§ MR. CADOGANasked the Postmaster General, If he can state why no legal proceedings, civil or criminal, have been taken against the late Postmaster at Swindon, who was dismissed in March 1871 for default in his public accounts, 395 and whose sureties have been called upon to make good his defalcations?
§ MR. MONSELLSir, in the opinion of the solicitor of the Department, an officer who, like the postmaster of Swin-don, has a debtor and creditor account, and only enters therein all moneys received by him on behalf of the Post Office, does not, by becoming a defaulter, commit a criminal offence within the meaning of the law, but is simply a debtor to the Department for the balance, and is not, therefore, liable to prosecution. Nothing would have been gained by proceeding at civil law against the postmaster, as he had made an assignment of all his effects to his creditors. The estate, however, was almost worthless, and the institution of civil proceedings would have probably involved a much larger expense than the amount of the debt to be recovered.