The Sun.
London, England, 1837-05-10 00:00:00

the letters being detained in the country, they ought to be sent
to the General Post-office. In London the letters were safe,
while in the country Post-offices the letters were opened, family
secrets were disclosed, and money was abstracted.—( Hear.)
lie had to observe, that if he brought an action against a Post-
master in the country for the detention of a letter, the Post-
master-General would come forward to defend that person.
This was, he thought, a just subject for complaint.—( Hear.)
Last year an Act had been brought into that House for doing
away with the office of Postmaster-General. He believed
that the Right Hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer and
the Government intended to do it away. That Act had
passed the House of Commons. There had been no division
upon it in that House ; but, like other good measures, it was
met in the other House most unceremoniously, and very
rapidly got its quietus.—(Laughter.) No sooner had the
present Session commenced than Members of the Govern-
ment declared their intention of renewing Bills which had
been thrown out by the Lords last Session. He had a sort
of feeling that the Bill would not be brought in. He put a
question on the subject to the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
another Hon. Member put the same question, and the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer promised to bring in a Bill in April
and he stated then that if the Bill was not brought in, now a
month after that time, he should pat a notice on the books to
bring in such a Bill. He wished to know whether the packet-
establishment was to be carried on by contract, or by the mode
it was at present. He was quite favourable to its being done
by contract. He had the Post-office returns, which were suffi-
cient to half fill a portmanteau, and he was sorry to be obliged
to say that many of these returns were falsified, either by alter-
ing the terms in which the returns were made, or they were
not in the terms in which the returns had been called for. It
was his intention at a future occasion to take a division of the
House on the question, whether the salary of the Postmaster-
General ought to be continued after the sth of July.
With regard to the harbours of Portpatrick and Donag-
hadee, referred to in his resolutions, he should wait until
he beard what could be replied to him on this subject
by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.—( Hear.) He meant
to move for a Committee to inquire as to the fitness of those
places for communication between Ireland and Scotland, so
far as the steam-packets were concerned. He hoped that
the Secretary of the Treasury would let him know whether
information bad been received from Sir E. Parry as to the
fitness of those stations. Upon a review of the whole of the
steam-packet department, it was his opinion that it was a
disgrace to the Post-office, and that it had caused a great
y. ante of the public money. He was glad that it had got
into the hands of the Admiralty.—( Hear, hear.) He meant
to change the first resolution. He should then read it, with
the alteration he had made in it. He proposed that a Select
Committee be appointed to inquire into and report on the
present rates of postage, and especially to examine into and
inquire what alterations can be made in the present rate of
postage ; and whether they could be adopted on the princi-
ples recommended in the pamphlet of Mr. Rowland Hill,
keeping in view the maintenance of the present amount of
revenue, subject, however, to such reduction of postage as the
Chancellor of the Exchequer may recommend when bringing
.in the Budget. The Hon. Gentleman concluded by moving
the following resolutions :
" 1. That a Select Committee be appointed, to inquire into
and report on the present rates of postage, and especially to
examine the improvements recommended, and the mode of
.charging postage proposed, in a pamphlet by Mr. Rowland
with a view to a general reduction of postages.
" 2. That no postage be superadded on General Post Letters,
wile:her charged or franked, under the name of threepenny,
twopenny, or penny postage ; and that no postage he payable
on Newspapers sent beyond the Parliamentary limits of the
p; sees they are published in, by threepenny, twopenny, or
penny posts.
" 3. That while the rates of postage shall be regulated by
distance, postage shall be charged only according to the dis-
tance on the direct lines of road.
" 4. That it is the opinion of this House, that the Post-
master-General and the Treasury will betray public trust, if
ither should employ the public money, or any officer raid by
the public, in defending the Post-office Department, in the
event of any community, corporate body, or private individual,
prosecuting for unnecessary detention of letters in London, or
in the country, which the Postmaster-General, and all other
Postmasters throughout the kingdom, are prohibited from de-
taining, by the 9th of Queen Anne. c. 19, sec. 40, and yet
especially (if possible) by an official oath enjoined by the
said Act.
5. 'that. in conformity with the vote almost unanimously
awn, to by this House. in the l..st Session of Parliament, ex-
mos:sive of the inexpediency of longer maintaining the office of
Postmaster-General, this House is of opinion that the said
office should be discontinued.
" 6. That the salaries attached to the sail office. of Post-
master-General, and its coneoinitaiit, that of Private Secre-
tary to the Postmaster-General, should be withheld from and
after the sth day of July next.
" 7. That .Port Patrick and Donagliadee are not the proper
stations for communication by Post-office steam packets between
Ireland and Scotland :—That large sums of public money are
annually paid unnecessarily to certain contractors for carrying
mails in mail coaches in Ireland, in name of compensation as

lessees of certain roads and tolls, besides 38,743/. Bs. sd,

claimed by Messrs. Taylor, as arrears due to them for tolls on
coaches on the Kilcuilen line of road, being a distance of
em tly twenty-one miles Irish :—That a Select, he
say,:ointed to inquire into the fitness of the harbours of Port
Patrick and Donaghadee, and the propriety of continuing to
ay the sums alluded to for roads and tolls in certain parts of
Ir. 'land."
E WART seconded the motion.
Lord J. RUSSELL begged to call the attention of the
House. to the state of the public business before them.—
( Hear-) It was certainly usual, when Bills were in Com-

inittee that they should be proceeded with till the Committee
was finished, and that while the attention of the Honse was oc-
copied with the subject of the various clauses and provisions
of the Bill, they should not interrupt the Committee.--
( Hear, hear.) He had stated this to the Hon. Member for
Greenock before he made his speech, and that he proposed
to proceed with the Poor-law Bill this evening. The Hon.
Member had chosen, however, to bring forward his motion.
and had complained of the little progress made last year with
the Post-office Bills, and also that they had not been intro-
duced in the present session. Now he (Lord J. Russell)
would suggest to the Hon. Member for Greenock that such

Bilk as he thought necessary for the reforrnelthai---or any
other .lepartment were much more likely to be passed if the
attention of the House were not occupied with fifteen or
twenty different motions on the subject. If, through such a
course of proceedings, they were compelled at a late period
of the Session to send up a great many Bills to the other
House, it would give them a justification for declining to take
into .:onsideration those Bills at so late a period. He thought
that they had had expetience enough of the difficulties of such
a mixie of proceeding to come to some decision on the subject,
anti therefore he intended to prove the Order of the Day for
the House to resolve itself into a Committee on the Poor-law
13..1; as an amendment. He would not enter into the state-
nit nts made by the Hon. Member for Greenock, as he thought
oat the House would occupy itself much better by taking into
consideration the subject fixed for this evening. He would
not propose to resume the Committee to-morrow, but he would
propose to resume it on Thursday.
Mr. Alderman COPEL AND perfectly concurred with the
Noble Lord, that when a Bill was before the House it was de-
sirable to proceed with it. At the same time he could not
know this opportunity to pass without expressing his thanks
to the Hon. Member for Greenock for bringing this matter
tot-ward, and for the great attention which he paid to this
subject. He could state some instances that had occurred
to himself, to show to the House that it was proper that some
inquiry should take place with reference to the rates of post-
age charged upon letters. During the past year he had
written two letters to Rio Janeiro, neither of which had
reached its destination. He had during the last week re-
ceived two price currents, one from Canton and the other from
Calcutta, for one of which sd. was charged, and for the other
10d. He hoped that the Government would make some in-
quiry into the different rates of postage.
Mr. T. DUNCOMBE saw no reason why they should not
proceed with the subject before the House. He was as
anxious as any man to make 'provision for the poor in Ireland,
but he saw no plea for deviation from the usual course of the
business of the House. He had a motion on the books relat-
ing to voting by proxy, and he certainly intended to persist in
it. He should like to know what reason there was for this,
he would say, indecent haste for going into Committee on the
Poor-law Bill. The Irish Municipal Bill had been hung up
in the House of Lords till the 9th of June, and the reason
was, that the Irish Tithe Bill and the Poor-law Bill were not
disposed of. They had, therefore, a whole month left to
carry those Bills. The other day the business of the House
was obstructed for three whole days by a motion made on
the Tory side of the House relative to the affairs of Spain.
The Noble Lord was quite right in allowing that subject to
occupy so much of the time of the House, seeing how tri-
umphantly the Government came out of it.—(Loud cheers
from the Ministerial side of the Houre, and counter cheers
from the Opposition.) When an independent Member of that
House gave a notice of a motion which he intended to make,
it was rather hard to hare such obstacles thrown in the way,
end therefore, when it came his turn, he should certainly make
Bic motion of which he had given notice, and he would persist
in

Lord J. RUSSELL begged to say a few words in explana-
tion. He was merely following a precedent that had been re-
peatedly set on former occasions, and he might refer to the
conduct pursued with respect to the Reform Bill and the
Poor-law Amendment Act. But setting aside precedent, he
;'bought the course he proposed to pursue a good one. The
Con. Member who had just sat down asked why he did not
obj:tet to the motion made on the other side of the House
with respect to the affairs of Spain. The Hon. Gentleman
did Ili It appear to have been in the House on the occasion when
he ( L erd J. Russell) said it was his intention to move the
second reading of the Poor-law Bill, but that he refrained
from so doing lest it might be supposed that he was attempting
to evade the morion.

Mr. T. DUNCOMBE would like to know why they did
pot go on with the Church-rate Bill ?
After a few words from Sir L. PARRY, which were to-
tally inaudible,

A tr. HUTT complained of the attempt made by the Noble
Lortlto get of the motion of the Hon. Member for Greenock.
He th ought that the able and explicit statement of that Hon.
Gent', tman ought to receive an answer.
The ►CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said that
though the course taken by his Noble Friend appeared to be
objecti ona ble, he thought he could reconcile Hon. Members
to it. It was far from their intention, in taking the course
suggested b v his Noble Friend, either to undervalue the ob-
jections mad..., or the plan proposed, by the Hon. Member for
Greenock. l e certainly was prepared to show, and he thought
he could state adequate grounds to convince the House that
the object the lion. Member for Greenock had in view would