The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-19 00:00:00

POST-OFVIOE COMMITTEE

hasunccfnme's
Mbeel)n
eakcecnoinnngtofoflas. inarter.rspieuwne:inthbe,thiet
seems, of CounnoW POst-offic'e Committee is an entertaining-inter-
rather
lude in the progress of that business, the interest in which
has made- a charge with respect to this
.transaction of letter
opening. He professes himself able to substantiate this
charge..
He says he can prove that some fifty or sixty of
. Mazzimla letters have been opened, as well as of Captain
, Stolzbei-g's and other individuals, and he believes he can
prove that some of his own letters have been opened too.
Under these circumstances the Committee send for him, and
say they understand he has a statement to make to them.
Mr.-Duncombe says he has no statement to make but this,
and that he is willing to give the Committee the benefit of
his information: "Then'give us your hit of witnesses," lie is
told; " we will send for them and examine them punctually;
and in the meantime we have no further concern with you,
Mr. Duncombe—goad morning to you." Now, everybody
knows what an examination of witnesses by a Committee is.
Just so much is extracted from the witnesses as the Com-
mittee choose to extract, and no more. The amount gained
May vary from everything to nothing,, according to
the disposition and questioning talent of the members
of the Committee. In the present instance, letting alone the
disposition, there was not one man on the Committee who
had any knowledge of, or had at all entered into the matter
in hand ; or who could, therefore, know- anything of the
proper way of getting at the facts of the case, and the
pro-
per questions to put to the witnesses. Mr. Duncombe was,
accordingly, much obliged by the courtesy of the Committee
in offering to take the trouble upon themselves, but he had
rather examine the witnesses himself. He knew, from his
acquaintance with the circumstances, how to get the truth
from them, and they did not know. A person at a table
d'hote, who sees a very awkward carver going sedulously to
help him to the driest and most unsavoury corner of the
whole joint, says, " Thank you, is that for me ? I will not
trouble-you." Mr. Duncombe had rather help himself to his
own evidence, and carve the joint himself. He had a pre-
sentiment of the bones, and gristle, and skin that the Com-
mittee's carving would result in, and thought that he should
take more interest, probably, in proving his own charge
than the Committee would in doing it for him ; in other
words, that he would find himself and his charge left in
the lurch. But the Committee were bland. and pressing.
" The Committee pressed him very much to give up
his list to them. He had nothing to complain of their de-
meanour. They were all of them in their manner most in-
dulgent—(Hear, and a laugh)—indeed, he might term their
conduct as almost coaxing.—(Loud laughter.) It was sug-
gested that he might leave his papers in the hands of some
member in whom he had confidence, and who might put all
the requisite questions. To this he (Mr. Duncombe) had re-
plied, with perfect candour and courtesy, that he had equal
confidence in all of them.—(Loud laughter.)" Mr. Dun-
combe has certainly a good deal of prime/ facie justice on his
side. A Committee that takes the substantiation of an ac-
cuser's charge out of the accuser's hands into its own, has
the former's character forthwith in its power, and can, by
simply preventing as much as they please of that substantia-
tion, make his charge empty and himself calumnious. As
Mr. Duncombe says—" The Committee was appointed to in
vestigate certain charges which he had brought against Go-
vernment; but it turned round suddenly and converted
itself, in fact, into a Committee for trying his (Mr. Dun-
combe's) veracity." Lord Sandon was willing to allow him
to be present, but not to examine, except, indeed, the
House made him a regular member of the Committee. Sir
Robert Peel, after an eulogium upon his own great indul-
gence in allowing Mr. Duncombe to bring on his motion at all,
which he thought he would have been justified, according to
the rules of the House, in objecting to, proceeded to state
that he should certainly oppose Mr. Duncombe's being one
of the Committee;—" he should certainly advise the House
to adhere in this case to the general practice with regard to
all Committees of the sort. It was now a question of confi-
dence in the Committee." Mr. Strutt, a member of the Com-
mittee, observed upon the difficulty which would be occa-
sioned by a fresh member coming in, and having to be told
all that had gone on before. The motion was after a discus-
sion put, that Mr.Duncombe should be placed upon the Com-
mittee, and was negatived. Now, " the rules of the House,"
and "inconvenience," and other reasons of this sort, may he
fair reasons in their way; all we know is, that here a charge
is made and the accuser is not allowed to prove it : a Com-
mittee is appointed for the express purpose of collecting
information, and it refuses by one act a whole body of in-
formation • that is to say, it refuses the only prac-
tical condition on which that information is to
be got, and therefore it refuses to receive that information
itself. But, "We asked for the names of the witnessen"
said the Chairman of the Committee. Why, certainly you
could not do less. It an accuser declares be littr, Witnesses, a
Committee must in decency profess itself ready to admit
them. But to ask for the witnesses, and to exclude at the
same time an efficient examination of them, is 4 poor, ambi-
guous course to take. As Mr. Vernon Smith remarked, a
Committee ought to catch at information, and LIU every
means to procure the development of the truth. The bare
material of evidence, as everybody who liaa been in a court
of justice knows, is nothing without the powor to open and
lay it out. What the Committee have done in the present
instance has been to express their readiness to admit a quan-
tity of witnesses corporeally within their Committee-room.
What is to be got out of them when they are there they
leave to chance. They cannot examine them themselves,
and they will not allow the persOn who can do sa. They are
willing, however, to have a certain mimber of individuals
sent up and then sent down again. So much for the seal for
information manifested by °douse of Commoue Committee.
They just save their bacon--they just do not actually refuse
evidence, and that is all that can be said.—Times.

AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS'
WAGES.
TO THE EDITOR OE THE SUN.
Stn,—ln your capacity of a journalist, perhaps the follow-
ing statement of the condition of the agricultural labourers
in the counties of Hereford, Monmouth, Gloticester, and Ox-
ford, may not be unacceptable. It would be as well to give a
statement of the present rate of wages, as in the course of
two or three weeks the harvest time will commence, and a
different rate of wages will appear ; but such as I shall now
state is now, and has been, the rate of wages since the last
autumn. •
I look upon the county of Hereford as one of the finest in
England, and it is a 'boast of the Wives thatit. will Prodnot,
every_tbilyg necessary for the wants of man. Now I find,
strict inquiry at four difihrent parts of this rich and fer-
tile county, that the labouring man cannot earn more, Chan
*. per week, with an allowance only of two quarts of cider
per day. On my journey to Hereford last Octaher, I asked a
farmer (a distant relative of my own) what he considered the
labourers were getting on an average. His answer was in the
following terms :—" They will tell you. hero that they are
getting 7s. per week, but will bet any man 100/. that Igo
into the Hereford market to-morrow (Saturday), and pro-
cure any quantity of labourers 'necessary for worhing a farm
of 500 acres at ss. per week."
At-Ragland, in Monmouthshire (one of the best farmed
parishes in the county), I inquired of a farmer whom I have
known for many years the rate of wages in tho neighbour-
hood. He said we talk-about 7s. a- week and an allowance of
cider, but the-fact is"-we can get them at any price, 'there is,
such a superabundance of labour.
In the neighbourhood of Cirencester and Northleaeh I find
that the rate of wages are about the same sta those I have
mentioned, but in one parish, situated • between the above-
named towns, there are 250 people out of employ.
I ' In the neighbourhood of Bicester (Oxon), I am assured,
upon good authority, that wages will not average mofe than
6s. Od. per week ; and on Tuesday last thirty-five able-bodied
labourers marched through the town of Bleester, on their
way to the union at 'Anton.
In Northamptonshire wages are better, but this rnay he at-
tributed to a hranch.of manutitcture which nnisthrough the
county; but there are an immense quantity of hands unem-
ployd, and who are suffering great privations. I make -no
comment upon the above state of things, further than:the re-
ply of-a customer of mine In the town of Thrapstone, who,
' upon an observation of mine as to the state of the agricultu-
ral labourers, said, " Sir, they_are broken-hearted."
QOAMERCIAL TRAVELLER.

ApbTraknow or GUANO.—WU have already as-
serted that guano is often an abominable mixture of all sorts
of brown ingredients that are worthless, Here is the ana-
lysis of some which a near-sighted gentleman ,purchased
lately at 12/. .a ton. • It -metallic(' one-half per cent. of am-
monia, not a traqa) of urea, minute quantities •of alkalltio ,
sulphatea and phosphates of lime; in short, the largest esti-
mates that could be made of the real guano present in the
sample amounted to three per cent., including feathers, which,
however, appeared to have belonged to sparrows and phea,
sants, An the other hand, there were 50 per cent. of atones
and yellow earth. In this case the buyer was near-sighted
indeed, -fes this guano cost him nearly four hundrA 1
pounds a ton. These must- he famous times for farmers,
when manure can be. bought at such • a pri,:a A quantity
of guano sold ;It Manchester has been round to contain
scveatY.a6ve per cent. of brickdtist ; another sort from Derby-
shire contained ten per Peat, of sawdust and six per cent.
of clay; and another Derbyshire specimen was doctored
with ground bark to the extent of twelve per cent.. Really,
With such facts' . staring nsiU the face at every turn of the
road; it is most incomprehensible why farmers will not throw
themselves into the heads of the chemist, who alone can
help them. are urged to publish the paufes of the
• -
people •wha are swindling the country la this manner. laeT.,
liapa we may. But that will Meyer abate such enormous
manures atialal.ed before they buy them
evils'as we havenow (.I.enoe4. Farmers must look to them-
selves, and get c 4
or theY*_ TI purchase v.adcrwarrranty, as they do v'ttli Their
ofi $s t
Lord ~.aTolui Russell has been
Uazette.
is, we believe, gradually
Louhnetar3r: tbh.;:a
tics Isposition of ,Lady John
diteti7soncid:tv'ilnel'hot,ehtleioweyczi
recovering.
Np;c:iANCE.—A 4.4 das
8,, a boa's crew et
aa'r enterprising nautics captured sea-e.agle,-__a creature
never -before witlae-W !Y 9i of4est gaiwnfiea.. This rare
marlalaTi9.4( .1 04, ITL.la* lAgOess plunge beyond its
\TM% ea a ca F tiing exp edition. , and. in its aquati pro-,
,9 gambols
lezame aniangled In the .meshes of a aarhat.net, when in-•
stinet, craft, and energy, entirely failed to effect a. reletto
from. its ingloridas' handage.: he computed -leagth of this
tenant of the deep was about four feet from the one extreme,
to.tbe other; rt bad a brace of piercing eyes, and -a pair of
Jerusalem wings, with which it:pfied in the,fathoullaso.ahyss
of the ocean, as its nominal relative traverses the aerial rt.•
gions of infinitude, • We understand that -this peculia.r 9.,h
has been Sent tothe grand 4.sew*Of the Modern Athens.—
Einaburgh Evening Post. • •
VARpg or SkYcrui aura, nue was
yesterday carried this parish Without a poll being de-
-414d fib@ Weot ilitauey parish shoal follow this
oAimple.