The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-04 00:00:00

:THE PACKET SERVICE COMMITTEE.

The following is the supplemental report in re-
ference to the Galway contract :
" 1. Since their first report was presented to the
house, your committee have been compelled to re-
sume their inquiries into the matter of the Galway
subsidy, in consequence of a document having been
transmitted to the chairman, a document purport-
ing to be a copy of an agreement for the payment
of a large sum of money for procuring that subsidy
in the event of its being obtained. The result of
these inquiries yoar committee now lay before the
house.
" 2. It appears that in the month of March pre-
ceding the sailing from Galway (June 19, 1858)
of the Indian Empire, the first vessel of the
Lever line of packets, Mr. Lever became ac-
quainted with Mr. George O'Malley Irwin,
a member of the Irish bar, who was a native of the
county of Galway. Mr. Irwin professed great in-
terest in the success of Mr. Lever's undertaking,
and on the 19th of May, 1858, Mr. Lever addressed
to him a letter, in which, after offering to make
him a present of £5OO on obtaining a specified sub-
sidy from the Government and the Midland Great
Western Railway of Ireland, for the trial trip of
the Indian Empire, he adds—' I also wish to say
that if you obtain me a subsidy of £150,000 per
annum for the conveyance of the United States
mails to and from this country, I will present you
with a sum of £lO,OOO in addition.'
" 3. This undertaking was subsequently reduced
into the form of a regular agreement, to which Mr.
Thomas Knox Holmes, member of a firm carrying
on business as parliamentary 'agents in Westmin-
ster, was admitted as a party jointly with Mr.
Irwin.
" 4. The original of that deed, executed on the
2d of June, 1858, was produced to the committee.
By this deed, which is printed in the evidence,
Messrs. Irwin and Holmes, ' on the one part, under-
take to use their best efforts, and to exert all their
influence with their friends and others in order to
promote a subsidy from the Government, or from
any persons having the power to obtain or grant
such subsidy from the Government in favour of the
said John Orrell Lever, in the matter of his pro-
jected undertaking for establishing steamboat com-
munication between Galway and America; and in
the event of such subsidy being obtained, the said
John Orrell Lever on the other hand undertakes
to pay to them,
,the said George O'Malley Irwin
and Thomas Knox Holmes, at the time the same is
obtained, the following sums. of money,' namely,
£lO,OOO if the subsidy were £172,840 (the amount
anticipated, on the same footing with the Cunard
contract, if a weekly service were fixed on), or a
corresponding proportionate sum if the subsidy
were less or more on that amount. The sum was
to be payable on the joint receipt of Messrs. Irwin
and Holmes, and the agreement was to be binding
on Mr. Lever, though he should at any time part
with or assign his interest in the undertaking to a
company or otherwise.'
" 5. A corresponding agreement as to the subsidy
for the trial trip of the Indian Empire was exe-
cuted at the same time.
"6. Some time after the Galway contract had
been granted, at a yearly subsidy of £78,000, for a
fortnightly service, Mr, Lever not having made
any payment to Messrs. Irwin and Holmes, a suit
was instituted against him for payment of £5360, as
the sum proportioned to that subsidy due under the
agreement. This action, though originally raised on
the sole instructions of Mr. Irwin, was afterwards
authorised by Mr. Holmes.
"7. In defence, Mr. Lever put in a plea of fraud,
to the effect that he had been induced to enter into
the agreement by false and fraudulent representa-
tions on the part of the plaintiffs ; and under an
order of the judge a statement of particulars of
fraud' was lodged, setting forth that Messrs. Irwin
and Holmes had falsely and fraudulently repre-
sented themselves to have great influence with
members of the Government and other persons,
which would be of service in procuring the con-
tract, on the faith of which representation he had
undertaken to pay the money stipulated for in the
agreement.
"8. This action was set down for trial, first, on
the 3d of February last, and again on the 14th
inst. ; but on both occasions it was withdrawn,
contrary to the remonstrances of Mr. Irwin, by the
instructions of Mr. Holmes, on the ground, as stated
by him in his evidence, of anticipated legal difficul-
ties, till the Galway packet contract should have
been approved of by Parliament. The suit is still
undischarged.
"9. A separate action has been raised by Mr.
Irwin individually against Mr. Lever, not founded
on the deeds of agreement above-mentioned, as to
procuring a subsidy (although these were produced
at the trial), but for alleged services in the forma-
tion of the company. This action was tried on the
12th inst., when a verdict of £l,OOO was found
against Mr. Lever. Your committee have obtained
short-hand notes of the trial, and they desire
to call the attention of the house to following
observations of the Lord Chief Baron, before whom
it took place I very much doubt whether
any action had is maintainable at all, in point of
law, in respect of services of this sort. I do not un-
derstand what is meant by a man's selling his sup-
posed interest with any member of Parliament or
any member of the Government, In point of law it
appears to me to be a temptation to corrupt prac-
tices. These very bargains woald lead to all pos-
sible mischief in public and political life.'
" 10. Messrs. Irwin and Holmes deny that any
false or fraudulent representations were made by
them to Mr. Lever, and there seems to your com-
mittee no ground for supposing that any corrupt
means were resorted to by them in carrying out
their part of the agreement; but undoubtedly the
largeness of the sum stipulated, together with the
fact of its payment being made conditional on suc-
cess, and the nature of the plea stated in defence,
appear to your committee to lead to the inference
that the exertion of endue influence could not have
been excluded from Mr. Lever's view when he en-
tered into it.

" 11. However that may be, your committee are
at all events clearly of opinion that that agreement
is in itself deserving of the strongest reprobation ;
and that the allowance of such undertakings would
present a temptation to corrupt practices, and open
a door to evils most injurious to the public service.
into
this 12. If, therefore, Mr. Lever, who entered
this agreement, were himself the contractor under
the Galway contract, your committee could not
doubt that the house should withhold the moneys
necessary for carrying it into effect. The case, how-
ever, does not present itself in that simple form.
At the time when the agreement of 2d June, 1858,
was entered into, Mr. Lever was substantially the
owner of the Galway line ; but the company which
he was then engaged in forming, and associating
with himself and his immediate friends, was not
actually constituted till the September following,
when the articles of copartnery were executed,
and the first directors thereby appointed, these
articles being subscribed by seven individuals,
holding 7,150 shares, of which Mr. Lever
held 5,000 ; since then many new shareholders
have become proprietors in the company.
Mr. Lever now holds shares to the amount
'f about one-fourth of the whole stock, and he has
been throughout, as he is now, one of the directors.
The company took over from him, at prices agreed
011, the vessels held by him ; and besides 250 free
shares presented to him in consideration of his per-
sonal services in getting up the company, they al-
lowed him a sum of 1. 27, 00 for his 'interest in the
line, concessions, privileges at ports,' &c., which
sum does not include ' preliminary expenses,' for
which a separate charge of £13,901 is entered in
the company s balance-sheet. The board of direc-
tors, however, do not appear to have been aware
of the transaction between Mr. Lever and Messrs.
Holm es and Irwin, and they have gone forward in
making preparations for the performance of their
part of the contract under which, on the requisition
of the Government, the first vessel, is to sail on the
26th of the present month.
"Your committee have thus stated the facts
which been proven on their further inquiry. Of
these facts they were ignorant when they made the
recommendation contained in their former report ;
.but having now set forth the whole case, they deem
it most advisable to leave the decision entirely
to the judgment of the house, without suggesting
any opinion of their own."

In consequence of the recent failures there wax
nearly a total suspension of business in the Leadenhall
leather market yesterday. Market hides declined oto 40
per mat.