The Sun.
London, England, 1837-11-01 00:00:00

PARLIAMENT.

EVERY ONE LOOKS FORWARD TO
THE FAST APPROACHING SES-
SION-THE FIRST OF A NEW
REIGN-FULL OF PROMISE AND
UNIVERSAL INTEREST ; AND
EVERY ONE IN THE COUNTRY
LOOKS FORWARD WITH CON-
FIDENCE TO THE SECOND OR
EXPRESS EDITIONS OF

"THE SUN"

FOR THE
BEST AND EARLIEST

INFORMATION
ON ALL IMPORTANT MATTERS.
WE SAY-THEY WILL NOT BE
DISAPPOINTED. WE MERELY
REFER TO THE PAST AS A
PLEDGE FOR THE FUTURE,

"THE SUN"

OF
TIIURSDAY, NINTH OF NOVEMBER,

WILL GIVE A VERY
FULL ACCOUNT
OF THE

ROYAL PROCESSION,
FESTIVITY, &c. ON

LORD MAYOR'S DAY,
SO. AS TO REACH ALL PARTS OF
ENGLAND ON THE FOLLOWING
MORNING, AND SCOTLAND AND
IRELAND THE NEXT.
N.8.-EARLY ORDERS SHOULD BE GIVEN.

The publication of THE SUN NEWSPAPER commenced this day
at 20 minutes past Three o' Clock.

LONDON :
WEDNESDAY EVENING. NOVEMBER 1, 1837

It is an old maxim that those who have obtained a
character for early rising may sleep all day. Now of
all our public establishments this applies most truly to
the Post-office, the management of which for the last
thirty years had been cried up as the very pattern of
excellence for all other departments of the Government
to imitate—a very model of perfection and purity !
But behold the result of a small portion of the working
system of that " well conducted" department I
Towards the close of last, Session Mr. WA LLACE
moved for a " Return of the number of cases which have
occurred from the sth January, 1829, to the sth Jan.
1837, of letters franked or unfranked, addressed to
persons in London, Dublin, and Edinburgh, or which
have been applied for through the General Post-office
of those cities, containing money, bills, Bank notes,
or other property, which have been demanded there-
from by private parties, as undelivered; with the amount
thereof in each case, so far as relates to the General
Post-office of England," and it is now printed for cir-
culation—together with a similar return so far as re-
lates to the Twopenny Post-office in London. These
returns extend over 81 folio pages, in double columns.
The total number of cases may be stated at about twelve
thousand; and the amount ofproperty lost at 658,2201.
for England and Wales ; including 13,5411. 18s. 11d.
lost in the Twopenny Post-office in London ! There
are 691 cases, in which the amount of property lost
is not stated.

Our readers may thus judge of the wholesale plunder
which is daily going on, almost without the possi-
bility of detection, when there have been only 28
cases out of the 12,000 " in which persons in the
employ tc)f the Post-office have been convicted in
England and Wales of purloining letters containing
property."

We have repeatedly urged on the Government and
the Post-office Authorities the necessity of esta-
blishing a Registry system, similar to the one
which was found to work so beneficially in Ireland,
previous to the consolidation of the Post-offices
of the United Kingdom under one head : and we have
no doubt, that in consequence of these returns, the
Member for Greenock will take decisive steps to bring
a subject of so much importance, haft in a pecuniary
and moral point of view, before Parliament. A plan
to prevent these daily robberies might be easily adopted,
at a cost perhaps of 500/, br 600/. for two or three
additional clerks. The Post-office Commissioners,
who were appointed to enquire into the management of
the Post-office, ought to take up the subject ; for it is
high time something should be done to abate a nuis-
ance which i 4 nationally disgraceful, and individually
ruinous,

In referring last week to a public meeting, held at
Carrick-on•Suir, to enquire into the benefits likely to
arise from the establishment of a branch of the Na-
tional Loan Fund Life Assurance Society in that dis-
trict of the United Kingdom, we intimated that we
would take the earliest opportunity of again reverting
to the subject. We observe, with much satisfaction,
that it is proposed in Ireland to establish a system of
weekly and monthly payments, for the greater conve-
nience and encouragement of such of the assured as
belong to the working classes ; and we trust that a si-
milar regulation will be adopted in this country.
There arc hundreds of artizans who could afford to pay
the sum of two shillings, or half-a-crown, weekly, who

would find it very difficult to advance five pounds at
any given period, with a certainty of its having to be
repeated every subsequent year of their lives. We
likewise highly approve of the system of increasing and
decreasing scales of payment. The prosperous farmer,
thriving mechanic, and thrifty young shopkeeper, will
find it their interest to make the heaviest payments
first, in order that should the profits of their respective

employments diminish they may still find no difficulty
in keeping up the payments upon their policies ;
whereas clerks in public offices, and men so circum-

stanced as to be able to forward with confidence

,o an annual increase of income, may find it to thcir

advantage to increase their payments, rather than forego
the effecting of such a policy in early life as may ren-
der their death less ruinous to their families. But to

be really beneficial to the country, this Institution must
proceed on grounds totally different from those of all
the Assurance Companies hitherto established. The
objects of its solicitude must be the middling and the
working classes—not the men of high rank and large
fortune, whose prudence is employed in adding to a
heap already too extensive for the supply of their own
wants, and those of their offspring. What is chiefly
wanted is an Assurance Company which will devote
itself to the fostering of habits of economy among the
poor—which will make its coffers the safe depositary,
not of the pounds, but of the shillings and the pence
snatched weekly from the public-house, for securing
the comparative independence of the widow and the
orphan. To effect this, great industry, care and perse-
verance will be necessary, and higher motives must
guide the Directors than a narrow, selfish regard to
_ _ _

their own immediate interests. In Ireland, for exam-
ple, such an Institution may effect incalculable good,
by lending small sums to farmers on the security of
their crops, at low rates of interest ; never allowing the
principal to remain unpaid for longer periods than

three, six, nine, and twelve months. This mode of en-
couraging agriculture has long been in operation in
Scotland, under the management of the National
Banks ; and to it may be attributed much both of the
prosperity and the prudent habits of our fellow-subjects
in that portion of the empire. The banks and the agri-

culturists both gain ; and as the investments of cap

.al are seldom liable to the smallest risk, the former

have comparatively nothing to fear from the fluctua-
tions in trade which so frequently ruin such Institutions,
on the southern side of the Tweed. In fact it is as a
Loan Society, accessible to men of small capital, that
the new Institution can render the most valuable ser-

vices to the sister country.
It has been suggested by a Correspondent that the
Loan Fund ought not to be confined to the exclusive
benefit of the assured. As regards Ireland we are of
a different opinion ; though we freely admit that at the
commencement, the loans advanced should have refe-
rence rather to the amount of the policy than the money
paid upon it. By limiting the loans to the assured,
encouragement is given to all to cultivate habits of
economy ; and as the necessity for more than individual
security for repayment will thus be obviated, the as-
sured will be raised immeasurably in their own esteem,
and thus a high moral feeling will be generated among
the rural population. Nothing raises the character,
and refines the feelings of a people more than placing
confidence in them ; and fortunately in this case it may
be done without the possibility of the most trifling risk.
In addressing the meeting at Carrick.on-Suir, Mr.
LAM IE MURRAY, the Founder and Chairman of this
Institution, entered into some very interesting details of
the advantages which it may be made to confer upon the

agricultural classes, besides those we have already allu-
ded to—namely, the effecting insurances upon lives on
expiring leases, and the measures that might be adopted
to purchase the fee-simple of lands for the benefit of
children. These are questions which we shall not now
seek to investigate. But there is one suggestion which
we have to offer which appears to us well worthy
the consideration of the Society. The objects of the
Institution are two-fold—to encourage and reward
early habits of economy ; and to secure to those de-
pending upon the industry of the assured the benefit
resulting from a long course of virtuous self-denial.
Now, suppose the assured were to die in debt, and at the
same time leave a large family of children depending
upon him for support, the point we would have the
Directors determine is—whether the Assurance would
be paid over to the children or the creditors ? Our
own impression is that that Life Policies are debts
which fathers contract with their children ; and that
in equity the claims of the latter ought to take prece-
dence of all others. - By the fact of assuring his life
every husband and every father acknowledges, and as
far as he can establishes, the fact of his being the
debtor of his family...- The law of the land, and the
usages of Assurance Societies, ought to take cogni-
zance of this fact. But then it may be urged that no
person would lend money on Life Policies were
such a principle admitted. Granted. Nor would
such a system of borrowing be resorted to, were
Assurance Offices to imitate the example of the
National Loan Fund Society, in becoming them-
selves the lenders of the highest sums likely to be ad-
vanced on such securities. Upon this question,
however, we would be distinctly understood as merely
' throwing out a suggestion, which we consider capable
of being turned to valuable account. It is one of
those of which practical men are likely to make good
use ; and to such do we submit it. For details of the
proceedings of the National Loan Society, we refer to
an advertisement in our columns of to-day.

The Bishop of ROCHESTER has published a
" Charge," which he has been delivering to the Clergy
in the course of a recent perambulation of his diocese.
Were we to form our opinion of the Right Rev. Pre..
late's character from what may he gathered from this
pastoral document, we should say that the mitre of
Rochester sits upon a very empty head, and that this
emptiness is by no means compensated by a super-
abundance of the Christian graces in that organ out
of which, we arc taught to believe, arc the " issues of
life." The object of the Right Rev. Charger is to
make the persons whom he addresses dissatisfied with
the laws lately passed respecting ecclesiastical matters;
and in pursuing this purpose—so worthy of an over-
seer of the flock of CHRIST, and a teacher of righteous-
ness—he shows a desire to do mischief, which is
equalled only by the ignorance displayed on some of
the subjects which he undertakes to handle.
The Bishop commences by a pompous disclaimer
of any participation on his part in the measures re-
commended by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and
a gentle hint to his brother Bishops in the Commis-
sion, that they are somewhat to blame for not having
consulted him before they sanctioned such sweeping
changes in the Church. He then tackles to the Tithe
Commutation and the Registration Acts. With
the former of these measures be seems rather at a
loss what fault to find. It is clear enough that he is
" willing to wound, but yet afraid to strike." He
cannot deny that the Commutation of Tithe Act is
" as favourable an arrangement towards the Clergy as
could have been expected ;" but at the same time im-
putes this result not so much to the justice as to the
self-interest of the laity. " Happily," charges the
Bishop of ROCHESTER, " happily for the Church a
powerful and influential body of the laity were also
holders of tithe property to a very large amount, and
were as much interested in a fair settlement of the ques-
tion as we were. The Clergy, therefore, in this in-
stance have experienced a greater degree of justice than
has been extended towards them in the discussion of

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