HC Deb 12 May 1848 vol 98 cc929-31

On the question that the House at its rising adjourn to Monday,

MR. W. BROWN said, that his constituents and the manufacturing interests of the country were very anxious to see a satisfactory postal arrangement concluded with the United States; but he was sorry to find from American papers, and from what had fallen from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that there was little hope of that being effected. That the House and the country might more clearly understand how the matter stood, he might state, that on the arrival of the first American steamship in August last, we claimed and charged 1s. on those letters coming by her, which had previously paid 1s. to their own Government, and which the American Minister remonstrated against, as letters by British packets arriving there only paid one-halfpenny in addition to the inland postage, which was 2½d. for 300 miles, and 5d. for any further distance of 2,000 miles or more. After various communications between the Marquess of Clanricarde and the American Minister, from August to February, the former proposed that each party should charge 2d. for inland postage, and 10d. for sea-going postage, making 1s. 2d. in all. This the American Government rejected, as, from the great extent of their territory, they could not carry letters on the same terms there that we could here; but as they could not meet the wishes of the British Government on this head, they had no desire to meddle with our internal arrangements, nor could they agree to any country interfering with theirs; but were quite ready to put British letters arriving in the United States upon the same footing as those of American citizens, provided we would put letters arriving by their packet-ships from the United States upon the same footing as those of British subjects. As to the sea-going postage, they would fix any rate that would meet the wishes of this Government, from 7½d. to 1s. Our not acceding to these propositions had induced the American Government to bring in a Bill to enable them to retaliate on us, so long as we persisted in their packets being placed on a worse footing than that on which they had placed the packets of this country. If he (Mr. Brown) was not misinformed, our postal arrangements with France only carried letters as far as Paris, and then the French Government charged a further sum, depending on the distance to which the letters were sent. This was what the United States seemed to contend for. This postage disagreement was not the worst of it: it furnished an argument to the manufacturers of the United States to go to their Government for increased duties on goods imported from this country. He trusted that Her Majesty's Government would put an end to this state of things; that harmony might again be restored; and that we might avoid collision with a country a good understanding with which was so necessary to the welfare of both nations.

VISCOUNT PALMERSTON complained that the hon. Member was departing a little from the ordinary practice of the House. The hon. Member seemed to think that the American Minister was not sufficiently competent to urge his own case, and therefore the hon. Gentleman had thought it right to be his advocate in the House upon a matter pending between the two Governments. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had already stated in the House, that when the question was settled he should be ready to give an explanation of the grounds upon which the decision was come to; but it was inconvenient that an hon. Member should get up and state in detail the case of the Government which was in adverse negotiation with Her Majesty's Government, under circumstances which made it impossible for Her Majesty's Government to state the reasons for their proceedings. The British Government were very anxious that the question should be settled upon fair and equal terms, and upon no other terms were they likely to agree to any settlement.