The Sun.
London, England, 1836-10-08 00:00:00

to one, of course, ota salary of 800/. a-year, that being the
utmost salary recommended by Lord Wallace's Tory Com-
mission, and sanctioned by the Duke of Richmond—to
take place after the death of Sir Francis Freeling—all
this, said Mr. Wallace, looked very queer! " New
brooms sweep clean," 'twas said, but he was much mistaken
if Colonel Maberley, or any other, would be allowed to
sweep at all, while his Majesty's Government tolerated a
Noble Lord, continuing in the office of Postmaster-General,
in defiance of a Bill brought in by the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and carried triumphantly through the House
of Commons. A most extraordinary spell appeared to
surround everything connected with the management of the
Post-office at the Treasury ; which all would agree in
who looked at the appointments he had just alluded to,
coupled with the fact of the Postmaster-General's holding
office in spite of the Government, while they had it in
their power to remove him from office, and which, in
his opinion, they were bound to do, out of respect to
the House of Commons and to their own character, on
the very day after the Post Office Commissioners'
Bill was thrown out of the House of Lords. (Mr. Wal-
lace then proceeded to read extracts from the Sixth Report
of the Post Office Commissioners, dated 30th April, 1836,
detailing the abuses which were found to exist in the packet
establishments at Holyhead and Liverpool, the Treasury
Minute of the 19th January, 1836, upon that Report, and
various other documents, which, at the time, were given in
The Sun.) The Hon. Member interspersed the reading
of these documents with many humourous and cutting re-
marks which elicited shouts of laughter from those whom
he addressed. He then turned to the operation of the
clause in the Newspaper Act relative to the penny stamp
duty, and showed that the Post Office, in the midst of their
other blunders, had left a loop-hole open by which the un-
just operation of that clause might be evaded. It appears'
that a packet, under four ounces weight, can be con-
veyed through the penny post for a single penny—that is
to say, a regular packet closed up at both ends ; and Mr.
Wallace showed, that as it required, in many instances,
three of these newspapers to weigh four ounces, the penny
post might thus, even according to the absurd existing law,
be made extremely useful. In short said Mr. Wallace, we
may by this means whip the devil round the post most effec-
tually. He now took up another subject. He had not forgot-
ten his promise with regard to the Newspaper tax. Last
year he exhibited a New York paper. He then said he
would have-the tax off in this country, or at least, he would
show to Government the propriety of making a reduction
in the duty.—(Cheers.) His own early conviction was,
that news should be made cheap. He believed that now
newspapers were as cheap as they could be made ; they
were in fact at all sorts of prices. He would begin with the
London papers to show the prices at which they could be
had. Mr. Wallace here produced a number of the Lon-
don papers, of various sizes, at from 3d to He also
mentioned a ,number of provincial papers which he consi-
dered worthy of notice, particularly Cleaves's Police Re-
porter. As he was naming the name of Cleave, he might
take the occasion of saying that they were almost wholly
indebted to him for the change on the stamp duty. It was he,
send those who went along with him, who had not forced Go-
vernment to see the necessity of taking off the tax, in order
to put a stop to frauds upon the revenue. Mr. Wallace
then directed their attention to Scottish Newspapers, and
spoke of the Glasgow Chronicle as being particularly worthy
of the attention of all who wished cheap reading. He had
observed that that paper was now published three times
a week at 3d. For himself he preferred a thrice a week
paper to one published twice a week, and he therefore
gave the proprietors of the Glasgow Chronicle thanks
for furnishing hini with one at so cheap a rate. He was
thus furnished with early information, and that is what
they should look to ; they should read over the news of
one paper in as short it time as possible, and then go and
buy more news when they could afford it. The large papers
gave fun also for the money paid for them.—(Laughter.)
Mr. W. here held up, amidst much laughter, a large Lon-
don paper, set off with a goodly number of wood cuts. He
would now show the position in which newspapers stood in
respect of the penny post. The Treasury had been applied
to on the subject ; but they saw they could do nothing with-
out an appeal from the country, as the system now in ope-
ration worked well for London. He must say that there
appeared something very extraordinary about the Post-office.
The Lords of the Treasury themselves, when they interfered
in its affairs, got quite addleheaded. He would now speak
of the House of Lords, and show how the people ought to
act, to meet the opposition which the measures passed by
their representatives were likely to sustain from that House.
Even since the end of the session of 1835, he had watched
the conduct of the Upper House ; and he had seen them
disappoint on almost every occasion that gave them an op-
portunity, the just wishes and expectations of the vountry.
There was a point, however, relative to this subject, on
which he differed with many of those whom he was proud
to call his friends, and whom he knew to be their friends

That point was—where the Reform of the Upper House
should originate? Mr. Hume, Mr. O'Connell, and others,
thought that it ought to originate with the King's Minis-
ters. Now, his opinion did not accord with this. What
could the King's Ministers do with the subject, so long as
the House of Commons was constituted as at present? Of
the 652 Members who composed the Lower House, not
fewer than 107 were Noblemen, or the sons of Noblemen,
or in some way or other intimately connected with the No-
bility. How could these be expected to join in any plan
of reforming the order to which they themselves were at-
tached? The people must take the matter in hand them-
selves, and by the constitutional means which carried the
Reform of the House of Commons, they would be able to
carry Reform in the House of Lords. The people must
petition both Houses, and also the King, to exercise his
prerogative. Were Lord Melbourne to bring forward a
measure for reforming the Lords before he had the people
marshalled behind him, his Ministry would not stand a day.
Such an attempt would only give an impetus to Toryism.
No Minister could do anything till the tables of both
Houses, and the footstool of the throne, were filled moun-
tains high with the petitions, and memorials, and remon-
strances of the people ; more particularly, addresses should
be forwarded to his Majesty, praying him to use his prero-
gative in adding to the number of Liberal Peers.
An Individual in the body of the meeting here inter-
rupted Mr. Wallace, by a remark which could not be dis-

tinctly beard, relative to the report which has gone abroad,
of the bust of the Duke of Bedford having been removed
from its place in Windsor Palace, in consequence of that
Nobleman's subscribing to Mr. O'Connell's compensation
fund. He spoke for a minute or two amidst some con-

and concluded by saying, that he thaiked God, with
Cobbett, that we had a House of Lords to support the Con-
stitution.

Mr. WALLACE resumed—lt would, he said, be advan-
tageous for the people, in considering how a reform of the
House of Lords was to be effected, to look back upon the
events which had preceded the reform of the House of
Commons. It would thus be seen that everything de-
pended on the people themselves, and that even they
could not rationally expect to obtain the end sought, with-
out very considerable exertion. As the subject was one
of vast importance, he would occupy their time for a
little in tracing out the. history of the Reform struggle.
Ist March, 1831, Lord John Russell introduced the

Reform Bill, and on the 23d of April following, Parlia-
ment was dissolved ; in the end of June the Bill was a
second time brought into the Commons, and after much
discussion, passed that House, by a majority of 349 to
236. lt went to the Lords, and was there thrown out
on the 7th October by 196 to 158. On 20th of the
same month Parliament was prorogued ; and on the 29th
and 30th, serious riots took place at Bristol. Parlia-
ment again met in December, and the Bill was passed a
second time in the House of Commons by 325 to 239.
On the third of April, 1832, it was read a second time in
IVOliinlistthrey
Ifo6uthndaitmo,
the Lords ; but, in consequence of the continued influence
of the Tories at Court, Earl Greys Ministry
Loyal
p shouldersrero,aoy_f
ne-
cessary to resign on the 9th of
Earl Grey was -carried back to office otinlethlie
the people, with full power to
Live, in order to carry the measure., and on t e 4th June it
Ning could do with the Lords, and
passed the Upper House by a majority of 106 to 22 It
was thus seen what the
it was for the people to press forward to the foot of the
throne with petitions and memorials praying that his Ma-
jesty would exert his authority. This Iv.
as the constitu-
tional means by whi
to effecttheobjeet they bad in view;
and he for one, was opposed o others, so long as we had H
such means within our power. e would not leave the
Reform of the Lords to Lord Lyndhurst, for that Tory
leader would not be unlikely to propose such a plan as to
ensure its rejection, in the same manner us he doubtless
had the total rejection of the Newspaper Duty Reduc-
tion Bill in view, when be proposed to abolish the tax
al togeth
(licar, and great cheering.) Mr. Wallace
then read a list
of the bills which had been sent to the
Lords during
the past session, and which their Lordships
had either thrown out entirely, or damaged so as to render
them useless for every good purpose. He (Mr. IVallace)
had been quite disgusted at the conduct 0 f the Lords ;
it had in fact led him to exclaim in the language of
the Church of England —from boreditary legislation " good