The Sun.
London, England, 1833-08-06 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

An interesting discussion took ninepin the House
of Commons list night, on Sir H. Hardinge's mo-
tion relative to the conduct of Sir John Key. Th,
ready consent of the Government to the appoint.
merit of a Committee is a pretty good proof that
ey are not afraid of an inviry ; and the list of
the Committee, which is almost exclusively corr.
posed of persons notoriously unfriendly to Mini-
sters, was not opposed by arty member of the CH.
binet : three Members, indeed, were added to the list
at the suggestion of Ministers, nor one of whom eau
be considered a friend of Government, and one was
Sir Robert Peel, who made (we cannot, of course,
tell why) the mo 4 violently hostile speech whici,
he has delivered this session. S'r John Key, it
will be seen, has withdrawn himself from Parlia-
ment : whether this step of the worthy B Ironet
is to be taken as a voluntary acknowledgment of
the charge, or merely a modest retreat during the
investigation of a personal question, we have nr,
means of aseertaininz. The matter will, we trust,
be thoroughly sifted ; for, as Mr. Stanley remarked,
"gross misconduct has taken place somewhere."—
Times.

Mr. Wallace will this day bring forward his mot;on
on the subject of Post-office irregularities. We
have already, on more than one occasion, drawn
public attention to the proceedings of which Mr.
Wallace proposes to complain, and as there is no
one topic which can more widely affect the entire
constituency of the country, we cannot too strongly
recommend to every Member of the House of Com-
mons the support of the petitions which will be
presented this evening, and of the motions which
may be founded on them. One of the petitions
against the Po.t-office is, we believe, from the mer-
chants of London trading to America, and ano'her
from the inhabitants of Greenock. It were to be
wished that Mr. Wallace had taken a wider rang(
on this occasion, and grappled fairly with the whole
management of this e-tablishment, which is a posi-
tive disgrace to a great commercial country. If the
labours of the session are, however, too far advanced
to allow the task to be commenced now, let us hope
that ttome independent and energetic Member of the
House may apply himself to it early in the next
fies.;nn. and compel the adoption of a better system.
—Times.

It was, some months ago, our disagreeable duty
to notice the proceedings of the Lieutenant-Governor
of Jersey, in attempting to firce upon the discus-
sions of the Legislature of that i•land a secrecy
which was altogether opposed to the wishes of the
members. Art cent number of the Jets y news-
paper, the British Press, brings another statement
of complaints against the same functiorntry, the
Lieutenant-Governor, General Thornton, for invad-
ing the established rights of Colonels of the unpaid
militia regimen's, sod arbitrarq cashiering one of
them, Colonel M4rett, f -r acting upon the sense of
his own right, and in defiince of die power assumed
(he above-mentioned journal says unlawfully) 1 y
t' e Lieutenant-Governor. It would appear that
these several sources of disagreement between the
Lieutenant-Governor and the respectable classes of
people in Jer-ey, have not been wholly concealed
from the higher authorities in England, and we
think it much to be lamented, that if military men
are prone to exhibit gut-dales, derived in all likeli-
hood from their profession, which tend to dis-
gust and alienate the communities over which, as
governors, they are sent to pres:de, the practice of
so employing them in the dependencies of Great
Britain should still be indulged, to the rejection of
non-military persons, who are genet ally more fami-
liar with the spirit in which the affairs of civil go-
vernment ought to be carried on, under a central
administration, from which arbitrary power is ex-
cluded.—Times.

One of the representatives of the c'ty of London,
Sir John Key, has been obliged to take the Chiltern
Hundreds, under circumstances not exile' ly calcu-
lated to forward his return by any popular ctinsii-
tueitcy. There is an Act of Porhamenr prohibiting
Members of Parliament from entering into any con-
tract for the supply of articles for the public use, and
prohibiting them from participating directly or in-
directly in the pt., fits of any such contracts. Sir
John Key, however, has, it seems, entered into a
contract to supply G ivelument with paper to the
amount of 60,0001. The contract is no►, it is said,
in his own name, but in the name of his elder
brother, who has long since retired from business,
and the paper has, in fact, been supplied by Sir
John Key himself. But bad as this is, it is not the
worst part of the business. Through the instru-
mentality of the Comptroller of the S ationery-
office, whose name we find to be John Church, a
son of Sir John Kt y, a youth of eighteen years of
age, was appointed to the uffice of Storekeeper, in
which capacity he has to judge of the quantity and
quality of the goods sent into the office; and us
this young man could know nothing of the duties
of his office, Sir John, according to the statement
of Sir H Hardinge, discharged the duties for
him; and though Master Key has never been
at the office since his appointment, Sir John
attended every day for him, and superintended
the reception of his own paper, which was unloaded
from his own carts. It is not stated whether Sir
John, in his capacity of D: petty Storekeeper, was
satisfied as to the quantity and quality of the paper
supplied by him as contractor, but we presume that
he was, and that no exception was tido n in any
case. The statement of Lord Altltorp completely
vindicated the conduct of Government in this ugly
affair. In the first place, this John Church, Esq ,
through whose instrumentality Master Key was ap-
pointed, is not an officer of the appointment of tt.e
present Government. In the next place, the Comp-
troller broke ground by recommending, on the va-
cancy occurring, that the office should be filled by
a person younger than these generally appointed.
The custom of the Wive had been, that the person
appointed under the Comptroller as S orekeeper
was some one who had been engaged in trade, and
had not succeeded in business, and the Comptroller
represented that these persons were not always
equal to the discharge of their numerous duties. In
the opinion of the Comptroller, the person ap-
pointed should not be more than 25 or 30 years
of age. Having thus paved the way for a
young man, Master Key was represented us 22
years of age. Or course the Comptroller took
care not to mention that the Uncle of Master
Key was the person who had the contract with
the Government, and the Treasuty had not the
least idea that the contract was in the hands of the
uncle of the new storekeeper. Lord Althorn states
that he was not aware of any of the circumstances
of the case till Sunday or Saturday se'nnight, when
a friend wrote to him to say what had taken place,
and he immediately represented it to the Board of
Treasury,in consequence of w hich the eppoinimerit was
directly afierwaids cancelled. The bLst proof of the
blamelessness of the Government in this business is
the matiliness wit h which Lot d Althorp a! cnce con-
sented to a Committee of Inquiry. But Sir R ibt.
Peel, with a want of tact for which it is difficult io
account—as he must be aware that the public offices
are all crammed with Tories, and the presumption
is, that where a j b takes place among the ,fficers
the jobber in nineteen cases out of twenty must be
a Tory—seemed to think the occasion favorable
for a party attack of Ministers. After dwelling on
the necessity of inquiring Sir J. Key should be
permitted to be the contractor in the teeth of an
Act of Parliament, amid of its beite,:.known whether
it was possible to evade this Act of Pattiateetit, and
to permit the brother of a Member of Purliament
tio.ninelly to enter into a contract, while the Mem-
ber himself was the vir►ual contractor, in order to
guard against future evasion, by providing a more
efficient legal remedy, the Right Hon. Baronet pro•
ceeded to observe—
" But, superadded to all this, was the statement that
Sir J hn Key had got his son placed in that office, by
which the quantity and the quality of the article furnished
leas it) be ascertained. The N.tble Lord said nothing .1
the age of ibis young man. That ought to have teen
inquired into. It was the duty of the person at the head
of the department to which he was appointed, not to

acquiesce in that appointment, bat to remonstrate against
it, on account of the young mates age; be should have
made a representation to the Treasury; for although the
‘ou h was then the sun of a stationer, it was impossible
,hat I e should be prantiedly acquainted with the busines.,
any competent knowledee f which his age must have pre-
elided him from acquiring "
This, as we have said, ought to have been
deemed a delicate point by an ex-Tory Minister.
Vir. John Church, though appointed by a Tory
Government, may be a most disinterested individual,
and it may never even have occurred to him that
'he son of a contractor could have any motive for
revolt, ing that contractor in aseerrairrng the pin-
tity of the goods delivered by him. But there have
been men in public offices who have turned their
understanding with contractors to a good account.
Who does not know that during the last war large
fortunes were made by men in the subordinate
offices of Government, by connivances of various
kinds with contractors ? There are men who now
hold their heads very high, and live like Princes,
who entered beggars into the public offices, and left
them rich without having any fair or intelligible
means of acquiring that wealth. We have al.vays
understood that during the war, contracts were
often taken at prices at which no man could af-
ford to take them who had not a guilty un-
derstanding with men in public offices. But
whatever the facts in this case may turn out
to he, it is quite clear, from the statements
of Lord Althorp and M. Stanley, that not
a shadow of blame can attach to Government.

" The cancelling .f the appointment," said Mr. Stanley,
" was no re'ult of any inquiry in that House, nor even of
any threat of inquiry. On the 28th of July it was repre
amt. d that the young man was only 18 years of age; on
the 29th a communication was made by his Noble Friend
to the Stationary-office; and on the next day Mr. Key
resigned, and the Treasury minute cancelling the appoint
merit was passed bef .re there was the least notice of a
motion on the subject.—(Cheers ) Here was the vindi-
cation of the Government. lie should not now stay to
inquire into the conduct of the officers of the Stationary-
office, nor of the Comptroller; he should say that that
gentleman was not an officer of the appointment of the
present Government. If he had tnisconducted himself,
they ought not ro he made responsible for him ; but with
respect to the cancelling of the appointment, they had a
right to claim the benefit of that act."
Mr. Stanley also showed how easy it was to evade
law, if the relations and friends of the real contractor
would determine on committing the fraud of putting
themselves lomat(' as the contractors. The cir-
cumstances stated by him, however, show that, as
far as the public is concerned, it is of little conse-
quence who is the contractor. In fact the Govern-
ment can only he defrauded by the connivance of
Government officers; and we fear that connivance,
in too many instances, has not been afforded in a nig-
eardly manner. The rage for living expensively in
England has led to a degree of sy-temattc, but, dexte-
rously executed, fraud of the public in men in office,
unknown elsewhere. All this, however, wears an ap-
pearance of decorum. There is no paltry gaspillage—
no hatf-guinea bribes as in Russia. But when men, not
born to estates, live in a style five or six times more
expensive than their known incomes warrant, with-
out fall•ng behind with the world, the inference is
that something is wrong. The system of contracts,
however, is as perfect, in other respects, as it can
well be. " A contract (as was truly stated by Mr.
Stanley) is not a matter of appointment, but of legal
render arid acceptance. It is the result of a public,
fair, and open competition. It did so happen too
hat the contract for this year is five per cent. lower
than for the la-t year. The person who made the
lowest bidding obtained it. That person happened
to be Mr. Key. It did not necessarily appear before
the Treasury—and, in fact, it was not known there
—that the applicant for the office was related to the
contractor." The truth is, that since contracts
were put by Mr. Pitt on their present footing, the
reason vihich led to the Act of Parliament, prohi-
biting Members of Parliament from taking them,
can hardly be said to exist. If contracts are given
to the lowest bidder, they are no favour, and may
as well be given to Members of Parliament as to
others. This part of the -ystem is as perfect as it
can well be. If the Government be injured, this
can only happen through an understanding between
the contractors and Government officers.—Morning
Chronicle.

We are beginning to see our way to a little re-
lot m of our own in this good city of London, where
certainly we are more accustumed to hear reform
talked of than adopted. The City of London Gas
Company, or, as it is more frequently called by
those who are compelled to deal with it upon its
own terms, the City of London Gas Company Mo-
nopoly has at length so far exhausted the patience
of its customers that the authorities can no longer
withstand the universal call for relief. Indeed the
wonder is that, with a rival Company at hand, and
an offer of twenty-five per cent. reduction in pros-
pect, the monopoly did not fall to pieces long ago.
But there were some difficulties of an official nature
in the way—there was a Board of Commission,rs
the Commissioners of Pavements, to lie consulted.
No doubt those Commissioners were all very anxious
to do justice to their fellow-citizens; but they were
still more anxious to do justice to the paving stones,
and they thought it better that their fellow-citizens
should go on paying 2.5 per cent. extra to an over-
grown monopoly than that the pavement of Fleet-
street should be disturbed by the workmen of another
establishment. At length, however, matters have
come to a crisis. The inhabitants of the parish of Sr.
Bride have prepared a petition, which is to be laid
before the Commissioners of Pavements this day. The
inhabitants complain of overcharges. They ask for
permission to contract with another Company,
which offers to supply them at twenty-five per cent.
under the present charge. We should like to hear
upon what ground they can be refused this request.
It is said that the Directors of the City Gas Com-
pany have been summoned to attend the meeting of
the Commissioners. This looks well. It looks as
if the Commissioners were resolved to do the r
duty. Let us hope that they will either persuade
the Directors to reduce their contract to a moderate
sum, or compel them to relinqaish it altogether. Of
this they may be certain, that the eyes of the public
are on them. It sometimes happens in the course
of things, that the Judge may be said to he more
completely on his trial than the accused. So it is
with the Commis-ioners of Pavements at this mo-
ment. Their decision, be it good or bad, will affect
themselves much more sensib!), than the Directors
of the Gas Company, or even than the public. We
trust that the Commissioners are sensible of the
position in which they stand, and that they will
meet in such numb, rs to-day as will prevent any
trick from being attempted. The fact is, their cha-
racters are at sake. We warn them it is upon their
own characters they are about to decide.—Morning
Herald.

THE LATE MR. WILBERFORCE.--The
des h of this lamented and truly philanthropic character,
has awakened many reco lectiuns connected with bis severe
c fur the county (II Y rk. Oa reference to the Don
caster Gazette, of Alay 29, 1807, we find the following
pa eel aph :—•` Among the numerous friends of Mr. WIL-
BERFORCE, we know of none more zealous, in securing
his eled:tion, than a person of the name of CATHERINE
Wow), of this town, a dealer in coals. On it being inti-
mated to her, that from the severe contest whieb had taken
place, a subscription was intended for his assistance, she
very generou•ly observed, " I do not know him, but I
admire his conduct in Parliament," and pulling out her
nutmeg-grater, from which she took a guinea, added, " I
cannot afford to give much,—accept the widow's mite
towards his .uccess ; and God bless him." " bravo I"
We, now, in 1833, reiterate bravo 'o Mrs. KITTY WooD,
who, we are happy toad, is now in the full enjoyment of
a gree❑ old age.—Domeaster Gazette.
An act of savage ferocity was committed on
Tuesday in the village of Whitley, near Godelming, by a
farmer's labourer, named HARDY, who in company with
another man had been to Godalming to pu-chase a reap.
Ing hook. On their way borne they called at some of the
beer shops in their way, and ultimately quarrelled, when
HARDY struck forci .ly at his companion with the book,
and cut off his left hand. The blow was so violent that
it cut through the five bones, and severed the limb en-
tirely, excepting only one of tie tendons by which it
bun;;. Tue perpetrator of the act bee been committed to
priwn..—diants CAroniele,