The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-18 00:00:00

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEW P.

(SATURDAY EVENING.)
TIMES.—The merchants connected with the Levant
and East Indies express great surprise that they have not
yet received any satisfactory explanation as to the delay
which
occurred in the delivery of their letters on the
arrival of the overland mail last month, and which wt
occasioned by the unaccountable preference of the
Gibraltar route, notwithstanding the words " via Mar-
ianne appeared on the letters. The letter from the
post-office, in answer to the application of the East
India and China Association, stated, as it may be
recollected, that the authorities in that department
were unable to account far what had taken place,
but that the matter was under their serious consi-
deration. As far as Malta is concerned, whether the
error lay there or not, might have been easily ascer-
tained by this time, as a letter might have been sent
by the French boat which left Marseilles on the 21st
ult., and arrived at Malta on the 25th. The Great
Liverpool, which left Malta on the 29th, might there-
fore have brought an answer, which, if it would not
have' satisfied the merchants, would at any rate have
afforded some clue to where the fault lay.
Aijiong objects of complaint in the working of the
Poet-office system, is that of allowing an early delivery
of letters by the general postman in the morning to '
those who pay him a fee of ss. per quarter, while
others do not have theirs till two hours afterwards. The
time of the clerks of the Post-office, which raight be
employed in accelerating the general delivery, is there-
fore in a great measure occupied in sorting letters for
the privileged few who subscribe their ss. Persons
who have not understood that this is part of a regular
system, have sometimes conceived that the difference
shown to themselves and their neighbours has arisen
from some error on the part of the postmen, but on
application to these, the answer accompanying the ex-
planation has frequently been, that the fee is part of
their salary, which would indeed be too small were it
not for these perquisites of office. Now, as the receipt
of letters at a certain time is of the greatest importance
to the public, and it seems a delay is occasioned in the
delivery by this additional sort of taxation, it is found
very bard by the larger class of the community that
their letters shoeid be retarded, merely because their
neighbours pay p Li t of the postman's salary.
A project for peaking a large canal from the Grao
to Valencia tines not, according to a letter thence
dated the 31 instant, meet with great encouragement
from the Regency. The advantages purposed by this
canal were, that merchant vessels coming to load or
unload goods might be in safety from the frequent gales
during the three winter months, since they often cannot
stay 24 hours off' the Grao. Without such a canal, it
is said that it will be impossible for South American or
Havanna!) traders to resort to Valencia for want of a
safe anchorage.
Many inquiries are made as to the destination of
the tea sunk in the Westminster, off Margate, to
which allusion was made some days ago, when the
notion that an article so damaged was to be brought
into the market was hardly reckoned tenable. Now,
however, the report is becoming more definite, and
some designate the places where it is being kiln-
died and washed preparatory to sale. This is con-
trasted by persons of long experience in the trade
with the practice of the East India Company, who al-
ways made a point of destroying damaged tea, by throw-
ing it overboard at the Nore. So strict were they in
this respect, that even when a part of the tea was
damaged they destroyed the whole, some persons think-
ing that in such instances the Company occasionally
carried their severity to an extreme length.
Connected with the subject of tea of doubtful
quality, a communication has been received from Mr.
Heale respecting the recent seizure of 2,00011,. of
hawthorn leaves, al,out to be forwarded to him, and
the conviction of i'qr. Palmer, under whose direction
they were picked, for manufacturing an article " in
imitation of tea." Although much of his statement
refers to matters of rather a remote date, and
many of which are already familiar to the public,
it will be necessary briefly to recapitulate them
to render the whole intelligible. Mr. Ileale, as it
may be remembered, manufactured the hawthorn leaf
under a patent granted in 1831, having, according to
his own statement, obtained the opinion of Sir J. Sear-
lett and Mr. Rotch, who settled the patent, that it did
not interfere with the Statute passed to prevent imita-
tions of tea. On receiving notice from the Excise that
the manufacture was nevertheless a violation of the
Statute, the parties concerned in it memorialised the
Lords of the Treasury, but these only referred the me-
morial again to the Board of Excise, who of course
repeated the same opinion they had previously
given. Counsel's opinion was then obtained, that
the patent contained a clear right to manufacture,
and that a Magistrate would not be authorised
in convicting the manufacturer, while at the same
time the propriety of bringing the case before a
Magistrate was suggested. The manufacture being
recommenced, the Excise officers, in 183-2,
placed a broad arrow upon it, which they after-
wards removed, saying that they had heard from
the Attorney and Solicitor-Generals that the manufac-
ture was legal, and adding, that it might now be pro-
seeded with. It was under this favourable aspect Mr.
Heale purchased the slaarts of other parties interested
in the patent, and became its sole proprietor. The
seizure of the manufacture, which took place in 1833,
and the condemnation by the Lord Mayor, was on the
ground that some of it had been traced to the posses-
sion of a tea-dealer. The Lords of the Treasury
awarded 3001. to the seizing officers, upon the repre-
sentation of the Commissioners of Excise that they had
brought to light a secret manufacture of " imitation
tea," and Mr. Heale particularly observes that in the let-
ter of the Commissioners no allusion was made to the
previous proceedings, so as to show to the Treasury that
the case was the same on which the opinion of the At-
torney and Solicitor-Generals had already been obtained,.
and that they admitted that according to the opinion
of their own solicitor they could not proceed effectually
against the manufacturer without proof of a connexion
with the tea-dealer. This being the state of affairs,
and Mr. Heale still believing that the Excise had no
case against , entered into the agreement with Mr.
Palmer to cas/ on the manufacture, sending all he
made to Mr. Heale himself. It was accordingly pre-
pared and packed in cases for exportation, the whole
manufacture having been carried on, as is alleged, in the
most open manner. The Excise allowed the manufac-
ture to proceed for many months, and then entered Mr.
Palmer's premises on the night of the 27th of July,
when they seized part of his manufacture, and on the
following day seized the remainder. The proceedings by
the Excise before the Magistrates at Devizes terminated
in a conviction with full penalties, on the ground that the
article was " iinit4tioo tea," in violation of the statute.
This is the last act that has taken place in the
affair ; and here Mr. Heale objects that the conviction
was most incoesistent, as the Excise had, on removing
the broad arrow in 1832, already said that the article
was not an " imitation of tea," and that the condemna-
tion in 1833 did not prove such a case as warranted the
Excise in endeavouring to obtain penalties. It will also
be remembered, that that condemnation was on the
ground that the article had found its way to the tea-
dealer, while, in the Devizes case, none of it had been
disposed of in any manner. Mr. Heale's case there-
fore is, that having purchased a patent, the conviction
by the Magistrates is unjust, or that, if that is just, the
Crown should remunerate him for the expenses of his
patent. All these circumstances must be of great in-
terest to the tea trade and to the publie generally, who
seem to want protection in the purchase of genuine tea,
so long as this state of things exists.