The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-30 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY OCCURRENCE AT

THE GENERAL POST OFFICE.

The following extraordinary statement appears
,n a contemporary

Yesterday (Tuesday) morning an investigation
into the extraordinary delay of upwards of 500
bankers' parcels at the General Post-office, and the
whole of which ought to have been forwarded to
the several parties to whom they were addressed by
the first delivery on Saturday morning last, but
which were detained more than 12 hours, i.e., until
nearly six o'clock in the evening, was resumed, the
investigation into this unheard-of case, we under-
stand, having been commenced on Monday.
From the several sources at his command, our
reporter this (Tuesday) morning gleaned that it
appears evident from the statements made by some
of the officers on duty on Saturday morning at the
arrival of the mails and the opening of the bags, that
the whole of the correspondence was duly received
at the office, and placed in bags (as is the custom),
to be sent round to the stampers and sorters, to
prepare for the letter-carriers. From some cause,
perfectly inexplicable, two of these baskets, con-
taining bankers' parcels (enclosing hundreds of
thousands of pound notes, bills, &c.), were com-
pletely overlooked, having been pushed under the
" road" where the letters are sorted, and thus, it
seems, they were forgotten. As a matter of course
the bankers, merchants, and " though last not least"
the authorities of the Bank of England, who had
five packets, as we are informed, addressed to that
establishment, very soon after the first delivery had
taken place without the arrival of the more valuable
part of their correspondence, instituted inquiries
into the reason of the delay, but the only answer
they could obtain from the Post-office authorities
was, " That the whole of the letters, &c., which
had arrived had been sent out for delivery." Upon
this the telegraph was set to work, but each succes-
sive telegram from various parts of the United
Kingdom brought a reply, to the effect that the
parcels had been despatched to London through the
Post-office in the ordinary way. The Post-office
authorities of course became alarmed, fearing that
another wholesale plunderer had been following his
nefarious vocation ; whilst as the day wore on, and
no tidings could be obtained of any of the packets,
the consternation in the City became intense. Mes-
sengers and detectives were despatched in all direc-
tions, and various means employed to trace the
missing valuables, but up to five o'clock p.m. with-
out effect. At that hour, however, the evening duty
commenced, and in rumaging the office for baskets
to carry the newspapers in, the two were found, the
contents being quite safe. They had apparently
been pushed out of sight, and they were overlooked
by stampers, sorters, and other officers.
On e of thew'a
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up of theunestablishment,suspicion
on Saturday
nam s d
Pritchard,
for 12 hours—indeed,hepoor
fellow, until ti
we the
hear, fi nhdaidn gn
not
tf beenthe
Ipornog-
perty. The
in the service, and was attached to one of the walks
of banking impoitance. Wheeler, a messenger,
whose duty it was to attend to the packets, has been
suspended. The most strange part of the business,
officially, is how it could have happened in the first
instance that no remark was made as to the non-
arrival of any bankers's parcels on Saturday morn-
ing, and how it happened that none of the nume-
rous inspectors and overlookers of this duty did not
take care, as it is their duty, that nothing—not even
a newspaper—was either designedly or accidentally
left behind. We hear the bankers have determined
to call upon the authorities for a full explanation.

FATHER PASSAGLIA AT FLORENCE,—A corres-
pondent writes from Florence on the 24th to the Temps :
" I have seen the Abbe Passaglia. He arrived here on
Monday at 2 o'clock, and left this morning with Canon
Reali for Bologna, whence he goes to Turin. I had a hur-
ried interview with him in company with seven or eight
persons, laity and ecclesiastics. He was astonished at the
enthusiasm of which he was the object upon his route. At
Rieti, Narni, Perugia, and Sienaa, he recounted, the people
cried out to him, ' Viva Passaglia I' Viva L'ltalia Una!
' Then,' said he, I saluted these brave people, and I said,
'Yes, yes, one, but catholic I ' and they replied, "Yes, yes,
catigolio i" it was lib a tliPloglie betwOon vs."!