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435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
196
[115]
Select
Committee
on
Postage,
1843,
p.
93.
CHAPTER
IX.
THE
POST-OFFICE
AND
LETTER-OPENING.
It
will
be
fresh
in
the
memory
of
many
readers,
that
the
year
1844
revealed
to
the
public
certain
usages
of
the
Government,
and
a
branch
of
post-office
business--previously
kept
carefully
in
the
dark--which
went
far
to
destroy
the
confidence
of
the
nation
in
the
sanctity
of
its
correspondence.
In
the
session
of
1844,
Mr.
Thomas
S.
Duncombe
presented
a
petition
from
Mr.
W.
J.
Linton,
M.
Mazzini,
and
two
other
persons
residing
at
47,
Devonshire
Street,
Queen's
Square,
complaining
that
their
letters
were
regularly
detained
and
opened
at
the
Post-Office.
The
petitioners
declared
that
they
"considered
such
a
practice,
introducing
the
spy-system
of
foreign
states,
as
repugnant
to
every
principle
of
the
British
constitution,
and
subversive
of
that
public
confidence
which
was
so
essential
to
a
commercial
country."
The
petitioners
prayed
for
an
inquiry,
and
Mr.
Duncombe
supported
their
prayer.
Sir
James
Graham,
then
Home
Secretary,
got
up
in
the
House
and
stated
that,
as
regarded
three
of
the
petitioners,
their
letters
had
not
been
detained;
as
for
the
case
of
M.
Mazzini,
a
warrant
had
been
obtained
from
the
Home-Office
to
stop
and
open
the
correspondence
of
that
person.
He
had
the
power
by
law
and
he
had
exercised
it.
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