By the Lords Committees appointed a Secret Committee to inquire into the state of the law in respect to the detaining and opening of letters at the Post Office, and into the mode under which the authority given for such opening and detaining has been exercised; and to report their opinion and observations thereupon to the House; and to whom was referred the petition of Joseph Mazzini, of 47, Devonshire Street, Queen Square, complaining of his letters having been detained and opened at the Post Office, and praying for inquiry;

ORDERED TO REPORT.

That the Committee have met, and inquired into the subject referred to them, and have examined several witnesses in relation thereto. The Committee have not thought it necessary to attempt to define the grounds upon which the Government has exercised the power afforded by public conveyance of letters of obtaining such information as might be thought beneficial for the public service; it seems sufficient for the present purpose to state, that the exercise of this power can be traced from the earliest institutions in this country for the conveyance of letters, from orders in council of the 22nd of November, 1626, and 24th of February, 1627. The Secretaries of State were in time of war and danger to the State to be made acquainted, if they required it, with letters and communications to foreign parts.

In 1657, upon the first establishment of a regular Post Office,

it was stated in the Ordinance to be the best means to discover and prevent many dangerous and wicked designs against the Commonwealth.

In letting to farm the Post Office to individuals, and in proclamations of the 25th of May, 1663, and 25th of August, 1683, the power is distinctly claimed and reserved. The terms in which the provisions of the Act 9 Anne, c. 10, upon this subject are enacted can only be explained upon the supposition that this power was at the time fully recognised; for that Act gives no power to the Secretary of State to detain or open letters, but prohibits others from doing so, except by an express warrant in writing under the hand of the Principal Secretary, for every such opening or detaining.

The subsequent statute of 35 Geo. 3, c. 62, and 1 Vict. c. 33, adopted nearly the same form of recognition.

The power, therefore, appears to have been exercised from the earliest period, and to have been recognised by several Acts of Parliament.

This appears to the Committee to be the state of the law, in respect to the detaining and opening of letters at the Post Office; and they do not find any other authority for such detaining or opening.

The Committee have very carefully investigated the mode in which this power has of late years been exercised.

Lists and abstracts of the war

rants for many years back have been preserved at the Home Office; but the Committee have not thought it necessary minutely to pursue the investigation to an earlier period than to the year 1822, from which time only has any record of warrants been preserved at the Post Office.

It appears that, since 1822, 182 warrants have been issued, averaging about eight per annum; about

two-thirds of these have been for the purpose of either tracing persons accused of offences, or of tracing property embezzled by suspected offenders; and the warrants have been issued whenever application has been made to the Under-Secretary of State, upon grounds which have seemed to the Principal Secretary of State to justify such proceeding.

The application has generally been made either by magistrates or by solicitors conducting prosecutions; and these parties have been put in possession of any useful information thus obtained, but not of the original letters, which have been usually returned to the Post Office, to be forwarded to their original address.

The detention of letters has been invariably refused in cases in which civil rights have alone been concerned.

proportion to the 30,000 or 40,000 committals which take place in this kingdom, cannot be an efficient instrument of police; but, on the other hand, the issue of six or seven warrants upon a circulation of 220,000,000 of letters cannot be regarded as materially interfering with the sanctity of private correspondence, which, with these exceptions, there is not the slightest ground to believe has been ever invaded.

The second class of warrants has been issued by the Secretary of State at periods when the circumstances of the country have seemed to threaten public tranquillity.

The warrants for detention of letters of this class have scarcely, upon an average of twenty-one years, exceeded two annually in Great Britain; and though, under some of the warrants, not a single letter has been opened, under others many have been detained and examined.

It does not appear, that from any one of these letters specific knowledge of great importance has been obtained. The information, however, which has been derived from this source, has been regarded as valuable, and may have given better information upon dangers apprehended in particular districts than could be derived from local observation, or than might be collected from the vague and exaggerated rumours which, in periods of disturbance, very usually prevail.

It is the concurrent opinion of witnesses who have held high office, and who may be most competent to form a sound judgment, that they would reluctantly see this power abolished; and possibly it might be thought to be even

more convenient and requisite in time of foreign war than it is in our present state of peace.

The power of issuing warrants, which was first granted by the Irish Act, 23 and 24 Geo. III., c. 17, to the Lord Lieutenant, or other chief governor or governors of Ireland, has been very sparingly used, and the number issued does not average more than two an nually, and these have been principally for the detection of suspected criminals.

The Committee have examined into the case of the petitioner whose petition has been referred to them. It is true that Mr. Mazzini's letters were for about four months stopped and opened, under the warrant of the Secretary of State for the Home Department, and inspected by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, upon an apprehension that he was engaged in a correspondence having for its object designs which might be injurious to the tranquillity of Europe. Certain parts of the information thus obtained were communicated to a foreign Government, in so far as such a communication appeared to be warranted, but without the names or details that might expose any individual then residing in the foreign country to which the information was transmitted to danger.

The Committee are bound, in conclusion, to state, that having looked back to the proceedings of several Secretaries of State during successive Administrations more than twenty years, they have found the practice has been nearly uniform, that the power has been very sparingly exercised, and never from personal or party motives; and that in every case investigated it seems to have been VOL. LXXXVI.

directed by an earnest and faithful desire to adopt that course which appeared to be necessary, either to promote the ends of justice or to prevent a disturbance of the public tranquillity, or otherwise to promote the best interests of the country. ́

The Committee leave it to the Legislature to determine whether this power shall continue to exist, and have discussed such rules as have been suggested as guards upon its future exercise; namely, first, the concurrence of more than one of the high officers of state in the issue of each warrant; and, secondly, better and more detailed record than is at present kept of the grounds upon which each warrant is issued.

They think that the responsibility will be more effective when resting upon the individuals who are mainly charged with the preservation of peace and the prevention of crime in this country, than if it were divided with others; and a more detailed account than is already kept of the grounds upon which each warrant is granted would frequently have the effect of leaving in the office a grave accusation, without affording an opportunity of reply or defence.

It is in evidence that, though bags have been sometimes detained and examined, upon a suspicion that letters from them may have been abstracted, no letters from such bags have been opened, nor have any letters been opened at the Post Office, except letters which, from defects in the direction, could not be forwarded to their destination, unclaimed letters, and letters detained by warrant from the Secretary of State.

It appears to have been for a

2 H

long period of time, and under many successive Administrations, an established practice, that the foreign correspondence of foreign Ministers, passing through the General Post Office, should be sent to a department of the Foreign Office before the forwarding

of such correspondence according to its address. The PostmasterGeneral, having had his attention called to the fact that there was no sufficient authority for this practice, has, since June, discontinued it altogether.

Millbank Prison, July 31, 1844. By the Act 6 and 7 Vict. c. 26, intituled "An Act for regulating the Prison at Millbank," the various laws passed for the establishment and regulation of the General Penitentiary at Millbank are repealed; and it is provided that that prison shall be called "The Millbank Prison," and that it shall be appropriated as a prison for such convicts under sentence or order of transportation as the Secretary of State shall direct to be removed thither, who are to continue there until transported according to law, or conditionally pardoned, or shall become entitled to their freedom, or until the Secretary of State shall direct the removal of such convicts to any other prison or place of confinement in which they may be lawfully imprisoned. By this Act it. is further provided that such of the inspectors of prisons as one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State shall appoint for that purpose, shall have the su

perintendence of the prison: and the powers possessed by the visiting justices of county prisons, and the authority for making rules for the government and management of the prison, for the duties and conduct of the governor and other officers of the prison, and for the diet, clothing, maintenance, employment, and discipline of the convicts imprisoned therein, subject to the approval of the Secretary of State, are by this Act vested in such of the inspectors of prisons as shall be appointed as aforesaid.

In the exercise of this power the Secretary of State has been pleased to appoint the following inspectors of prisons to be the inspectors of Millbank Prison :Mr. Crawford.

Reverend Whitworth Russell.
Mr. Perry.

The Secretary of State has signified to the inspectors of Millbank Prison his intention to appropriate that prison as a dépôt for the reception of all convicts under sentence or order of trans