The Sun.
London, England, 1833-08-24 00:00:00

STATIONERY CONTRACT.

THE SELECT COMMITTEE appointed to inquire into the
truth of the Allegations contained in the Petitions of several
Stationers and Manufacturers of Paper, and of the there.
under-signed Liverymen of London, and to report their
Observations thereupon to the House, have agreed to the
following Report :
Your Committee have considered the petitions referred to
them, and have examined several witnesses with reference to
the allegations contained therein.
The petitions involve the consideration of two subjects ; the
first is the contract entered into, in June last, between the
Stationery Office and Mr. Jonathan Muckleston Key ; the se-
cond relates to the appointment of Mr. Kingsmill Grove Key
to the situation of Storekeeper of the Stationery Office.
With reference to the first subject, it is alleged that Mr.
Jonathan Muckleston Key was only the nominal contractor,
while Sir John Key, being at the time of the presentation of
the petitions a Member of the House of Commons, was the
real contractor. That Sir John Key was elected one of the
Members for the City of London in December 1832, and con-
tinued to be so until his acceptance of the Chiltern Hundreds
on Monday, the sth of August, are facts so notorious that
your Committee deemed it unnecessary to examine witnesses
to that point ; but it appears from the evidence, that he had
been concerned in several contracts for supplying paper to the
Stationery Office previously to the year 1832, and that he was
so concerned in his own name up to June 1632, but that in
June 1832 and in June 1833, contracts were entered into in
the name of Jonathan Muckleston Key, the brother of Sir
John Key, the same persons being sureties for the contract
of Sir John Key in 1831, and for the contracts in 1832 and 1833.
It is not in evidence that Mr. Jonathan Muckleston Key,
whose residence is at Thornbury, in Gloucestershire, took any
part in the execution of the contracts of 1832 and 1833, nor did
he appear at the Stationery Office at any time, or for any
other purpose than that of signing the contracts and entering
into the requisite securities. Sir John Key has taken the
same part in all the details of the contracts of 1832 and 1833
as he did in that of 1831 ; the paper has been supplied from
his stores, and delivered by his carts and servants; he gene-
rally brought the bills, drawn in his brother's name, for accept-
ance, and received and made all the communications from and
to the office, which became necessary in performance of the
duty imposed by the contract.
With reference to the second subject, it is stated by the
petitioners, that Mr. Kingsmill Grove Key is the nephew of
the nominal and son of the real contractor, that be is a youth
of 18 or 19 years of age, not legally competent to give the ne-
cessary bonds of security, or qualified to perform the official
duties of a situation requiring a knowledge of the stationery
business, only to be obtained by experience.
From the evidence, it appears that it is the duty of the
storekeeper to examine the stores as they are received, to see
that their quality and quantity are conformable to the contract,
to superintend their delivery to the offices requiring them, to
superintend and control the conduct of the different persons in
his branch of the department, and to keep a store account, for
the accuracy of which he is answerable.
The number of officers under the more immediate direction
of the storekeeper will be found in the Appendix.
The storekeeper is accountable to the comptroller, the head
of the Stationery Office, for the quality of the stores received.
and reports to him whether such stores be or be not equal to
the samples. But Mr. Church, the comptroller, states, that
the exact degree of responsibility is not clearly defined, and
that he, the comptroller, has in repeated instances interfered to
reject stores.
The value of the annual contract for paper (by far the largest
item of expenditure) is about 60,0001., and the amount con-
tracted for in the present year, in the name of Mr. Jonathan
Key, exceeds 50,0001.
On the 26th June last, Mr. Lawrence, the late storekeeper,
resigned his office, by a letter written by Mrs. Lawrence, in
consequence of a communication with her made by Mr. Church,
the comptroller, that Mr. Lawrence's state of health had ren-
dered him incompetent to the performance of his duties, which
indeed he had not executed for some months previously. It
being necessary to obtain medical certificates, Mr. Lawrence's
resignation was not officially communicated to the Treasury till
the lit of July, and Mr. Charles Wood, the Secretary of the
Treasury, on the same day directed his private secretary, Mr.
George Arbuthnot, to write the following letter to Mr.
Church
"My dear Sir,—Mr. Wood will be obliged to you if you
will let him know the nature of the duties of storekeeper to
Mr. Church
the Stationery Office, and whether the place requires any pe-
culiar qualifications in the person filling it.—Your's truly,
Treasury, cone'
particulars "GEORGE ARBUTHNOT."
mogre, as
.he states,
letter, and in the hope satr
satisfactorily
conceiving,
the receipt of this letter, went to the
that lie could explain va-
riousword of mouth than by
informed him, that
Having waited, seeing
Mr. Wood.:Arbuthnot
Air. Wood
for some time,
that it would be the same could not then see him, but
particulars to him.
Arbuthnot, that the persons 1.4'
mrcht,hling if he would state the
then observed to Mr.
appointed storekeepers, were
fromirku the nature of
generally worn-out station-
ers, too old to learn or unlearn
obligations
formed
their earlier occupation, persons who
connexions with, and perhaps incurredst
Private Stationers ; so that, however pure their conduct might
be in office, they were always liable to imputations of paniali.
tY : he therefore expressed his opinion, that it would be a less
evil if they could find a young man (and Mr. Arbuthnot states
that the age of 24 was mentioned) not a st*tioner, who had an