Commissioners of Inquiry into Collection and Management of Revenue in Ireland and Great Britain: nineteenth report (Post Office Revenue - Ireland) with appendix

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Ninth Report of Commissioners of Inquiry into Fees and Gratuities, pp. 
23, 24. 

14' NINETEENTH REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS 

" same room together but once (and that once was at Parsonstown) since the " existence of their patent." 
The officers of the London Post-Office, in their Report upon the various offices of the Department in Dublin, also stated, " The noble persons who held the office " in Ireland have often been at great distances from each other, and there are sub-" jects and matters of business on which much time and pains have been bestowed, " but which apparently, from the want of a better method and better understanding, " have been brought to no conclusion." 
The representations contained in the above extracts with respect to the constitu-tion of the office of Postmaster-General, and its effects upon the Department of which it is the head, are entirely in accordance with the opinions which we had formed as the result of our own observations and inquiries ; and our conviction of the objections to the office, as thus held and administered, is so decided, that we should feel bound to recommend, even independently of any object of a consolidation of the English and Irish branches of the Department, that the present patent should be revoked, with a view to the placing of the office on a totally different footing. 
We come to this conclusion with the less hesitation, on finding it to be that which was formed by the Commissioners of Fees and Gratuities after their minute exami-nation of the same office nearly twenty years ago; for although there is no doubt that during that period much has been done to alter and improve various branches of the Department, we are confident that a perusal of the examinations to which we have above principally referred, those namely of the two Postmasters-General and the Secretary, will be sufficient to show your Lordships, that in the subsequent conduct of the office there is no circumstance to weaken those grounds upon which the Commissioners then came to the conclusion, that " if the duties of the Post-" master-General can be so discharged, with advantage to the public, it would seem " to follow that the office might be abolished." 

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ We may add, that if our views had been confined to the formation of an inde-pendent establishment for Ireland, we should also have been disposed to concur in the recommendation of those Commissioners as to the nature of the presiding authority to be substituted for the joint Postmaster-General, namely, a Board of three Com-missioners, under some such regulations as they have suggested; but as for the reasons given in another place, we do not contemplate the continuance of the Irish Post-Office in the character of a separate establishment, it would be superfluous to enlarge further on a point having reference to it in that character only. 
In conformity with the opinion expressed in our Report on the English Depart-ment, the general object of our recommendation with respect to the future dis-charge of the duties of the Postmaster-General in Ireland, will be to constitute one superintending authority for the whole of the United Kingdom, making, at the same time, provision for more immediate superintendence in Dublin, by the residence of a member of the General Board of Management in that city. 
The particulars of the establishment which we shall suggest for that purpose will be found at the conclusion of this Report. 
It may be sufficient in this place to add, that on the adoption of the change founded on this recommendation, the repeal of the statute establishing the separate office in Dublin would become necessary, as well as the revocation of the patent under which the joint office of Postmaster-General in Ireland is at present held, arrangements being at the same time made under the sanction of His Majesty's Government for the retirement of the existing patentees. 

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