§ MR. T. DUNCOMBEsaid, he rose to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, Whether a Letter has been received by the Postmaster General from the Secretary to the Ballot Society, complaining of the non-delivery of upwards of three hundred letters addressed to Electors of the city of Ripon, and posted in London, and whether there would be any objection to produce any Reports or other Communications made to the Postmaster General on the subject?
MR. PEELsaid, that a letter had been received from the Ballot Society stating that in December last letters were sent by book post to all the electors of Ripon, and that very few of them had been delivered. The postmaster of Ripon and all the letter-carriers there denied positively that any letter received by them was suppressed, or 1308 that any such thing could by possibility have occurred. The Inspector of the Post Office had been in communication with the Ballot Society that day; and had made a Report, in which he stated that the Assistant Secretary of the Society informed him that, on the occasion of a public meeting held in Ripon, it was stated by certain persons that they had not received those packets. It, therefore, appeared that this application to the Treasury and the Post Office was founded merely on a statement made at a public meeting. It was suggested, also, by the society's officer that, in some instances, parties to whom the letters had been delivered might not like to admit it. The Post Office had asked the Ballot Society the name of any one person to whom a packet had been sent, and who had not received it; but they were unable to give such information. Under these circumstances he thought he was warranted in saying that the packets could not have been posted, or that if they had been they must have been delivered. It was rather unfortunate that no complaint had been made until six weeks after the letters were sent.