The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-07 00:00:00

POST-OFFICE ESPIONAGE.
REPORT FROM THE SECRET COMMITTEE

RELATIVE TO THE POST-OFFICE.

By the Lords Committees appointed a Secret Committee
to inquire into the state of the law in respect to the
detaining and opening of letters at the Post-office, and
into the mode under which the authority given for
such opening and detaining has been exercised, and to
report their opinion thereupon and observations to the
House ; and to whom was referred the petition of
Joseph Mazzini, of 47, Devonshire-street, Queen -
square, complaining of his letters having been de-
tained and opened at the Post-office, and praying for
inquiry ;
Ordered to report—That the Committee have met,
and inquired into the subject referred to them, and have
examined several witnesses in relation thereto.
The Committee hare not thought it necessary to at-
tempt to define the grounds upon which the Government
has exercised the power afforded by public conveyance
of letters of obtaining such information as might be,
thought beneficial for the public service; it seems suffi-
cient for the present purpose to state that the exercise
of this power can be traced from the earliest institutions
of this country for the conveyance of letters, from Orders
in Council of the 22d of November, 1626, and 24th of
February, 1627. The Secretaries of State were in time
of war and danger to the state to be made acquainted,
if they required it, with letters and communications to
foreign parts.
In 1657, upon the first establishment of a regular
post-office, it was stated in the ordinance to be the best
means to discover and prevent many dangerous and
wicked designs against the commonwealth.
In letting to farm the Post-cffice to individuals, and in
the proclamation of the 25th of May, 1663, and 25th of
August, 1683, the power is distinctly claimed and re-
served. The terms in which the provisions of the Act,
9th Anne, cap. 10, upon this subject, are enacted, can
only be explained upon the supposition that this power
was at the time fully recognised, for that Act gives no
power to the Secretary of State to detain or open letters,
but prohibits others from doing so, except by an express
warrant in writing, under the hand of the principal Se-
cretary, for every such opening or detaining.
The subsequent statute of 35th Geo. 111., cap. 62, and
Ist Vic., cap. 33, adopted nearly the same form of re-
cognition.
'The power, therefore, appears to have been exercised
from the earliest period, and to have been recognised by
several Acts of Parliament.
This appears .to the Committee to be the state of the
law in respect to the detaining and opening of letters at
the Post-office, and they do not find any other authority
for such detaining or opening.
The Committee have very carefully investigated the
mode in which this power has of late been exercised.
Lists and abstracts of the warrants for many years
back have been preserved at the Home-office ; but the
Committee have not thought it necessary minutely to
pursue the investigation to an earlier period than to the
year 1822, from which time only has any record of
warrants been preserved at the Post-office.
It appears that since 1822, 182 warrants have been
issued, averaging about eight per annum ; about two-
thirds of these have been for the purpose of either tracing
persons accused of offences, or of tracing property em-
bezzled by suspected offenders ; and the warrants have
been issued whenever application has been made to the
Under Secretary of State, upon grounds which have
seemed to the Principal Secretary of State to justify such
proceediEg.
The application has generally been made either by
magistrates or by solicitors conducting prosecutions, and
these parties have been put in possession of any useful
information thus obtained, but not of the original letters,
which have been usually returned to the Post-office, to
be forwarded to their original address.
The detention of letters has been invariably refused in
cases in which civil rights have alone been concerned.
The Committee have not had any means of estimat-
ing in what degree the examination of letters thus de-
tained has facilitated the administration of justice, the
result never being reported to the Home-office, but it is
known in some instances to have led to the apprehen-
sion and conviction of offenders, and to the recovery of
property. _ _ _

It miy seem that the issue of six or seven warrants
annually, in proportion to the 30,000 or 40,000 commit-
tals which take place in this kingdom, cannot be an effi-
cient instrument of police; but, on the other hand, the
isme of six or seven warrants upon a circulation of
220,000,000 of letters cannot be regarded as materially
interfering with the sanctity of private correspondence,
which, with these exceptions, there is not the slightest
ground to believe has been ever invaded.

The second class of warrants has been issued by the
Secretary of State at periods when the circumstances of
the country have seemed to threaten public tranquillity.
The warrants for detention of letters of this class have
scarcely, upon an average of twenty-one years, exceeded
two annually in Great Britain; and though under some
of the warrants not a single letter has been opened,
under others many have been detained and examined.
It does not appear that from any one of these letters
specific knowledge of great importance has been ob-
tained. The information, however, which has been de.
rived from this source has been regarded as valuable,
and may have given better information upon danger ap-
prehended in particular districts than could be derived
from local observation, or than might be collected from
the vague and exaggerated rumours which in periods of
disturbance very usually prevail.
It is the concurrent opinion of witnesses who have
held high office, and who may be most competent to
form a sound judgment, that they would reluctantly see
this power abolished ; and possibly it might be thought
to be even more convenient and requisite in time of
foreign war than it is in our present state of peace.
The power of issuing warrants, which was first granted
by the Irish Act, 23 and 24 Geo. 111., cap. 17, to the
Lord Lieutenant or other Chief Governor or Governors
of Ireland, has been very sparingly used, and the number
issued does not average more than two annually, and
these have been principally for the detection of suspected
criminals.

The Committee have examined into the case of the
petitioner whose petition has been referred to them. It
is true that Mr. Mazzini's letters were for about four
months stopped and opened, under the warrant of the
Secretary of State for the Home Department, and in-
spected by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,
upon an apprehension that he was engaged in a corre-
spondence having for its object designs which might be
injurious to the tranquillity of Europe. Certain parts
of the information thus obtained were communicated to
a foreign Government, in so far as such a communicn,
tion appeared to be warranted, but without the names ot
details that might expose any individual then residing in
the foreign country to which the information was trans-
mitted to danger.
The Committee are bound, in conclusion, to state, that
having looked back to the proceedings of several Secre-
taries of State during successive Administrations for more
than twenty years, they have found the practice has
been nearly uniform, that the power has been very
sparingly exercised, and never from personal or party
motives, and that in every case investigated it seems to
have been directed by an earnest and faithful desire to
adopt that course which appeared to be necessary, either
to promote the ends of justice or to prevent a disturb-
ance of the public tranquillity, or otherwise to promote
the best interests of the country.
The Committee leave it to the Legislature to deter-
mine whether this power shall continue to exist, and have
discussed such rules as have been suggested as guards
upon its future exercise ; namely, first the concurrence of
more than one of the high officers of State in the issue
of each warrant ; and, secondly, a better and more de-
tailed record than is at present kept of the grounds upon
which each warrant is issued.

They think that the responsibility will be more effec-
tive when resting upon the individuals who are mainly
charged with the preservation of the peace and the pre-
vention of crime in this country, than if it were divided
with others; and a more detailed account than is already
kept of the grounds upon which each warrant is granted
would frequently have the effect of leaving in the office
a grave accusation, without affording an opportunity of
reply or defence.
_

It is in evidence that, though bags have been some-
times detained and examined, upon a supposition that
letters from them may have been abstracted, no letters
from such bags have been opened; nor have any letters
been opened at the Post-office, except letters which, from
defects in the direction, could not be forwarded to their
destination, unclaimed letters, and letters detained by
warrant from the Secretary of State.
It appears to have for a long period of time, and under
many successive administrations, been an established
practice, that the foreign correspondence of Foreign Mi-
nisters, passing through the General Post-office, should
be sent to a department of the Foreign-office before the
forwarding of such correspondence according to its ad-
dress. '['he Postmaster-General, having had his atten-
tion called to the fact, that there was no sufficient
authority for this practice, has since June discontinued
it altogether.

COUNT NESSELRODE.—The General Steam Navi-
gation Company's mail packet Columbine, Captain w . Nor-
wood, arrived off Blackwall-pier yesterday, at 2 o'clock, with
the Dutch mail bags. Among the passengers on board the
Columbine was Count Nesselrode, whose anticipated arrival
was alluded to in this journal of yesterday, and who is ac-
companied by his son, Count Drintry Nesselrode, First Secre-
tary of Legation at Berlin. The Columbine had a very
boisterous passage. On arriving at Helvoetsluys, the weather
continued so bad that Captain Norwood cast anchor for
several hours, and only left that place late on Sunday, arriv-
ing at Blackwell, as stated above, at 2 o'clock yesterday.
His Excellency Baron Brunnow having been in hourly ex-
pectation of Count Nesselrode's arrival, was, with Chevalier
Benkhausen, in attendance to receive the distinguished
foreigner, who upon landing entered the Ambassador's car-
riage, and arrived in Dover-street shortly after 4 o'clock. It
is scarcely necessary to add, that Count Nesselrode, the Duke
of Wellington, and i'rince Metternich, are among the few re-
maining individuals who witnessed all the great events of
1813, 1814, and 1815. The principal object of the Count's visit
to this country is to enjoy the benefit of sea bathing, and it
is reported that he will leave town for Brighton early next
walk.