The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-06-21 00:00:00

POS7'OFFICE.-PRYING INTO LETTERS.

When the Government gave up the right of charging
double such mercantile letters as contained invoices, or
those which were partly written by •-ditferent: hands, anal
allowed all letters to pass as single when contained on
one undivided sheet, weighing less than 'an ounce, We
expected that the system of prying into the private com-
munications of the lieges would be entirely discontinued.
It appears, however, that there still remains a pretence
for the exercise of this unmanly and un-British right of
search. We observe that a public meeting was held in
Greenock last Wednesday, to take into consideration the
best method of putting a stop to the iniquitous system of
prying into letters sent through the Postoffice, where this
insufferable evil was fully exposed, and a remonstrance
on the subject was agreed to be transmitted to the Trea-
sury ; and also complaining of the restrictions upon send-
ing letters by steam-boats, though these performed that
oflice in six hours which the Postoffice in some cases took
four days to execute, and imposes a heavy fine on the
parties who do not choose to submit to this delay. We
have no objection to the Government enjoying a mono-
poly of the letter-carrying trade to such an extent as to
prevent private parties setting up an establishment of
mails throughout the kingdom, but we can see no suffi-
cient reason for attempting to bolster up the revenue by
means of any measure which makes it necessary to le-
galise that breach of trust and good manners, the open-
ing of private letters, or prevent the members of the com-
munity from availing themselves of a cheaper and speed-
ier mode of local conveyance, when that is in their power,
and we trust the country will lift up its united voice
against the continuance of these grievances.—At the
meeting referred to,

ROGER AYTOUN, Esq. banker, stated, that be bad been in-
duced to call the attention of the public to the conduct of the
Post Office in Greenock, in consequence of a letter from the
Solicitor to the General Post Office in Edinburgh, calling on
him to deliver up a letter which he had received. The letter
referred to was written to him by a gentleman resident in a
neighbouring parish, equidistant from Glasgow, Paisley, and
Greenock, where there was no Post Office, and of which Gree•
nock was the market-town. The fact, however,; was, that the
letter was written in Greenock and put into the Post Office?
although, for form's sake, it had been dated at the writer's usual
place of residence. He strongly condemned the system of
prying into letters, which must have been practised in order
to the discovery of names and dates, and contended, that if it
was persevered in, all confidence in the Post Office would be
destroyed.
General Darroch said, he had received a letter of the
same description with that to which Mr. Aytoun had alluded,
but having no desire to become an informer, he had never taken
the trouble to answer it.
Mr. WAlpine stated he had been the writer of the letters,
which Mr. Aytoun and General Darroch had -received; ana
respecting which the Solicitor to the Post office had written-,
They were official letters respecting the county business, ana,
he had written them in Greenock after his arrival there, and
put them in the Post-office; for doing so, he had received a let-
ter charging him with two penalties of £5.
Mr. John King, spirit-dealer, narrated the case of a house ist.
Greenock, one ot the partners in which having, left the firm, s
remaining one went to Glasgow, and put into the Post-office
some printed notices to their customers intimating the fact.
For doing this the house had been charged. to the amount 0'
£l4O.
Mr. Anderson said, it was not surprising that the laws should:
be evaded as regarded the conveyance between Greenock and
Campbelton, for while the post took four days, steam-boats tra-
versed the distance in six hours. While such a temptation t°,
evade the law existed, it would be in vain to expect that 1`
would not he acted upon.
Mr. D. Sharp, merchant, said, a gentleman who had written
a letter to him, which was carried out of the way by a privat6,
hand, had been forced, on Saturday last, to pay the penalty °`
£s.—Edinburgh Advertiser.

We extract from the Boston Daily Advertiser a letter
under the signature of A Unitarian, to show the light in,
which the establishment of an episcopal, college is viewet.'
by Unitarians in America :

KENTON COLLEGE AND THE REVEREND BISHOP OP AI'ILVAINS'
A meeting was held last evening at the invitation of sole
respectable citizens, to hear from the Bishop a statement of the
condition of Kenyon College, in Ohio.
It might seem indifferent to the people of this part of toe
country whether there be institutions for learning in Obi°. eS
not. No one who might so think could have heard the dignifie t
and interesting disclosures of the Bishop, without feeling that it
is a personal interest to promote the means of education in that
State. It appeared that the. population there is growing UP,
with astonishing rapidity ; that the means of religious and niore
instruction are very limited; and that tuition in the doctrines
of infidelity is organized and efficient. The influx of emigraot"
who are strangers to our institutions is great ; and, (as tbie.
Bishop happily said,) the educated alone know the true wort'
of education; is not yet in Ohio that one is to look for all the
aid which is necessary in this great and patriotic duty. He spot's
with great respect of the intellectual power of that state, th
founded in the circumstances of the population there, and
feeling regret, that it cannot now have, without aid from abroa
r.
the development and direction which are indispensable t'
moral, religious, and political security.
When we consider the prodigious capability of the West
sustain human life, the numbers which are to be gathered i" ll
that quarter, our necessary connexion with them, and our coin
liability to be most seriously affected by their inteinal conditioo,
h
it seems to he an affair of interest, no 'iss than of Christian dotY'
to promote the means of education in the west.
There is nothing in the objection that this is an episecpalia„,"
seminary. It is answer enough that is a truly christiau one.
Whatever distinctions may be stated among christian sects, 001
may be said, in sincerity and truth, of epismpalians, that fOir„
the foundation of the country, to the present time, they ba,,,4
been the friends of virtue, good morals, public order, and sof:
and christian communion ;;--atid*that all aid given to them
tended to make the country more wise, more safe, and 1....1")
happy. A UNITA.RIA.o"