity of names. If we know
that local government, constituted by popular election,
is useful to us here, we also know why it is so. We
know that freedom and independence on the part of
the electors, and honesty and judgment on the part of
the elected, are necessary to make our system a bene-
ficial one. We know also, from the speci:nens of
elections of another kind, which take place in Ireland,
how vain it would be to expect either independence or
honesty in Irish municipal elections, while that country
is in its present state. Our regret, therefore, wilt be,
not that the Imperial Parliament has rejected a Bill
for giving popular municipalities to Ireland, but that
Ireland is kept in such a state of agitation as to render
it impossible to grant these municipalities with a pro-
spect of advantage.—Morning Herald.

An Address to the Archbishop of Canterbury is in
the course of signature in this city and its vicinity, thanking
his Grace for the firmness with which he has withstood the
measure for the abolition of Church-rates.— Wilts Herald.

It is a circumstance not unworthy of remark, that
within the space of three months, fourteen persons have died
at Swanagc, whose ages in the aggregate amount to 1069
years, averaging something more than 76 years each.

The picture galleries of the Louvre at Paris are
haunted by a gang of the most expert pickpockets, who daily
levy large contributions upon all, but particularly the lady visi-
tors. It is said that some new discoveries have been made in
the art of pocket emptying, whereby the facilities of conveying
property from one party to another are greatly increased, and
that it is as yet only known to a few select at Paris, and the
practitioners in the London omnibuses. The inventor, a
Frenchman, is actually debating with himself whether or not
to take out a patent for his improvement. The cases of the
alterations are said to be purely scientific and philosophical.
For the present the practitioners have succeeded in eluding the
vigilance of the police, but it is surely no small comfort to the
losers to feel that they have been " drawn" by the most new,
refined, and intellectual process I—French Paper.
Albion
tpi
oo
nn do en t f
ano f theei
ctrom Liverpool
agne
tie engine
accSomTpEaAnilers.—theAspCeocrizas
invented in America by a letter in which the following passage
occurs:—" If this is not the identical machine which will su-
persede the steam-engine, and give to man the same power
and dominion over magnetism and electricity which he already
possesses over steam, it may. at least, be a very important
step towards the attainment of that stupendous object."
Ma. (MON N ELL.—Then gentleman is popularly
known by the designation of " the Great Agitator;" and per-
haps no single term is so happily descriptive of the general
character of his public carreer. He may almost be regarded
as the originator of a new mode of influencing the public
mind with reference to political subjects. This method is
termed Agitation—a word which would have been unintelli-
gible 'nalf-a-century ago, and which to the more timid and un-
thini*.ing of the present generation, conveys the idea of general
ins`JeuritY and anarehy ; but which still designates the process
to which we owe All the public improvement which the past
t,qfaity years have witnessed.—Leicestershire Xercury,

POST-OFFICE -ADDITIONAL

M

'file following arc extracts frorii ihe seterith Report of
le Commissioners appointetl to inqu'sc into the manage-

went of th Post-Office department :

DETENTION OF CORRESPONDENCE PASSING THROUGH

LONDON,
During our ititestigAtion respecting enei-
trActi; ,diir attC,ntion hitt been freritiently talied to the in-
doritenience , in filatiY dd6di afise§ freiti the dClay in
the transmission of letters, and particularly to the detention

for 14 hours of all correspondence passing through Lon-
don. We are now enabled to offer to your Lordships
some suggestions by which this delay may be obviated to
a considerable extent, without imposing any charge on the
department much beyond what may be expected to be re-
ceived from the incre4sed revenue, which has generally
been found to follow any additional facility of j o in unic
tion afforded to the public.
Sir H. Freeling has stated that in 1830 the attention of
the postmaster-general was called to the applications which
had been made, " with the object of inducing him to adopt
measures to obviate the delay attaching to letters passing
through London."
We cannot ascertain that any decision was then come
to, although it was represented that " the expense of re-
medying the evil would not be great, that it would be ex-
ceedingly palatable to the public, and that it might not,
improbably, be attended with an increase to the revenue,
from the additional facility afforded to correspondence."
All the inconvenience which existed in 1830 still pre-
vails, and to such a degree, that an answer cannot be re-
ceived to a letter passing between two post towns on oppo-
site sides of London, even when the whole distance be-
tween the towns does not exceed twenty miles, until the
fifth, or, by the intervention of Sunday, the sixth day after
the letter is despatched.
We directed an account to be kept for a week of the
number of letters detained in passing through London.
The whole amounted to 38,736, the postage charged on
them being 1,3871. ss. 4d. We have appended another
return, limited to towns within eighty miles of London,
and for a similar period, by which it appears that the num-
ber of letters detained in transit, whose destination was
within this circle was 22,549, of which 12,584 were for

the respective towns named in the returns, and the re-
mainder (9,965) for the adjacent places within the delivery
of the towns.

A large proportion of this correspondence might be for-
warded by the day coaches, and reach its destination before
the hour at which the mails are now despatched from
London. •

Having communicated with the Secretary and the di

ferent officers of the department on the expediency of acce-
lerating the letters in transit in this manner, we do not
hesitate to recommend to your lordships that the necessary
arrangements should be made for despatching letters which
arrive by the morning mails to every post town to which
they can be conveyed by a stage-coach in time for delivery
the same evenini. It appears, from the following extracts,
from the evidence of two of the presidents of the inland de-
partment, that no practical difficulty will be experienced by
this arrangement :
" Mr. Johnson, Superintending President.

" In the event of the Post-office undertaking to send let-
ters from London in the morning by some of the private
stage coaches, do you conceive that such arrangement
would entail much additional trouble and expense upon the
Post-office ?—As far as regards the despatch of letters, if
it were confined entirely to that, I think the expense would
not be considerably increased ; but I do not speak with re-
gard to the expense of conveying.
" Confining yourself, in the first instance, to the suppo-
sition that letters are not to be received in London for the
purpose of being transmitted by morning mails, but simply
to transmit those letters which would be in London for the
evening mails—taking that limited view of the question,
do you consider that much additional trouble would be oc-
casioned to your department of the Post Office in carrying
that system into effect ?—I think it quite possible, if con-
veyances were provided, that the morning letters arriving
from the country might be despatched without much addi-
tional assistance as regards the clerks of that department.
They might be employed in despatching those letters im-
mediately after the departure of the letter-carriers.
" Mr. Watts, President.

" Do you think that the Post Office could, without any
great inconvenience, afford means for despatching letters
by the morning coaches ?—No doubt of it.
" For instance, if a morning coach left London at half-
past ten o'clock, the letters that had come up that morning
could go out by that. morning's coach ?—Certainly ; taking
it for granted that our office is pretty clear of all London
letters by nine o'clock, between that and ten, or half-past
ten, all those letters could be prepared for sending.
" As far as merely sending off the letters that had come
from the country, it would not need any additional as-
sistance, because the letters are made up in the morning?
—They must go through another operation, but it could be
easily done."
It is impossible to form an accurate estimate of the ex-
pense which will be incurred, or the additional revenue
which will be derived, in consequence of the acceleration
we propose. We believe that your Lordships would be
diSposed to sanction some outlay, if the benefit were to be
confined merely to that number of letters of which an esti-
mate has been made from the returns to which we have al-
ready referred.
From the information which we have received relative to
the conveyance of letters by stage coaches, in order to pre-
vent their detention in London, we think it likely that a
material increase Kill take place, more particularly as the
illegal means of conveyance is not generally resorted to
with a view to defraud the revenue, but from necessity.
We have been assured by different individual, that, with
commercial and professional men, the amount of postage is
always a secondary consideration, compared with the cer-
tainty and speed of conveyance. But were it otherwise, it
appears that in most cases, the expense of sending letters
by a coach is greater than the rate of postage for the same
distance.
Most of the mail-coach proprietors have day coaches at
present ; and we think, therefore, that they would be in-
duced to take the morning bags at a very moderate expense,
rather than run the chance of havinc, separate mails estab-
lished, which, if taken by other people, would produce op-
position to their business. By so doincrt they would profit
beyond the actual emolument received from the Post-office,
in consequence of that preference which passengers natu-
rally give to the coaches carrying mails, which are con-
sidere by the public more punctual.
In Ireland advantage has already been taken, in several
instances, of the established day-coaches, for the purpose of
forwarding letters which arrive in Dublin in the morning,
and would otherwise be liable to the same detention as now
takes place in the General Post-office in London.
Mr. Purcell, the principal mail-contractor, for a series of
years conveyed the English mail from Dublin to Belfast
without any charge, and with perfect security, although
without the sanction of the Post-office. He has given a
practical proof of the great accommodation which may be
afforded to the public, and at a small expense to the Post-
office, by means of day coaches ; his evidence on this sub-
ject is important :
(Extract from the evidence of Mr. Peter Purcell.)

" Do you run other coaches besides mail coaches in Ire-
land ?—A great number.
"Do any of those coaches carry mail-bags ? Only one
of them. That is now paid for -by the Post-office. It is
the Belfast day-mail. At the instance of merchants at Bel-
fast, I proposed to the Post-office to convey the mail-bag
with the English letters at eight o'clock in the morning, on
the arrival of the Holyhead pockets, for their convenience.
I submitted it at the time to the Post-office. They would
not recognise it in any shape. They would not even pay a
guard, much less pay me any mileage. However, for the
convenience of the people that I was so much connected
with, and that had served me so much, I carried the mail
for sixteen years for nothing, from Dublin to Belfast and
back daily.
" What difference, in point of time, did that alteration
make to the inhabitants of Belfast ? They got the letters
in the evening, instead of getting them the following morn-
ing ; and they got also the English papers, which was a
very important advantage ; they got them at all the clubs
and public places at nine in the evening, instead of receiv-
ing them at ten the next morning.
Do the mails all leave Dublin at the same time ? No,
the majority leave at seven o'clock in the evening ; there is a
mid-day mail to Cork, which starts at one o'clock in the day.
o Is that the only one which does not leave Dublin at
seven o'clock P—Now there is an established mail to Bel-
fast, and I am allowed 400/. a-year, within the last three or
four years, for that coach, which leaves at eight o'clock in
the morning ; it reaches at eight m the evening ; it is a
heavy coach; and also a Kilkenny clay-mail, leaving Dublin
at the same hour.
Is it the practice in Ireland for the Post-office to send
letters by any coach which is not a regular mail ?—This is
the only instance in which it has been recognised.
" Would it not be a great convenience to many parts of
Ireland if letters were sent by some of those day-coaches,
instead of waiting for the mails in the evening P—A very
material advantage.
" Would the expense be very great should think
very little ; as far as I am concerned in the day-coaches I
have, I should be very glad to afford the accommodation at
a very small sum. Being a large contractor, it is no great
object to me ; the responsibility is not very great. The
day-mail by which I conveyed those letters for many years
was done with perfect security ; there was not an instance
of a loss, though the guards were my own servants, and
paid by myself, not under the control of the Post-office.
" Does it produce much inconvenience in the manage-

tfient Of a 44y-coach by Occasioning delay ? No : rot worth

-
fegardlng:i •-- •
In the case referred' to lry Mr: Purcell; neither the cott;:ll
nor any of the servants to whom the ttta.3ll were intrusted
if ere the control of the Post-office.
We arc of optitto'-; itkiwever: that when bags of letters
are conveyed by day-coaches, flid:;• lhould be. placed'unde:-
the care of a guard appointed and paid by file Peo,-office.
The edditional expense will not be great ; it has been cal=
culated that twentrtil guards will be required, and that
the expense of each would be about 801. a-year. Ti;is
caleithitidn is titade on the supposition that they are not
to be allthttiti td reeeire any fee frpm
.passengers. By
employing guards, the publie will hate the same security
for their correspondence as at present, rind there will be
a check on the irregularities which might otherwise recur
in the arrival and departure of the coaches. They wAI
further enable the Post-office- to establish additional .com-
munications between the different towns through which
the day.rttaila pass, by means of by. bags ; this will be pro-
ductive of some additional revenue.