The Sun.
London, England, 1837-12-01 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS.—Ner. 30.
The Loan CHANCELLOR took his seat on the Woolsack at
Five o'Clock.

POST-OFFICE.

The Duke of RICHMOND presented a petition from
the merchants, shopkeepers, and others, of Elgin, complain-
ing, in the first place, that their correspondence from the
North is detained for a certain number of hours at Inverness.
This, however, had been before his Noble Friend
was at the head of the Post-office, and he was
happy to find that it was the intention of his
Noble Friend, when the Birmingham railway should be
opened, to remodel that communication. The second part of
the petition was one of much greater importance, and their
'lordships would not be surprised to hear that it had
created great excitement in the north. The petitioners
paid for the postage of a single letter, 14d. or 15d. They
stated, that they had seen a pamphlet written by Mr. Hill,
setting forth that one uniform rate of postage might
be adopted. They had seen also that one of the
Commissioners of the Post Office Inquiry, who was
a Cabinet Minister, had reported that a trial ought to be made
of that scheme ; and the petitioners considered that their
Lordships ought to give them that boon.—( Hear, hear,
hear.) He, however, was afraid that when the Select Com-
mittee appointed came to enquire into the details of that
measure, that it would not be possible to carry out that plan
in all its bearings, because he thought the Chancellor would
not be able to spare that amount of revenue. But there was one
point which he had urged when he was at the Post-office—a point
which he had always urged, and a point which all the practi-
cal officers of that establishment were most anxious for, viz.,
the reduction of the postage, and which he had anxiously to
press the necessity of upon their Lordships now. By a re-
duction of the postage, particularly in short distances, a great
advantage would be conferred upon individuals and the public
at large. Their Lordships would in that way very
much get rid of the illegal conveyance of letters ;
and, by charging a considerably less postage,
would obtain the same amount of revenue, if not more. The
Noble Duke, therefore, earnestly hoped that her Majesty's
Ministers, if they found they could not follow up Mr. 11111's
plan, would enquire into the subject at the Post-office. Look
back to all the eostmasters and Secretaries, and enquire
of them if it were not practicable to reduce the postage.
In laying this petition upon their Lordships' table, which
was most respectably signed, he was certainly anxious
to ask his Noble Friend at the head of the Post-office, whether
he had seen a statement in the public papers, respecting enor-
mous sums of money which bad been plundered by the Post-
office ? He would make no observation upon the statement,
that it was the Postmaster who pocketed that money. Where
his Noble Friend's character was concerned, such a statement
needed no observation. As to his own character when he was
Postmaster, he was likewise aware it was not necessary for him
to say he would not have pocketed a farthing of it. Indeed, it
was impossible for the Postmaster-General, if he was so dis-
posed, to put into his pocket any part of the Post-office revenue.
He knew that an explanation could be given to this stateme; t,
and he was anxious to have that explanation from his Noble
Friend.
Lord LICHFIELD said that the petition which his

Noble Friend had presented to the -House was one
of so much importance, that he felt assured that he would be
excused for pointing to a statement, which had appeared
in the public prints, by way of explanation to that state-
ment, and which he should do as briefly as possible.
His Noble Friend had alluded to the great excitement which
prevailed upon the subject throughout the country—that ex-
citement no doubt existed, and it had greatly increased since
the publication of the plan which was proposed by Mr. Row-
land Hill.—(Hea a hear.) As to the manner in which that
excitement had beer, raised by an individual to whom he
would have occasion again to refer, he would only say
that that individual had made a bad and very dangerous
use of the position in which he was placed. Al that time
he would not say one word as to the extraordinary
coarse language in which that individual had thought
proper to indulge when speaking of the Post-office
authorities; but he considered it was his duty to take the first
public occasion offered him to disabuse the public mind of
those errors into which they had been led—errors which
were calculated to do much mischief.—( Hear, hear. )
With respect to the plan of Mr. Hill, no one
would rejoice more than he ( Lord Lichfield) would, if it
were practicable to carry that proposition into effect,
aithout at the same time materially injerieg the rove-
nue.—( Hear.) Such a plan having been proposed, it was
his duty to examine it cdrofully, in order to see whether it was
practicable or not? was opposed to it last year, and since
then he had given it his best consideration, and he was then
more opposed to it than before. The question was one of revenue.
If this plan were adopted, in place of leaving now an excess of
one minis!) and a half over the expenditure, there would be
a severe loss, and the Post-office would feel it necessary
to have recourse to the Government for money to maintain
the establishment. Mr. Hill's plan was that there should be'
one uniform rate of postage of one penny from one end
of this country to the other. The number of the letters which
were charged by the Post-office now was between 42 and 43
millions, and in arder to derive the same amount which the
Post-office now drew of 2,200,0001. they would require to have a
circulation of letters equal to the number of pence in that vast
sum—they would require to have a circulation of letters to
the number of 480,000,000 before they could obtain the
same amount of revenue.—( blear.) It was iidiculous to
suppose that the circulation of letters should increase to
such a degree. He knew that it was the opinion of his pre-
decessors, certainly of his Noble Friend, and such certainly
was his own opinion, that there should be reduction in
the expense of carrying letters, and he did think that
such a reduction might take place without injury to
the revenue. It would be impossible, however, to carry
Mr. Hill's plan into effect without having one uniform rate
of postage so low as to satisfy those persons who received
letters from only short distances.—( Hear, hear, hear.)
Suppose they were to make one uniform rate of postage of 6d.
they would soon find that the public within 50 or GO miles of
London would not be satisfied to pay the same sum as those
persons residing in Edinburgh, whose letters were carried a
much greater distance. He understood that the matter was to be
brought forward in the other House of Parliament ; he
trusted, also, that it would be made a matter of con-
sideration by their Lordships, and then he would be
better prepared to show the absurdity of this plan and
its absolute inefficiency to the wants of the country.
His Noble Friend had alluded to the enormous sums which
appeared to have been lost from the Post-office. The public
had been much abused upon that subject. The individual
to whom he formerly alluded through his position in the other
House had obtained returns which he had not yet had an op-
portunity of refuting—the statements made upon those returns
by that individual were calculated to do great mischief in a
manufacturing country like this. He was not inclined to
use strong language ; but after he had read one or
two paragraphs addressed to a public paper, he was
sure that their Lordships would not think that he was
not using stronger language than the necessity of the case
demanded, when he denounced that letter as a scandalous and
infamous libel. The Noble Lord then read a para-
graph from the letter addressed to the Editor of The
Sun, front the Honourable Member for Greenock, which
appeared in our paper about three weeks since.
He would be glad to know whether such language was not of
a nature to call for the strongest possible animadversion; but
he had been put in possession of circumstances which enabled
him to state that it was impossible there could be any
thing like the loss which was alleged to be sustained ;
for it was a question whether some of these letters
contained any enclosure at all. The returns of the Post-
office was made from letters on which the postage had been
charged—he denied that it was an evasive return, for it had been
prepared according to the order of the House of Commons.—
( Hear, hear.) It was a return of the letters ascertained
to have been posted and lost in the Post-office; that
return was not considered satisfactory, and another was ordered
which was to contain the amount of money applied for;
but of the 600,0001. applied for, not less than 400,0001.
had been restored to the parties, leaving altogether a sum of
about 311,0001. unaccounted for, and it might be presumed,
that at least one-half of that sum had never been posted at all.
How many letters he would ask, had been stolen in their
passage to the receiving Houses, before the letter became
known to the Post Office, and how many cases were there
in which it had been stated, that money had been

dispatched, which had never been dispatched at all ? He did
not deny that robberies had taken place in the Post-office, and he
regretted they were so numerous ; but when they were spoken
of as so numerous, it was impossible to suppose if they were of
such an amount that an outcry would not be created. He
would give their Lordships one tolerable proof that the letters
said to be posted were not always placed .in charge of the
Post-office. Upon his first being appointed to his present si-
tuation, he had received a letter from that individual (Mr.
Wallace) from Kellygreenock, in Scotland, informing him
that a petition and letter had been previously addressed to him
Although so short a time in the Post-office, knowing perfectly
well the individual he had to deal with, he took means to as-
certain the loss of the petition and letter. It occurred to him
as a singular thing that in the same bag no other letter was
missing on that day. He therefore wrote to Mr. Wallace,
and in two or three days time the missing letter was produced,
Mr. Wallace stating to him that inn the enormous quantity of
business he had to transact the letter had been mislaid. Such
was the result after having put the Department to a
great deal of trouble and loss of time, and the fate of
the petition was probably similar.—(Hear, hear.), Another
point was, the violation of seals. Nothing was more erro-
neous than to suppose secrets were pryed into by the Post-
office, and he would give an instance of this point : M:.
Wallace wrote to him to enquire whether it was possible to
post letters after the mails had been dispatched at
eight o'clock, and he ( Lord Lichfield) had written
to sav that they might be posted until twelve o'clock
at night. The box was left open, and on one occasion
four letters were put into the box. Outside the seals of the
letters was an intimation to his Correspondent, to notice if
those seals were violated. He only wished he could show their
Lordships the extraordinary manner in which those letters were
sealed. One of them, from being dropped into the box, opened,
and the others were fastened in the most insecure manner, so

much so that Colonel Mala.srly Clought proper to take them
down to the Chancellor of the Exchequrr for his inspection,
and a letter was written to Mr. Wallace about it, but no answer
had ever been received. He denied that such a thing had ever
occurred. Sea's were never violated in the Post-office,
and it was a libel upon that establishment to state such a
thing. He had troubled their Lordships at too great length,
but when he found that publications were put forth containing
such statements, Le was bound in duty and honour to take
advantage of the first opportunity that was afforded him, of
vindicating the character of that establishment.—( Hear, hear, )