The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-09 00:00:00

THE POST-OFFICE EMPLOYES.

Mr. BOWYER. said the house w..s no doubt aware that
very great and extensive discontent existed at present in the
Post• office. lie was informed that a committee had been
appointed by that department itself for the purpose of in-
quiring into the grievances of the servants of the establish-
ment ; but owing to some difficulties as to the power of the
committee, two of the members had resigned, and the com-
mittee became for a time paralysed. He was told that since
that time two gentlemen from the Treasury had beeti added
to the committee, which then resumed its labours ; bat
some of the officials at the Post-office had no confidence in
the committee, and they declined going befo;e it. Since
then a public meeting of the persons whe con:plained of
grievances had been held, at which some strong language
was used, and he was informed that 44 persons who took
part in that meeting had been since suspended. He wished
therefore to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether it
was true that those men had been suspended for exercising
the constitutional privilege of meeting to petition that house
and whether the Government would take their case into
consideration.

Mr. LAING was afraid he could hardly give the hon_
gentleman a specific answer, not having had notice of his
intention to put the question. It was true, however, that a
committee of superior officers of the Post-office was ap•
pointed some time ago, and some difficulty arose with regard
to the instructions given to the committee, and some
resigned. In that state of things, before Lord Elgin left for
China, the committee was reconstituted with full power to
make an accurate inquiry. One of the members of the com-
mittee was Mr. Stephens, of the Treasury, a gentleman. who
was well known to hon. members of that house who ha d sat
upon committees. That committee had been very act ively
engaged in their inquiry, and had taken the pains to g:o to
the Post-office at 4 o'clock in the morning, in order to see
with their own eyes, and every opportunity had been given
to the men to state their grievances. He believed it wor uld
be found not to be true that they had no confidence in 1 he
committee of superior officers. He could answer for it ttl tat
this commission would be a thoroughly searching and fa n-
partial one. I-1 e thought the house must see that, undi, er
these circumstances, where there was a large number of ma n
working together, it was necessary that discipline should ha
enforced, and if any of the men should hold public meeting's
for the purpose of preventing their fellow workmen from
coming forward to state their grievances before the com—
mittee it might be necessary for the department to mark
their sense of that conduct by suspension. He was not
aware that that was done, but he thought it probable, if
the facts were as represented, such a course might be
necessary. He hoped, however, that the report of the
commission would be very shot tly ready to be submit-
ted to the house, and it would then be seen whether the
remedies which the Government might think fit to adopt
would be sufficient to meet the grievances complained of;
if not it would be open for any hon. metaber to move in the
matter. (Hear.)