POST-OFFICE ABUSES—CLERKS OF THE ROADS.

OF the various departments of Government, with the exception always of that over which the Stamp Commissioners preside, there is none in which the Press has a greater interest than in the Post-office. The primary object of that great state en- gine was not, indeed, the diffusion of the kind of knowledge in which the Press exclusively deals ; it was meant not so much to make known the state of politics, as of piece goods—it was to tell of the rise or fall of stocks rather than of states. But the plans of PALMER, which gave it speed and certainty, have now rendered the Post-office even more interesting as an instrument of government than of commerce, and its tendency to equalize information is of equal importance than its tendency to equalize markets in distant and different parts of the kingdom. We need not, therefore, plead any apology for again and again recurring to defects in which we—and in a greater degree, the public, which it is our duty and our wish to instruct—are deeply interested.

There are two points to which it is our purpose, on the present occasion, to direct attention—the abuses that prevail in the Importation of Foreign News, and those that prevail in the Distri- bution of Home News. They are abuses which originate in the same causes, and are fostered by the same corruptions. In respect of the first, many persons may suppose that the Newspapers alone are interested. Not so. The public are indeed accustomed to derive their knowledge of what is passing out of the kingdom from the London Press alone—but why ? Because, from the difficulties with which the importation of Foreign newspapers is accompanied, they are inaccessible to the public. We shall show, by and by, that the selection of Foreign News is not always left even to the London press ; but we deem it a great hardship to the reading part of the community that it Should be exclusively left to the London press in any case. We of the " broad sheet" have our biases, our prejudices, our interests, as others hare; and where the struggle between them and truth is to be maintained in irresponsible secresy, the chances are, that truth will not on all oc- casions be very zealously supported. We have the power to deceive; some of us have the inclination to use that power—all of us may use it if we will. We certainly would have our readers to rely on our honesty; but that they may rely securely, we would have them look well after it. We have no desire to establish Checks in every department but our own : we would, as far as is practicable, give the public the power of checking us, as we claim on occasion the right to check as well as to enlighten them.

1. FOREIGN NEWSPAPERS.

The Foreign Newspapers, the extracts from which form a lead- ing feature in the pages of the London Daily Journals, come to them in two ways,-1; the ordinary Mails, and by what are termed . Expresses: The latter mode respects the French newspapers only. The Hamburg, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Austrian, and one or two other German journals—the Spanish, Lisbon, and Italian news- papers—the South American, or rather the Buenos Ayres and Brazilian papers, for they are almost the only ones that are received regularly—all these, which are received at the Post-office without any charge save the original cost of the newspaper, are supplied to the London Journals by the Clerks of the Post-office : and, what we doubt not will be news to the public, it is not the original newspapers that are so supplied—that would cost a few addi- ditional pounds per annum to those gentlemen by whom our foreign intelligence is doled out. Such a portion—always of ne- cessity a small one—as the Post-office Clerks think worthy of translation, is selected, and, having been copied by a manifold- writer, it is sent round in that form to the various newspaper establishments that subscribe for this mutilated information. There is not a journal in London that is in the regular receipt of any one of the Foreign newspapers, those of Paris excepted, whose con- tents daily figure in their columns. Nay, so systematic is the plan of extracting, that it is observed in regard even to those Foreign journals that are printed in English. Here, then, is one evil conse- quence ofthe monopoly enjoyed by the Post-office Clerks of importing Foreign newspapers ; but this is not all. The degree in which the price of Foreign journals is enhanced by this monopoly, is great above measure. The abonnement of a Paris daily paper is 80 francs, or 31. 45. sterling a year. For this sum it is received in Calais in about twenty-eight hours after publication. The Clerks of the Post-office, who pay not a farthing for its transmission from Calais to London, charge for it in the latter place 6/. 18s. This is the price for newspapers which come in what is called the course of post ; the Expresses are managed after another fashion. A suffi- cient number of copies of the Journal des Debats, the Constitu- tionnel, and the Quotidienne—which are morning papers, and which in point of fact go to press the evening before—together with proof copies of the Gazette de France and of the Messager des Chambres, are sent by the malle poste to Calais ; they are conveyed from Calais to Dover with the English mail, and from Dover to London by the first Post-office express, of which there is always one or more daily. For the conveyance to Calais in the first instance, to Dover in the second, and to London in the last, the Clerks of the Post-office pay nothing; yet for each parcel of newspapers thus brought to London, they charge the newspaper-offices 1/. 4s. Sometimes it will happen that there is an express from Paris on special business. When this event takes place, the French jour- nals are not unfrequently received in town from eighteen to twenty hours sooner than ordinary,—a degree of -expedition attributable chiefly to the express from Calais to Dover. In all such cases, the charge to the newspaper-offices is 6/. 6s. These extra ex- presses are regulated by no importance of news, nor by any rule but that of chance; they occur sometimes once a fortnight, some- times once a week, sometimes on two successive days. On an average throughout the year, the Morning Journals may calculate on an extra express once a fortnight. The yearly charge, there- fore, to each, will stand thus— s.

4.

260 Ordinary Expresses 312 0 0 26 Extraordinary Expresses 163 16 0 Annual cost of 4 Parisian Journals 475 16 0 Annual cost to the Post-office Clerks 13 12 6 Profit by the Clerks 462 3 6

Making an income (supposing each of the six Morning Papers to subscribe) from this source Zone, of 2,774/. per annum. It might be supposed that the extortion would stop here—but it does not. Some ten or twelve hours after the express, ordi- nary or extraordinary, has been sent round, the same copies of the same journals are sent a second time,—the only difference being, that in the second parcel there are no extracts ; and for these du- plicates the newspaper-offices must also pay, at ordinary mail de- livery prices ! Ludicrously insolent as it may appear, the news- paper that scruples to take the duplicates, will be roundly told that it shall not have the originals: and there is no alternative but submitting to both impositions, if it be wished to possess the ad- vantage of the heaviest. The periods at which a Paris journal reaches London by mail, by ordinary and extraordinary express, are as follows. A journal which is printed in Paris at two o'clock on Friday, reaches the London journals, in ordinary course, about one o'clock on Mon- day morning,—travelling at the rate of somewhere about four miles an hour ; by ordinary express, the same journal would arrive ten hours earlier,—being at the rate of four and a half miles per hour; by extraordinary express, it would reach town thirty hours earlier,—being at the rate of seven miles per hour.

2. HOME NE1VSPAPERS —IRISH POST OFFICE.

The Clerks of the Post-office enjoy the exclusive right of receiv- ing and distributing Foreign Newspapers ; they enjoy powers which, although they do not amount to an exclusive privilege, give nearly equal advantages in the distribution of Home newspapers. Not very long ago, the Clerks of the Roads enjoyed the right of frank- ing periodicals of all kinds, and they had also the right of franking letters and receiving letters free, on business connected with news- papers and periodicals. The franking of periodicals injured the revenue nothing, it injured the retail bookseller very little ; it bene- fited the publishing bookseller and the reading public greatly, by giving them, at a moderate charge, in the course of a day or two days, the intelligence for which they must now wait eight or ten days. The profit on it was, however, small ; the Clerks were willing to give it up, and given up it was ; and the Bit-by-bit Reformers of the Post-office took mighty credit to themselves for the vast im- provement that they had introduced into the system by cutting off the only part which did a great deal of good at the cost of a very little evil. The mode in which the remaining part works, we have luckily the means of ascertaining with minute accuracy, by an example in the Sister Kingdom, which has recently been sub- mitted to our notice. In the provinces, Government abuses ap- pear in their true colours ; and many of the worser parts, over which, in the metropolis, a veil of decent mystery is thrown, are there exposed without scruple to the gaze of the profane vulgar. In April last, when the privilege of franking periodicals was withdrawn, the Clerks of the Roads in Ireland issued the following advertising circular—

"LIST OF NEWSPAPERS SUPPLIED BY THE CLERKS OF THE ROADS.

"General Post-Office, Dublin.

"The Nobility and Gentry of Ireland are respectfully informed, that they can be supplied with Dublin, London, and Foreign Newspapers, and Commercial Lists, at the following rates. Subscriptions to be paid in advance to the several Postmasters throughout Ireland; to whom it is requested notice of change of address and all irregularities may be

given."

To this notice was subjoined a list of Newspapers, Irish and English, in which the latter were charged some eight shillings, others ten shillings higher than the ordinary Dublin prices. A newspaper agency-house in Dublin, Messrs. JOHNSTON and Co. into whose hands a copy of the circular had fallen, looking upon the withdrawing of the privilege of franking periodicals and letters as a fitting opportunity to make known the terms on which they were able to do business, issued a circular in their turn, in which they stated, that they were ready to supply the public at lower prices, and to offer the same advantages that the Clerks of the Roads then possessed. In two months after JOHNSTON and Co. published their circular, it was followed by another from the Clerks of the Roads, much more explicit in its nature than the former one had been.

" General Post-Office, Dublin, September 153I-.

" The Clerks of Roads having been privileged by his Grace the Post- master-General to supply Newspapers, Commercial Lists, &c., solicit the favour of orders. They supply on the most moderate terms erery News- paper and List published, British, Irish, and Foreign.

" Their official situation is a guarantee that the amount subscribed is secure ; and if the Paper originally ordered should cease to be published, or the subscriber cease to approve of it, full value will be given for the balance of subscription in any other Paper that may be chosen instead. " Being privileged officers, they are enabled to supply the latest editions of all Papers published to the hour of post ; this secures to lift:i sub- scribers the latest Parliamentary and other intelligence ; and frequently their subscribers to London Papers possess full twenty-four hours' priority of news over any others in the kingdom.

"The Clerks of Roads hope that the facilities they possess, joined to extreme attention, will secure to their subscribers a news agency com- bining the greatest advantages, and the most satisfactory they could adopt —uniting security with punctuality.

" 4V Orders received at the Clerks of Roads Office, General Post- Office, and by every Postmaster in the kingdom."

We have here, it will be seen, a set of men, paid by the country to perform certain duties, stating that their official situati9n, and the privileges that they possess in consequence, enable them to act with greater certainty and despatch in their dealings as private newsmen,—in other words, that their public employ will be used by them as a means for pushing their private trade ; and this is signified not by way of insinuation, it is broadly and unblushingly put forward. Messrs. JOHNSTON and Co. had imagined that when the privi- lege of franking periodicals was taken away, they would be enabled to compete with the Clerks of the Roads on equal terms : they were speedily undeceived. Early in September, they re- ceived distinct information from Limerick, that newspapers trans- mitted by them to a club there frequently failed to arrive in due time. The club had been premonished, by the Clerks of the Roads, as early as the 7th June, that they would find, "that through no other channel could the latest editions of the London papers be ob- tained." The cause why the newsmen could not effect what their rivals could, was afterwards explained in a note from Mr. GODBY, the Secretary. Speaking of the late arrival of the London mail on Monday the 8th November, he says—" It would have been quite impossible to sort the letters and papers for the Interior of Ireland which arrived here in the ordinary bags, without very serious and injurious delay to the mails; and they were in consequence despatched precisely at their usual hour. BUT THE CLERKS OF THE ROADS, WHO RECEIVE THEIR PAPERS IN A SEPARATE BAG, WERE ENABLED TO FORWARD SOME OF THEM WITH THE COACHES, BUT NOT IN THE LETTER-BAGS."—This Mr. GODBY is the same gentleman who was sent down to Scotland some years ago, when, from the cul- pable neglect of the Secretary at Edinburgh, peculations on the public prevailed to a very great degree ; and his alterations there were thought so important, that when the Irish Office also re- quired a reforming Secretary, he was transferred to Dublin. His explanation to Messrs. JOHNSTON, in plain English, amounts to this—that it would have been very injurious to the mails to keep the bags open while the Clerks of the Roads and their assistants were performing their duty to the public ; but that though the bags were sealed "precisely at the usual hour," it was not deemed inju- rious to the mails that the coaches which were to carry the bags should Wait until the Clerks of the Roads had time to perform their duty to themselves ! There is a more formal vindication of the system by the same person, which calls for a more lengthened notice. It is in the shape of an answer to a complaint of Messrs. JOHNSTON and Co.; and a more flagrant specimen of special pleading and partial advocacy, by a disinterested public officer, we have never beheld. But let our readers judge for themselves—

General Post-Office, Dublin, 13th Oct. 1831.

" SIR—I return the enclosure received in your letter of this morning. I confess it does not appear to me, from a perusal of your letters and their enclosures, that you have any reasonable ground for complaint against the Clerks of the Roads; it would be very unjust to tie their hands and prevent them from exerting themselves to increase their business, while you, an irresponsible individual, are at liberty to pursue your own course, and take advantage of the restrictions which you seek to place on them.

"The first advertisement published by the Clerks of the Roads; dated in April last, a copy of which I enclose, makes no allusion whatever to the observations which in the second you consider objectionable ; but when your advertisement dated in June came out, they were, in justice to themselves and for the protection of their own business, compelled to publish the second in September.

" If you were anxious to avoid any collision with the Clerks of the Roads, you would not have made any allusion to them in your advertise- ment, for which there could be no necessity whatever ; but you have attempted to show the public that you possess greater facilities for the supplying them with newspapers than the Clerks of the Roads, and that you can do so on much cheaper terms; and it is on that ground I think you have no reasonable complaint to make respecting the advertisement.

ge Neither can 'I see any objection to the note addressed to Mr. Jones.* It was not addressed to him or to your customers alone—I am assured that it was very generally circulated : but whether it was or not, it offers to do no more than what you profess to do in your advertisement ; and if the Clerks of the Roads have, by any arrangement or sacrifice of profit, enabled themselves to supply the public at a cheaper rate than hereto- fore, they were perfectly ustified in taking every legal means of inform- ing individuals and the public at large of it. "I am informed that an attempt has been made to take from the Clerks of the Roads some of their best customers at Cork, and whom they have served with newspapers for many years, and also at Limerick, and that at the latter place the attempt has succeeded. I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

"AUG. GODBY."

We may just remark, that in addition to its other good qualities, Mr. GODBY'S letter contains two statements which are wholly un- founded—we shall not use a stronger word. 1st, JOHNSTON and Co. do not attempt to show that they possess "greater facilities" than the Clerks of the Roads. Their words are—" no possible advantage is or can be had over them (JonNsroN and Co.) in the supplying of newspapers." 2d, The circular of the Clerks of the Roads does profess to do more than JOHNSTON and Co. or any one else can do—it offers to subscribers the peculiar guarantee of offi- cial situation, and the facilities bestowed by the privileges which the Clerks officially possess. But itis the general scope and tone of the letter to which we are most desirous of directino. attention. And in respect of these, we ask if such a letter had been ventured on by an employ of the last Ministry, what would the partisans of the present Ministry have said ? Is there any epithet so strong that they would not have considered it justly applicable to a public officer who could so impudently defend the open and avowed dedication by his subordinates, of the time and labour for which the public had paid, to the prosecution of their private affairs—who did not seek to slur over or excuse such irregularities, but actually blamed as unjust the persons who sought for their removal! Unjust to tie up the hands of the Clerks of the Roads ! to compel these gentle- men to attend to their public and purchased duties, in preference to their private traffic! The Clerks of the Roads get their news- papers transmitted at the Government eharge they make use of the offices which Government maintains ; the dountry Postmasters are their agents ; the whole of the public machinery is used as if its only object were to subserve their private interests ; and when one of that public which pays them, and pays Mr. GODBY their 'master, complains that instead of giving him the facilities to which he is legally entitled, they postpone the duties of their station to the demands of their customers—that the latter receive their news- papers in five minutes after arrival, while he cannot procure his in less than an hour—he is coolly told, that "it would be very un- just to tie up their hands and prevent them from exerting them- selves to increase their business, while he, an irresponsible indivi- dual, is at liberty to pursue his own course I" It was jocularly said, that Lord ELLENBOROUGH's puppyism was sufficient to jus- tify a revolution ; but were this Mr. GODBY in as exalted a place, it might be said, in sober earnest, that his insolence was sufficient to justify a rebellion. We shall go no further into the details of this case at present, though many of them are curious. We have already devoted a greater space than a local abuse may appear at first sight to de- serve ; but the principle which it involves is not local or of small consequence, but general and important. Ought the servants of a Government office to be allowed, under its sanction and its roof, to carry on a trade which is absolutely incompatible with their lawful duty ? It is a mighty fine thing to talk of the honour and respectability of such persons,—as if, forsooth, human nature be- came changed when it was manufactured into a post-office clerk ! If by mere force of virtue men are expected, in the face of their direct interest and of every temptation and opportunity, to prefer the public good, then why should not an exciseman be a dealer in gin, or a customhouse-officer an importer of French silks ? We do not say that a Government officer ought not to be allowed to -employ his leisure as he may find most agreeable and profitable, provided always his private labours do not interfere with his public services ; but every principle of common sense and common decency cries shame on a regulation by which a Government officer is encouraged and justified in devoting his hours of busi- ness to the prosecution of his own and to the neglect of the public friterests.

And yet this practice is defended, not by Mr. GODBY—not by an underling merely, but by the head of the Post-office establish- ment. His Grace the Duke of RICHMOND is of opinion, "that the privileges of the Clerks of the Roads have been brought within as narrow a compass and have been placed under as strict a regu- lation as they ought to be." This from a member of a Reforming Cabinet!—But we do not look to the Duke of RICHMOND for redress of Post-office abuses, merely because he happens to be accidentally at its head ; we look to a higher than he. What is Lord BROUGHAM about, that he-does not attend to the lets and bars of law or of custom that stand in the way of the successful diffusion of political knowledge,—without a sprinkling of which, he has declared, no knowledge can be made acceptable ? Does be imagine that his name is to go down to posterity as a Parlia- mentary Reformer?—it will never hold rank in that capacity • The letter to Mr. Yours ,was a letter to one of Messrs. JOHNSTON'S Cue- tamers, endeavouring to draw him away from them. From the defence of it by Mr. Secretary GODBY, and, yet more especially, from the closing words of his letter, I one would be temPted to look on him as a partner in the firm of the Clerks of the Roads. with old Major CARTWRIGHT'S even : as a Law Reformer ?— PEEL has done as much as he ; and neither he nor PEEL Will be remembered in the same summer with JEREMY BENTHA.M. It is as the friend and advocate of education that he once bid fair to be remembered by a grateful nation ; and what has he done to pro- mote it? Will the Useful (some call it Useless) Knowledge Society carry down his name ? will the Babel of bricks and blunders at the head of Upper Gower Street ?---No ; he must bestir him-to take from literature, not only the trammels and imposts that beset its production, but those of more easy removal that check its dif- fusion. He must show to the Duke of RICHMOND, that regulations which make knowledge dear, and difficult of attainment, are Ca- pable of beneficial alteration, whatever his Grace may imagine to the contrary; and that they must be altered. With respect to' the Foreign journals, it is reported that a re- medy is in course of application. The despatch of a mail-boat from Calais as soon as the Paris post arrives, and of a mail-coach from Dover as soon as the boat arrives, are all that is required. With respect to the privileges of the Clerks of the Roads, these, and every privilege, by whomsoever enjoyed, that go to interrupt the discharge of public duty, must be abolished. But we shall recur to this subject ; many particulars of it yet remain to be dis- cussed. We have yet to notice the effects of the monopoly en- joyed by the Clerks of the Post-office- On Newspaper Proprietors; On the Public; and the facilities which it gives of injuring the property of the former and the principles of the latter. We must look into— The Compensation system, in practice and principle; and its converse— The treatment of honest officials, such as Mr. IRVINE.

We have treated of the Importation of Foreign journals ; we must attend also to— The Exportation of British Journals.

These are a few, and but a few, of the points in which, as readers ond producers of newspapers, we are immediately inte- rested. We have done enough for the present week, by giving notoriety to the case of Messrs. JOHNSTON and Co. and to the unredressed grievance of which they complain.