The Sun.
London, England, 1834-02-18 00:00:00

GENERAL POST-OFFICE.

Mr. WALLACE, in moving for certain returns relative
to the Post-office, complained that a statement which ap-
peared in the Times newspaper on Saturday last, respecting
the expenses of the above establishment, differed from the
statement made by the Hon. Member opposite (Mr. V.
journal,
but He had written to the editor of that
but his letter was not inserted. According to the calcu-
lation of the Times, the expenses of the above establish-
ment were 9,5651. per annum. It appeared, therefore,
the Hon. Gentleman (Air. V. Smith) had omitted, the other
evening, the retiring compensation of 7001. a year to Sir
F. Freeling, and also the more extraordinary compensation
of 2,6751. to other officers of the establishment. These, added
to the other items, would amount to 9,565/. a year—a
sum very different from that which the Hon. Gentleman
stated the other evening to be the expenses of the establish-
ment. Now, as he contended the other evening, a con-
siderable saving would accrue by adopting the alterations
proposed in the schedules annexed to some of the reports
drawn up by the Commissioners of Revenue Inquiry. The
establishment they proposed would consist of one chairman
at 1,5001. a year, four Commissioners at 1,1501. a year
ea,.h, or 4,6001. in mum total ; one secretary at 1,0001.
a year, and an under-secretary at 6001. a year—making
altogether 7,7001. The House would see by this calcula-
tion that there would be a balance in favour of the pro-
posed scheme of the Commissioners of upwards of 1,800/.
a year. He did not mean to trouble the House at present
by going into any further details, but he was perfectly of
opinion, that though the retiring allowance of the present
Postmaster-General, and of the other officers, should be
doubled, still would the country eventually gain by the
plan proposed by the Commissioners. He hoped the
pipers promised by the Hon. Gentleman would be soon
placed upon the table: and, in consequence of that ex-
pectation, he would postpone his present motion to Tuesday
the 25th instant.

Mr. VERNON SMITH said, with respect to the
compensation to be allowed to Sir Francis Freeling and
the other Post-office officers, that had nothing to do with
the statement of actual expenses he had made the other
evening. The statement he had then made might be con-
sidered a comparison between the present expenses of the
establishment and what they would be under the pla❑
propo,ed by the Commissioners. However, the different
circumstances of the case would be more fully explained
when the papers moved for were laid upon the table. With
respect to the statement tiller,- had appeared in the Times,
and to the. publication or non-publication of the'Hon.
Member's letter, he felt yettain that the .editor of that
journal had no intention of casting a 8110 upon the Hon.
Member.
The motion was withdiawn.

The other orders of the day were then disposed of, and
;he House adjourned at twelve o'clock.

RATE PAYERS.-LEAMINGTON' PRIORS

AND KENILWORTH.

(Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be Printed, Feb. 13.)
RETURNS of the NUMBER of RATE-PAYERS of LEA-
MINGTON PRIORS and KENILWORTH, in the County
of WARWICK; distinguishing the Number Assessed on
Houses and Premises bonii fide worth 101. per Annum and
upwards.
LEAMINGTON PRIORS, JUNE 5, 1833.

Total Number of Rate-payers
Number assessed on Houses and Premises boner fide worth

101. and upwards B5O
Number assessed on Houses and Premises under 101. a

year 252
KENILWORTH, MAY 31, 1833.

The whole Number of Payers upon the Rate amount to 360.
There are 124 of the same Rated and Assessed at 101. per
annum and upwards.

TO THE RIGHT HON. POULETT THOM
SON, M.P. FOR MANCHESTER.

SlR,—Very great discontent has been excited amongst
your constituents, in consequence of an assertion made by
you on the 6th instant, when moving for leave to bring in
a Bill to amend certain errors in the Factory Bill, passed
during the last Session. According to the reported
accounts of the proceedings of that evening you are stated
to have said, in answer to an inquiry by Mr. Hume, " that
the Bill had been tried in the Cotton Manufactories, and
bad clearly succeeded." This assertion is the more extra-
ordinary because it is quite unfounded in fact. So far is
the Bill from having been tried in the Cotton Manufac-
tories, tLat at the period you are reported to have said so,
no one clause of the Act hail been put into active :opera-
tion beyond the appointment of Inspectors; and so far is
it from being likely to succeed, that Ministers have, on
their own responsibility, suspended the execution of one of
the most impot tent clauses in it, solely because the masters
had declared that they would set the entire Bill at deli-
once if that particular clause was put into force. There
' is also an impression universally existing, that the mea'ure
is impracticable ; and as it was declared is the House by a
Minister of tie Crown, that the Bill was an evil—but
one forced upon Government by the public'—it was as
universally believed that it would never be put into ex-
ecution in its present form ;—yet upon the faith of the
above assertion an Amendment Bill is one of the first
things done by the House. Bad these amendments been
of any significance, there would have been something
gained by your motion; as it is, an impression has been
given to the Members not acquainted with the interests
and wants of a manufacturing population, that the Factory
Bill is one likely to be of benefit, and calculated to heal
the unhappy differences which have so long interposed be-
tween masters and men. If this impression has been given
it is one decidedly erroneous. The Bill must inevitably,
and that at no distant date, bring these parties into hostile
collision, as the masters have unanimously declared that
they shall be obliged to discharge all their junior hands
when the clauses referring to short hours come into ope-
ration ; and there cannot exist a doubt but that they will
do so, a consequence of which will be that 30,000
children, upon the most moderate calculation, will be
turned loose in idleness and destitution.
In order to show bow far you have been misled, it may
be necessary to say, that in consequence of the death of the
Under Secretary of State for the Home Department, the
Inspectors appointed under the Act were detained in
town, waiting for instructions ; that the gentlemen
deputed for this district did not arrive in Manchester till
the 2d ofJanuary ; and that three weeks' notice is required
to make any rule or regulation, intended to provide for
the execution of the clauses, binding upon the parties, and
though the general provisiope of the Act came in f ,rce on
the Ist of January, in the absence of the Inspector every
thing had remained in state quo.
i I ant, Sir, yours, &c.,
A MANUFACTURER.
11Ianchester,_Feb. 15, 1b34.