THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL.
ANOTHER instance just occurs to us of the necessity of inquiring how far the recommendations of the numerous Commissions, that have of late years been appointed, have been attended to. We allude to the conduct of Government in having wholly neglected many valuable reforms in the Post-office, proposed by LordWAL- LACE'S Commission of Revenue Inquiry. The most important of the recommendations of the Commissioners is that of abolishing the office of Postmaster-General, and placing the Post-office De- partment under the management of a Board. The Commissioners have fully established the expediency of this change, by the facts and reasoning contained in their Reports ; and they have greatly strengthened their opinion, by bringing forward the previous re- commendation of the same measure, by several Commissions and Committees of Revenue Inquiry. Although no attempt has been made to show that the Commissioners took an incorrect view of the question of the proper way of managing the Post-office revenue, no kind of attention has been paid to their advice. When the pre- sent Government came into office, they acted as if they had never heard of Lord WALLACE'S Commission; for they not only con- tinued the office of Postmaster-General, but were guilty of an ag- gravation of the evil complained of by the Commissioners (namely, the difficulty of controlling the conduct of a high titled head of the Post-office), by putting the Duke of Rieumosrn into the Cabinet. As the object of the Commissioners, in recommending a Board of Management, appears by their Reports to be to diminish extrava- gance, and to alter the regulations for managing the Post-office revenue in such a way as to increase it to a considerable amount,. and at the same time to add greatly to the accommodation of the public, Members of' Parliament ought to read their Eighteenth,. Nineteenth, and Twenty--senond Reports, with great care; and be ready, when an occasion presents itself, to call on his Majesty's- Ministers to give effect to the recommendation of the Commis.. sioners. These Commissioners were in office nine years,.and cost the country at least one hundred thousand pounds. In the-course of that period, they recommended a great number of changes, which were made by. Lord LIVERPOOL and the Duke of WEL.- LINGTON ; and as all of them have proved of great advantage to the public, the strongest possible grounds have been laid for placing confidence in the wisdom of their opinions, and• doing what they propose with respect to the Postmaster-General.
The failure of the recent attempt of the Government of France to give increased facilities to the correspondence between France and England—the obstinacy with which the traffic carried on in Newspapers foreign and domestic in the Post-office is defended— and many other circumstances of the same kind, render it ex- tremely desirable to have the Post-office revenue managed. on-the same plan as all the other branches of the revenue are managed..
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