The Sun.
London, England, 1833-12-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

It i 3 not proiraty,c e er be the hopes
w'ierewith Sir Francis Freeling may flitter him-
self,—it is not indeed possible, that the Post
Office department should escape much longer a
• earchinr, anti fundamental " overhaul." An
article from a correspondent in another column
Complains of a piece of sordid intermeddling by
a functionary who is entitled " Comptroller of
tie Foreign Post Office," with the captains,
mates, Szc., of the Dover packet-boats, who are
made liable to "the severe displeasure" of the
Postmaster-General—that is to say, to the loss
of their employments—if they are detected in
conveying English newspapers abroad or in
Oringing foreign ones to this country, otherNise
than "legally" in the mails committed to their
charge. Now, the first question to be asked is
this—has the revenue suffered from the above

condemned practice of fetching and carry-
ing newspapers across the Channel ? If
our correspondent be rightly instructed,
the public revenue has suffered nothing from
the journals alluded to not being enclosed in the
mail-bags, because by journals which have uni-
formly been so enclosed the revenue has never
gained a shilling. Who, then, has pocketted
the charges paid on such "legal" conveyance ?
Our correspondent declares (and we are told the
thing is quite notorious) that the clerks in the
Foreign Post office have the proceeds of such
charges for their " perquisites." Here is pretty
work! The public heard a good deal some
time ago, both here and in Ireland, about cer-
tain magnates, called Clerks of the Roads, set-
ring up an opposition shop to the regular news-
men, and by their control over the mail coaches,
and their connection with post offices, getting
their own parcels of newspapers forwarded, when
thos,ct transmitted by the uewsvenders were care-
fully ke?t back, so as to confer upon the menial
objects Of I3ost Office favour the power of ruin-
ing, or much ini;tring in their means of liveli-
hood, an industrious, useful, and most de-
, serving class of tradesmen ; and it is to per-
petuate the like dirty monopoly in the
hands of the official underiiogs of the Post
office—a monopoly from which the country does
not derive a single sixpence of advant:i.ge—that
the name and authority of his Grace the Duke
of Richmond are employed by the packet agCnlt.
at Dover for no purpose, as we said before, of
protection to the national revenue, but simply to
obstruct all interchange of intelligence between
the people of England and their continental
neighbours, save only through that single toll-
bar at which all the contributions levied are for
the use and enjoyment of a set of officers
already paid out of the public purse in the shape
of salary for whatever services they can perform.
We more than once stated at the time of the
late negotiation between the French and English
Postmaster-General for a more easy and econo-
mical transmission of newspapers between these
countries, that the failure was in no degree
ascribable to the French Post-office, and was in
as small a degree creditable to that of Eng-
land. The disgrace and canker of our public
business is the bum-burocracy of England,—the
sitting portion of each department, which is left
behind (as Addington was by Mr. Pitt) upon
every change of Administration, which nestles,
and burrows, and propagates, and perpetuates
itself, and becomes identified at last with the
routine of the office, and hands down the clerk
craft from age to age, giving to ordinary official
transactions a certain superficial semblance of
what is called " regularity," but rendering the
substance of things impervious to every princi-
ple of amendment which would exact the
slightest shock to prejudice or disturbance of
habit, or, worst of all, the most distant sacrifice
of emolument, from those patriarchs of the back-
stairs and writing desk—your tribe of under
secretaries and confidential clerks, These im-
moveables, these adscripti gleber, these nominal
serfs, are the real tyrants of a Ministry.
The race ought, like other vermin, to be
effectually, though gradually, weeded. It will
be found that if old forms are best pre-
served by them, they are for the most part
inveterate enemies to all substantial improvement.
Great things were expected from the Duke of
Richmond when his Grace was first appointed to
the Post-office ; but the accumulation of jobbery
had reached a magnitude which, we fear, has
proved beyond his strength to cope with. There
is a Viceroy over him—nay, a couple or more,
While we are on this subject of the Post-office,
we may as well state a fact which it has brought
to our recollection, and which will show in how
very small a measure the comfort or convenience
of the public is considered by the Cabinet of St.
Martin's-le-Grand, notwithstanding the vast re-
venue raised by it upon the nation,. A friend of
ours being at Dover a few months ago, put a letter
in the office for Germany on a Saturday afternoon,
marking "'oil' Calais" on the cover ; he also
paid with it the ordinary German postage of
Is. Bd. He was ignorant of Post-office rules, and
vainly supposed that his pointing out Calais as
the route for his correspondence to take its
course would be thus expedited, and that the
letter would cross to Calais by the next morn-
ing's packet. Upon making inquiry, however,
on the Sunday, he was told that his letter was
still in the Dover office ; that it would first
proceed to London on Sunday night ; secondly,
return to Dover on Monday night ; and, thirdly,
sail for Calais on the following Tuesday ! The
fact is, that the Post-office, producing one
branch cf the public revenue ought to be, like
the Customs, Excise, and Stamp-office, directed
oetanertmd
hof
aof
sl 'orblryeeeeaidis uiarl ya .s
sort
b'er
immediately by a Board, and be, like them,
he
,c of
subordinateno(nl
irresponsiblese tghuaetnct
consequence
the oof
despotism,d the
hhpeea department
en,
possessed and exercised
that there are no checks upon individual will,
by a subordinate officer. All this must be
speedily revised.— Times.
THE POST-OFFICE.
(FROM A CORRESTONDENT OF THE TIMES.)

A printed notice, of which the following is a copy,
and which is exceedingly instructive, we lament to say,
as to the spirit by which the administration of our Post-
office is animated, has just been issued at Dover :
" Agent's Office, Dover, Dec. 15.
" Whereas it has been represented to the Controller of the
Foreign Post-office, London, that notwithstanding a minute
of the Postmaster-General, that no agent, captain, mate, or
others employed in the service of His Majesty's packet-boats,
shall convey any newspaper, English or foreign, to or from
foreign parts, except such as are legally conveyed in the mails
committed to their charge, newspapers are so conveyed, in
contravention of such minute ;—Take notice, that ally per-
sons employed in this service who may be found so acting
will be reported to the Board forthwith,
as offenders against
such rules and regulations, and as liable to his Grace the
Postmaster-General's serious displeasuse.
G. HART, Agent,"
Assuming that this document has been issued with the
knowledge and under the sanction of his Grace the Post-
master General, in how respectable a light does it exhib:-
hint to the public! He here appears as the protectors
not of the public revenue of his depirttnent, for not tine
%billing of the profit derived from the conveyance of news-
y ipers ever reaches it, but of the perquisites of the clerks
of the Foreign post.office, who obtain thereby enormous
gains, with the monopoly, so far as their power can pre-
ve it, of the circulation of news, to the great injury o;

the public service and of our character with foreign na-
tions. It is a common observation that the decided abuse
.of a privilege is frequently the-Toreriinner of its destruc-
tion, and surely no greater can well be imagined than that
of dragging in official aid to secure the fees of the above-
named gentlemen. But we are toll that their views ex-
tend still further, which brings them on very delicate
ground, whereon they will probably be exceedingly shy of
'making any pu:dic display of their operation, They are
aetn 'Hy said to have opened a correspondence with the
Post-office authorities in Paris, to obtain their co-opera-
thm, end to prevent the conveyance of any newspapers by
the French steam boats, except in the mail bags. But it
rnay easily be conjectured what kind of reception awaits
them there, for the Directors of the Paris office, who went
the length of proposing, to their own manifest disadvan-
tage, a free transmission of the public journals of both
countries, are the most unlikely people in the world to
lend themselves to such a proceeding, and so assist, in
effect, in the frustration of their own object. The matter
is undoubtedly of the highest import, and if our own Post-
office department refuses to 'take it up, there is nothing to
be done but to change its Administration, or rail upon
Parliament to interfere."

In the Devizes Gazette of Thursday last, we
observe the following communication :

" THE CHTIRCII.-TO THE EDITOR.

" Sir—Believing as I do that the doctrines of the
Church of England are more pure than those of any other
Church in the world—conceding to the statement that you
yourself have made in your impartial paper—' that we
are surrounded by a benevolent, a pious, and, in every
respect, an exemplary Clergy'—going still further—
believing that our clergy (with but rare excep'ions)
throughout the country will answer the above description,
it is with considerable pain that I stand forward to arraign
the mode by which this Clergy are remunerated, or rather
the manner in which some of them are neglected ; but if
there be one of your numerous readers who should not
believe that there is something radically wrong in the
system, let him read the following case, which, not to tire
him, and to prevent occupying any large space of your
paper, I will relate in as few words as possible :
" The Rev, Mr. Lucas, who now resides in Dev3tes,
and who I believe is between 60 and 70 years of age, was
a curate upwards of 40 years ; the last 15 or 16 of these
years he did duty in the parishes of St. John, and St.
Mary, Devizes, for which he received about 1001. a year.
The Rev. Mr. Lediard, the then incumbent, departed this
life some six or seven months since. From his length of
services, and from the high esteem in which he wee held
by his parishioners, it might naturally have been ex-
pected that Mr. Lucas would have succeeded Mr. Lediard.
The living, however, was presented to the Rev. Mr.
Phipps : and this was not all. Mr. Lucas was imme-
diately dismissed from the curacy, and the Rev Mr. Bayly
appointed in his stead ! Now, without saying one word,
either directly or indirectly, against these gentlemen—for
both of them are most assiduous in their pious duties—l
would ask, is it 'right, or, is it not radically wrong, that
they should He placed over the head of a gentleman who
had deve'ed several years to the service of the church,
h-fore either of them was born?

11 It may be urged by those who are unacquainted with
ihe facts, that Mr. Lucas must have been inefficient in
the discharge of his duties, or he would never have been
treated with such gross harshness and cold neglect. In
answer to this, it may be only necessary to state, that
nearly every respectable inhabitant of Devizes, who at-
tends the Church, came forward and signed a memorial
to the Lord Chancellor, testifying to his moral and re-
ligious worth, and soliciting his Lordship to confer on
him some preferment. In short, a more proud testimo-
nial no clergyman can boast of. Farther—to mark the
sense of his deserts in a still stronger light, another me-
morial was forwarded by the Mayor and Corporation—not.
withstanding his Worship headed the former memorial as
a private individual. The memorial of the inhabitants was
presented to his Lordship by our excellent representative,
Mr. Locke, who did all in his power to enforce the prayer
of it. The Chancellor very kindly promised to give it an
early consideration ; but who shall say, Mr. Editor, when
the multifarious duties of the Lord High Chancellor are
considered, and the numberless applications made to him
for preferment, that it will ever again enter his mind there
is tech a person in existence as the Rev. Mr. Lucas 7

" Let it be remembered that Mr. Lucas is far in the
vale of years—that front the dawn of manhood until
within the lact six or seven months he has devoted his best
energies to the service of the Church—that he has never
received the slightest preferment—that without any fault
on his part he was dismissed from a Curacy, the duties
of which he had performed in the most faithful and ex-
emplary manner, for a period of sixteen or seventeen
years ; and who will have the hardihood to say that some
alteration is not necessary to Ise made in the mode of remu-
nerating. the Clergy of the Church of England ?
" rievizes, Dec., 1833. " T."
The above statement, following closely as it
'does on the heels of that of the Rev. Mr. John-
son, of Kyneton, threatened with ejectment from
his curacy if he persisted in occupying a house
of the value of 101. a year, whence he might
become chargeable to the parish, is well de-
serving of attention at a time when the Reform
of the Church is in agitation. There must be
something radically wrong in an establishment
in %,hich an aged gentleman, after a service of
forty years, to the satisfaction of all who have
the benefit of his ministration, is, at a moment's
warning, turned into the street. Nothing like
this could happen in any other church of Eu-
rope, Protestant or Catholic. It is not for
us to say in what way the degrading de-
pendence of the working Clergy of the Esta-
blishment ought to be remedied. The
French Paris Priests before the Revolution,
who served cures without enjoying the tithes,
were always secured in the enjoyment of a certain
provision, under the title of portion congrue,
and they could neither be turned out of their
livings, nor deprived of the income. It is quite
clear that no man who has spent his whole life
in the faithful discharge of the duties of the
ministry ought to be consigned to destitution
in his old age. This evil may be guarded
against in various ways. One way is sufficiently
obvious. The sinecures of the church may
form a fund for the pensioning of curates who
have served a certain number of years without
obtaining a living. Another way may be re-
sorted to—that of taxing incumbents possessing
incomes above a certain amount, in order to
form a fund for worn-out curates. It is quite
clear that something should be done for this
meritorious class of men. We are sometimes
told the curates do not themselves complain.
The young will not complain, because they
look forward to promotion. The aged will not
complain, because, hard as their lot may be,
they dread something still worse, and they know
that complaint would be followed by ruin.—
Ztlorning Chronicle.
The report of the presentation of the freedom
of Plymouth to Lord John Russell and Lord
Ebrington will be read with interest, not only-
by all Reformers, but by the moderate portion
of Conservatives, who can think of reform with
common patience. The speeches are spirited,
and in spite of the familiarity of the subject, en-
tertaining. Those who agreed with us in hail-
ing the Reform Bill as a benefit to the country,
will join us also in approving of those honours
which are conferred upon the Administration in
reference to that Act alone.—Morning Herald.
We cite in another column what, at the
present moment of agitation and anxiety, will
no doubt be deemed an interesting document—
the speech of Lord John Russell, upon being
admitted, on Tuesday last, a freeman of the
borough of Plymouth. The speech is not, in
any respect, to be quarrelled with. It is bold,
manly, and straightforward, and shrinks not from
the discussion of any subject on which his Lord-
ship could have rationally been expected to give
his opinion. The sentiments which it expresses
are also as liberal as they are judicious; for his
Lordship does not now say, as his colleague
in office, llr. Stanley, very foolishly did about
the same time last year, that Ministers have
gone all the length in the way of Reform that
they either mean to do or that they think it

necessary to do ; but, on the contrary, confesses,
with a liberal warmth, which cannot be too
highly applauded, that " there is no stop, no
boundary, to sober and rational improvement
but justice." Let Lord John and his colleagues
but stick to this text, and we warrant them, or
their party at least, a twenty years' enjoyment of
office—for the abuses are so numerous and so
rank—they are so universal in every department
—that a less period could not well be afforded
for their extirpation. We agree also with his
Lordship in thinking that " a little patience
might be exercised, rather than endangar the
general tranquillity of the country for the sake
of carrying some favourite measure a year or two
sooner ;" but we do not think with him that
the risk to which he alludes does really exist.
On the contrary, it is the decided conviction
of all men of foresight and judgment, that
the best policy, at the present moment, is rather
to declare the extent of improvement to he at-
tempted, than to conceal it—to deal frankly by
the country, and thereby procure its aid in the
passing of beneficial measures, than to tantalize
it by half measures of reform,and thereby lose its
support. There can be no danger to any constitu-
tion which the people feel it to be their interest, and
are unanimous in supporting—on the contrary,
the danger is in disgusting the people with the
constitution under which they live, by withhold-
ing those reforms of it which time, the great
innovator, has proved to be necessary. What
his Lordship says on the subject of the house-
tax, we have already anticipated. It is the
most unfortunate part of his speech, and might
have been very advantageously omitted—at least
in the form in which—to use a medical phrase
—it is prescribed.—Morning Advertiser.

- - -
COURT OF CHANCERY, DEC. 20.

VICE-CHANCELLOR'S COURT, DEC. 20.

THE BANK OF ENGLAND V. THE HON. TILNEY LONG

POLE WELLESLEY.

Mr. PIULLIMORE, previously to his Honour
leaving the Court, applied in this case, which was
a bill filed for the foreclosure of a mortgage on be-
half of the plaintiffs, the Governor and Company
of the Bank of England, for leave to amend their
bill by adding as a party thereto another incum-
brancer.
His HONOUR granted the application.