§ EARL GREYpresented a petition from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Shields, and Gateshead Chamber of Commerce, that the present line of postal communication between London and Newcastle-upon-Tyne may be changed. The noble Earl pointed out the great inconveniences arising from the transmission of the north mails by the London and North-Western Railway viâ Derby, instead of by the Great Northern, and expressed the hope that the delays and irregularities which had hitherto occurred would be prevented in future. The number of letters received at the Newcastle post office averaged about 7,000 weekly, while the population which suffered from the existing imperfect arrangements amounted to nearly 700,000. He believed an offer had been made by the Great Northern Railway Company to convey the mails to and from the North of England for about 6,000l. per annum, and, if so, he did not think it was reasonable that an important district, which contributed largely to the revenue of the country, and was engaged in many great branches of industry, should be exposed to inconvenience for so paltry a sum. He perceived that a Committee had appointed by the other House to consider the subject; but he believed the grievances complained of by the petitioners called for a much more speedy remedy than that of a Committee.
§ VISCOUNT CANNINGsaid, he understood it was the intention of the Select Committee appointed by the House of Commons to deal in the first instance with the subject-matter of the petition which the noble Earl had presented to their Lordships. The grievances complained of might be divided into two points: the 758 irregularity in the delivery of the mails, and, next, the circuitous route which had been chosen for their transmission. He did not wish to enter into any lengthened details upon the present occasion; but he would repeat what he had said on a former evening, that one of the chief causes of the recent irregularities in the transmission of mails was, that Parliament had not thought proper to invest the Postmaster General with sufficient power to compel railway companies to perform their engagements with the Post Office. But although there might be some reason to complain upon that head, he was happy to state that he had entered into negotiations with the principal companies for the purpose of coming to an amicable arrangement, by which delays and irregularities would in future be avoided; and he trusted his exertions would be productive of some beneficial result. Should, however, his expectations be disappointed, it might become necessary to apply to Parliament to invest the Postmaster General with greater powers for the enforcement of that strict punctuality which the public service required. With respect to the route by which the mails to Newcastle and the north were conveyed, he did not deny that the postal communication between several parts of the country, especially towards the east coast, was subject to some delay, in consequence of the employment of the London and North-Western Railway; but he was not sure that, if the Great Northern line were employed, that delay would, to any appreciable extent, be diminished. The London and North-Western Railway had been chosen neither from motives of economy, nor with a view to what, he observed, was called in the petition from Newcastle the centralisation of the mail service. He could assure their Lordships it was no easy matter so to arrange the system of postal communication as to do equal justice to all parts of the country; and the chief object for which the Derby route had been selected, in preference to that of the Great Northern, was, that the mails might arrive in the different towns and districts at as near the same time as possible. It had been said that the Postmaster General had imposed upon the railway company the necessity of carrying the mails between York and Newcastle at the rate of forty-five miles an hour. The Postmaster General had no such power, and the greatest speed at which he could compel the railway compa- 759 nies to carry the mails was twenty-seven miles an hour. He did not know that there was any case in which the Post Office had called upon the railway companies to use greater speed, and he was very sure that the express trains were driven at a much more rapid rate than the mail trains. If, therefore, the mail trains between York and Newcastle travelled at a greater speed than those upon other lines, it was not in consequence of any obligation imposed upon the railway company by the Postmaster General, but was simply an act arising out of the free-will of the directors themselves. He denied altogether that a desire to economise the expenditure of his department was one of the moving causes why the Postmaster General refused to carry out all the recommendations of the petition; although, no doubt, the Postmaster General was under a heavy responsibility in regard to the pecuniary concerns of the great branch of the public service entrusted to his care, and it was unquestionably his duty to take care that not a single farthing of the public money should be expended in a useless or reckless manner. Hitherto it had never been the custom for the Post Office to submit its accounts to the inspection of the House of Commons; but he was happy to say that this year, for the first time, that course was to be adopted. The accounts of the expenditure of the Post Office for the past twelve months, and the estimates of the expenditure for the coming financial year, had been prepared, were now in the hands of his right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and would be laid before the House of Commons, where every separate item would undergo that full and searching discussion which was usually accorded to the other Government estimates. When that discussion took place, their Lordships would have an opportunity of seeing the mode in which the revenue of the Post Office was expended, and he believed the result would be to free that department from the blame which had been unjustly imputed to it, whether upon the ground of negligence, extravagance, or parsimony.