The Sun.
London, England, 1810-05-04 00:00:00

his .salary, it. was " ectnpensation,"- and that tars
• the term which the Commissioners: ought' to ha' e
used, It Was singular that the .fpriliciplj of not
calling upon sineLnie patept officers to. do any
duty, or in cases where a slight.duty was annexed to
the office, to do More thin) they had been...accus-
tomed to do,. was recognized. by the- Honourable
Baronet himself, in an Mt which he .brought_ in. for
abolishing offices that were useless, or in part use-
less. That was the principle upon which the Irish
„Government a6ted is the case of Mr. Forward; "and.
yet the Right Honourable Baronet now made it a
ground of :accusation. When the Right Hon.
Baronet and his. friends were in office, they at=
tempted' something like. a reform in` this office,
they found Mr. Forward with 2' Sinecure. of
5001. a .year,. and the use of the public
money. They took from. him, very properly, the
use of the public money, but they never thought of
making him do the duties- of his office : they left
him in. possession .of it, and of the salary. The
.Honourable Baronet had talked of pretended re-
forms having been Made :in. the 'Post Office, but if
the.HOn. Bart. had taken the trouble of reading the,
-.Appendix-to the Report," he would have found that'
he (Mr. Pole) was justified in.speaking of these re-
forms tit , the manner •he bad done, and that they
were real and substantial reforms".[Mr. PoLA then
.read an extras trOm- the ilepoit; speaking in.,high
terms of the efficient retornis which been etfeaed in
'the ,Paq-OffiCe.]--Such was the 'opinion of the
Com Missioners upon the Reforms effe6ted, and yet
the- fion..Bardnet bact called them pretended Re-.
forms • In the course "-,of his speech,- the Hon.
Baronet had alluded to something
.which the Corn-
missionerss had brought forward in the slrare of. a

charge. They stated,,that .while they were prose-
cuting their- inquiries, they discovered something im-
proper hi the 'PostOrlice, and that an attempt ha 4
been ' made to conceal it from them , and . the

Hon. Baronet had try!ntigned•the stilajed.as if Go-
vernment had been apprised :of.the impropriety, and
had -Conniv-ed at. the coticealment. It the Riglit
Hon, Bart. wislitd/to be infeirmed.of What Govern-
ment knew relative to this -sobjeat, he bad not-the
slightest objection :to lay all the-papers concerning.
it before the House, for he had-_ no- wish for
concealment on • that, or. any other subjea. At
preient, hoyiever,. he would .state -the case • from
memory; as corr'ettly as he could :—A rutuour
some time ago readied, him, - that there was
great. malversation in the department of --the
Clerks of the Roads in Ireland, he of course endea-
voured
.to ascertain whether that rumour was well
ill-foUnded, and he :received a statement of every ,
thing which lad been disCoveied respeCtipg their
misconduct. There were in Ireland four Clerks Of
the Roads, and the chief perquisites of: their office
arose from Newspapers sent to diflerent parts of ire.-
-land. At the titrie of the Union they..presented a
Petition, setting forth, that their ernoluwents had-.
been reduced,' and ptlying for cpmeeosation. 'An
inquiry was made into the amount 'of their emolu-
ments', and their salaries were frxeS at the average
Of their emoluments forahe three preceding years.
The perquisites Which they had liefwesreceivedwere.
ordered to be paid into' a fund,- out of. which their
salaries were-to be paid e.if that fund .was.deficient;
that de6ciency vas to be made up by Geyernment :
if there was a surplus, if'of tours- wept to the pub-
lic' account. In consequence of this arrangement,
the Clerks in what they called their receipts
into this fond, but it appeared that-there was every
year a deficiet cy. Last-', summer inquiry was
made into the business, and it ay as found- that they
had been guilty Of' great frauds; but as, they had
before been et tisidered as men of good characters;
they were'perreitted, by the'Pest-Office, to restgu
their sitnatiOns,' on triaking•go th,,
When the Lord Lieutenant fclund what had been
done, he-ordered the whole-matter to be made pub-
lic The wheffe. case was laid before.
the LaW Officer's of the Ciowif, with a oireetien -tu •
.them to investigate the buaine!Ss.fully, and to prqse-
ctite, the parties, if it could be done:—
This order 'was-given Within 24. 110111 S atter the pa-
pers had - reached his hands. •The prosecutio6 did
not take place, .because it was he opinion of toe ;
Law Officers that it Could' not becarried on with 'r
effect. • These. were the circumstances of the Case ;
but how it happnetl that they were .not laid betotre
the Commissioners he did not knew. Re would not
dwell longer upon this ,Subject at_presetit;. his. ob- I
ject' 'was unly to sheW that .great reforms had_
been made in that office, that the Government- of
Ireland were adopting regulations for making it as
eerfeet as possible. A Penny-post had been-esta-
blished, atter *die pbn of the one in this country,
and other improvements had been made. He would
not_ take up more of the time of the House, but he
trusted that Gentlemen would bear iii mind that this
was not a new question; that it had ,been discussed
before ;, that the Right-Hon. Baronet had ,taken-ad-
vantage of his courtesy in not'giving it a dire& ne-
gative before ; (Sir John Newport said, across the
tale, he was afraid.) Afraid !" said Mr. Pole,
i,‘ I 3173 sure the Right• Hon. Baronet does not, can-
not mean to say seriously, that I was afraid to. meet
• his Resolution with a tieatire However, if!- he
does think that I was 'afrtild upon the former occa-
sion, I will convince that lam net now,. by j•
giving his 'Resolution -a most direct negative,"-
Sir J. NEWPORT made a short reply— He read a.
letter froM Mr. Forward hiinSelf, in which. it . ap-
peared that that Gentleman did not consider his si-•
tuation a ainectire: .
Mr. E. TuoitNioN observed, that
,what he had
heard upon, the subject would make him more than
ever solicitous' for the abolition of sinecures, and'
more. esPecially, of those seemed by patent.
PONSUNBY remarked that the word' patent
appeared' to carry in the Honourable Gentleman's -1.
apprehension some magical power. 'At was merely
the etidence of the Great Seal to a Grant, and
could not secure that which it was illegal to bestow.
A division thee took, place— ,
• For the Resolution - , 26
Against it - - - - li3.
- • - 'Majority - - si
[Strangers were not re-admitted; and at Half-past
One this meriting the House adjourned.]