The Sun.
London, England, 1836-07-06 00:00:00

POST-OFFIC AFFAIRS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SCOTSMAN.

Sla----Inyour paper of Saturday, the 4th, I observe a letter
signed Juba, narrating, as if uncommon, what really is a very
common abuse in the application of the penny-post charge.
Your correspondent does not appear to know that the partial
application of penny-postage is a very general and growing
source of complaint all over these kingdoms ; and that its re-
medy, or removal, is not less generally disregarded at the Post-
office in London, than has been the representations contained
in the memorial on this subject, even although this was pre-
sented by the distinguished Members for the City of Edin-
burgh. In my place in Parliament I have frequently asserted
the impolicy as well as the injustice of the application of the
law by which penny-postage is charged. It is under a patent
granted by the King to the Postmaster-General of the day,
conferring discretionary powers, that this tax is squeezed out
of the people, and chiefly from the poor too. The penny-post
tax is, if possible, even more arbitrary and unconstitutional
than the tax imposed in Edinburgh and Montrose for mainte-
nance of the clergy. For the charge of penny-postage, we
have the fiat of a subject—a subject, be it remarked, vested
with powers under a thing called a patent from the King, which
confers powers the King himself would not claim or attempt to
exercise. I have repeatedly asserted in Parliament, that to
charge penny-postage on letters passing through the general post,
is illegal—presuming, as I have ever done, that statute
law goes before and is better than subject-made law, whe-
ther emanating from a Postmaster-General as to postar, or
the sovereign will and pleasure of the Judges of the Court of
Session, as fastened on poor Scotland by things called Acts of
Sederunt. The grievous and partial impost stated by Juba,
is only one of the innumerable proofs which I can produce,
and will speak to, in Parliament, please God, on the 14th of
July. I assert here, as I have often done before, that the
Post- Office have always carefully concealed from Parliament
and the public the immense sums raised from the people, by
departing from the statute law of distance being the only legal
ground for charge of postage, and resorting to the mean sub-
terfuge of the Postmaster-General's patent, entitling that de-
partment at its will and pleasure to establish penny posts in-
stead of general posts. To superadd penny to general post-
age, is nothing better or other than cheating the people. The
statute law says, letters shall pay according to distance only,
and newspapers shall pass free through the Post-Office ; and
in the face of this plain and just law, the powers vested by an
old musty patent have been assiduously introduced, and covertly
palmed on this intelligent nation, as a screen for the greed of
revenue, most' unjustifiably and most unwisely persisted in
during the long reign of Sir Francis Freeling. I enclose you
the copy of a motion I intend to bring on in Parliament on
the 14th July. +'—lf the people at large wish to get rid of
postage, they will instruct their representatives to take care
that one kind of postage, and one kind only, shall
in future apply to any letter at one time, and none
whatever, under any name or guise, to any newspaper ; un-
less where the publishers of newspapers in any town, shall
see fit to cause their papers to be delivered through the post-
office in that town—but thus, and no further. The penny-
postage even in this case must not extend beyond the precincts
of the municipal boundaries ; and every town and village what-
ever, must in future, in common justice, have its general in•
stead of its penny post-office. We must get rid of this nick-.
name of penny posts. At last, be it remarked, the Govern-
ment have been constrained to agree to abolish the sinecure
office of Postmaster-General, and it will be a disgrace to the
whole body of the people, if they allow one atom of subject-
made-law longer to press them down or tyrannize over
them. Towns and villages have the same right to general
posts as Edinburgh, London, and Dublin have—and have
them ere long they shall, as surely as we have demolished the
lordly sinecure office of Postmaster-General, and the snug
things called post-office steam-packets. Along with theabove
Reforms we require Day Mails, and must immediately have
them sent from London in every direction. This I will accom-
plish, I do hope, before I give up my endeavours for a
thorough reform in the post-office ; and I see my way so
clearly, as to leave no doubt of two mails being sent daily
from London to Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as all over
the country. By two mails a day only can an end be put to
the shameful present practice of stopping the corre-
spondence of the whole three kingdoms fourteen hours
out of every twenty-four hours daily in London, as well
as the Parliamentary debates, and other public and private
Parliamentary business, which are no less interesting and
still more useful to a great trading nation. The sooner the
active; and intelligent people of Scotland assert their right to
be amenable to no Postmaster-General law, but to statute
law only, so much the sooner will the empire at large be freed
from the monstrous injustice and unspeakable caprice of penny-
post laws, and other similar absurdities.
I have asserted that the Post-office has fastened the penny-
postage charge on the people in the most insidious, hidden
manner. Penny-posts originated in London, and in process
of time this penny charge was altered to twopence and three-
pence, according to distance from the General Post-office,
and to the following circumstances ; but have the public been
informed of the alterations which were made and the benefits
conferred on raising the charge ? No ; the Post-office has care-
fully, and, like itself, concealed this from the nation. Twopenny
and threepenny posts in London, besides letters, carry pamphlets
and any kind of parcels of four ounces weight—three miles
for twopence, and twelve to fifteen miles for threepence. Has
the Post-office, or any of its boasted liberal, active Postmas-
ters-General promulgated the above facts as to this most use-
4'.d oo.voyal 4ro,d'ing p.oplo ? No ; they
have done the very contrary. They have not only not com-
municated the principle and the practice acted on in and
around London, but they have carefully concealed and with-
held both. Is there any other town or district in the three
kingdoms which have parcel posts? No, not one. Have two-
penny letter posts been withheld? No ; they have at last been
partially conceded, when it was impossible longer to charge
fourpence, or to refuse them on the principle of distance.
Why have the Post-office officials acted thus unfairly and
ungenerously ? I solve the question thus :—My belief is,
it has arisen from the utter ignorance of tho Postmasters-
General of the real substantial working of the business of their
office. They knew nothing of the matter ; and consequently,
unknowingly sanctioned the u itlable greed of revenue of Sir
Francis Freeling, who all along has been the real Postmaster-
General. Demand, then, to be placed directly on the same
footing as London, and to have twopenny parcel posts in every
town and village. See what benefits the inhabitants of Lon-
don receive from this kind of post, and then only judge of the
advantages trade and commerce would every where receive if
these were established all over the country. Believe me when
I tell you, that the Post-office revenue would benefit by them
in the same degree as would the trade and commerce of the
nation; and as these posts are conducted with public money,
every community has an equal right to them.
Let me once more remind the public that postage, properly
and legally so called, is by statute law chargeable on the dis-
tance only of one place from another, Here arises the ques-
tion of how does it happen, and tram what source has come
the adding of penny-pnatafte, over and above the postage
chargeable on lettera passing through the general post ? I will
solve this, First, then, I assert that the superadded postage
has been contrived, encouraged, and enforced in every pos-
sible case, in the most insidious and hidden manner by the
Post-office authorities, until I took that department to task ;
and even now, in spite of its discomfiture, it continues its un-
generous gripe up to this very moment, under the subterfuge
of Postmaster-General's patent law, whenever the cries of its
victims are not loud enough to be heard in high places, or the
still more cogent reasoning with this subservient department of
men high in power and influence crying out. The people at
large will soon now see they have a right to put an end en-
tirely to the partial, impolitic system I have described ; to efs
feet which, they must give up petjtjemieg for the redress of
isolated local inflictions and grievanees—and join hand in hand
in removing the baneN Incubus from the whole nation. The
motion I am tq submit carries out this general principle, and
you will please give it and this a place in your Journal, should
you think them worthy of the space required for so lengthy a
statement.—l am, Sir, your very faithful servant,

ROBERT WALLACE.

London, June 15th, 1836.

• " Mr. Wallace—To call the attention to the whole sys-
tem of communication by post, domestic, colonial, and foreign ;
and to the rates of postage, general, twopenny, and one penny,
with a view to reduction, by an altered scale+ ; and by putting
an end to penny-postage on letters and newspapers which have
passed through the General Po I—To the powers, duties,
and emoluments of Pnat-ataoe Surveyors and Deputy Post-
masters :—To the groat want of permanent Post-offices in cen-
tral situations, in towns ; and the present practice of obliging
Postmasters to find Post-offices, Clerks, and other official re-
quisites, out of their own income :—To the present inconsis-
tent, inconvenient, and voluminous code of laws for the regula-
tion of communications by post ; and thus draw the attention
of the Commissioners of Post-office Inquiry, his Majesty's Mi-
nisters, and this House, to the urgent necessity of a consolida-
tion of these laws, while the future controul and management
of this great department is being re-modelled,"

THE ENIPEROR NApoLzoN. ,--Count Las Cases's
far-famed book " The Life; Kane, and Conversations of Na-
poleon," is now contOotod in Twenty Weekly Parts, price
One Shilling eaoh, with no less than twenty spirited illustra-
tims ; and we arc rejoiced to find that this singularly cheap
Edition (published at about ape fifth of its former cost) has
met with the success it deserves. " This work is of the highest
interest. The author enjoyed constant opportunities of gra.
tifying our curiosity respecting the Emperor, from having the
advantage of living in his household, and passing daily many
hours in his society, either conversing with him, hearing him
read, and comment on the works of various authors, or writing
at his dictation. His generous devotion to Napoleon, whose
fortunes he volunteered to follow in the hour of his fall—the
zeal and ability with which he served him to the last=give
the Count a claim to the esteem of every honourable mind.
His book, too, wears the appearance of perfect accuracy ; and,
there can be no doubt that, generally speaking, his Journal
may safely be trusted. There are few things more attractive
in this narrative than the extraordinary candour of the Empe-
ror's remarks upon his own history, and on the persons with
whom he has come in contact."—Edinburgh Review.

The Plymouth regatta is fixed for the 20th, 21st,
and 22d of this month, when the town is expected to be very
full of company.

A few days ago a quarrel arose in the streets of
Mentz between a male and female mendicant, originating in
jealousy of their respective success in duping the public. From
words they came to blows, and in the conflict the woman tore
from the head of her opponent a bandage with whioh cow of
his eyes was covered. Her rage was calmed OA the instant by
finding that she had been raising IoT hand against her own
husband, to whom she syas married in 1809, but from whom
she separated year after, and had not seen since. They ad-
jourued to a wine-shop, where a reconciliation took place over
a jovial glass.—French Paper.