The Sun. — 1844-08-07 (London, England)

ANNUAL NUMBER OF WARRANTS IN EACII YEAR, FROM 1712 TO 1798, SO FAR AS AN ACCOUNT OF TILE SAME COULD BE  MADE UP.  L: Number ,- Number Number of War- g of War- Year. of War.+ rants. rants. rants. --.. 1712 1 1744 3 1768 1713 2 1745 7 1770 1723 1 1746 1 1772 1730 1 1749 1 1773 1731 2 1751 1 1774 1734 3 1752 1 1776 1735 4 1753 6 1777 1736 3 1754 1 1778 1737 3 1755 1 1782 1738 7 1756 1 1783 1739 5 1763 3 1784 1740 1 17 1 From 1788 1741 4 1765 1 to 17985 6 1742 2 1766 4 1743 4 1767 2 Total No lOl  Representations had been made to the British Government, from high sources, that plots, of which Mr. Mazzini was the centre, were carrying on upon British territory to excite an insurrection in Italy, and that such insurrection, should it assume a formidable aspect, would, from peculiar political circumstances, disturb the peace of Europe. The British Government, considering the extent to which British interests were involved in the maintenance of that peace, issued on their own judgment, but not at the suggestion of any foreign Power, a warrant to open and detain Mr. Mazzini's letters. Such information deduced from those letters as appeared to the British Government calculated to frustrate this attempt was communicated to a foreign Power; but the information so communicated was not of a nature to compromise, and did not compromise, the safety of any individual within the reach of that foreign Power • nor was it made known to that Power by what' means, or 'from what source that information had been obtained. 4. A warrant to open and detain all letters addressed to Mr. Worcell and to Mr. Stolzmann was issued on the 17th of April, 1844, and cancelled on the 20th of June. 5. A warrant to open and detain all letters addressed to Mr. Grodicki, at Paris, and to another foreign gentleman, was issued on the 3d of June, 1844, and cancelled on the 13th of the same month. The last two warrants rested on grounds connected with the personal safety of a foreign Sovereign entrusted to the protection of England. It appears to your Committee that, under circumstances so peculiar, even a slight suspicion of danger would justify a Minister in taking extraordinary measures of precaution. The Committee have not learned that there appeared in the letters that were detained anything to criminate the gentlemen whom the Committee have very reluctantly named. The Committee think it may be desirable for them to make known that the above three warrants are the only warrants to open the letters of foreigners which the present Government has issued. The warrants issued during the present century may be divided into two classes :Ist. Those issued in furtherance of criminal justice, and usually for the purpose of obtaining a clue to the hiding-place of some offender, or to the mode or place of concealment of property criminally abstracted ; and these, for brevity's sake, the Committee will term criminal warrants. 2d. Those issued for the purpose of discovering the designs of persons known or suspected to be engaged in proceedings dangerous to the State, or (as in Mazzini's case) deeply involving British interests, and carried on in the United Kingdom, or in British possessions beyond the seas. With regard to both these classes of warrants, the objects in issuing them has been, in many cases, to ascertain the views, not of the party receiving, but of the party sending, the letter. folllonwis i— ssuing these warrants, the mode of proceeding isas  The above warrants classed under certain heads :—Bank of England, 8 ; Bankruptcy, 5 ; Murder, theft, fraud, &c., 14; Prisoners of war, 1 ; Revenue, 10; Foreign correspondence, 35 ; Treason, sedition, &c., 5 ; Libel, 2 ; Forgery, 1; Debtor absconding from creditors, 2 ; Private case, 1; Uncertain, 17.—Total, 101.  ANNUAL NUMBER OF WARRANTS Di