dispassionate consideration possible; and after again and again going through the calculations which his long experience in the Printing business enables him to make on correct principles, he arrives at the same conclusion as at first-namely, that a very large sum of money has been hitherto lost to the Country, by the neglect of the Treasury officers; and that certain favoured Printers have for many years charged for their work a price very considerably higher than that which, in other branches, Government declared they thought it an imperative duty to reduce, by means of public competition, and the consequent dismissal of all those persons who could not afford to make any reduction from their very low rates of charge.

Being confident that all this could not take place, if the Ministers of the Country were not kept in ignorance of these facts; and not permitting himself to attribute to the chiefs of the Government a wilful system of meanness, extravagance, cruelty, partiality, and injustice, the writer sees clearly that some interested persons must have deceived them with false statements, and resolves to spare no exertions to counteract such shameful proceedings.

He obtains interviews with persons very high in office, and endeavours to make them comprehend the true state of the case; but by

some he is received with coldness and indifference, by others with offensive rudeness, intimating, that in thus endeavouring to prove to the Government the facts of this malversation, he is guilty of slander and detraction. He retires in dismay and disgust, not without a suspicion that he has appealed to the very persons who are the supporters of the unjust and extravagant system he complains of. He learns that a Committee of Parliament is to meet shortly to investigate the very subject; his hopes revive-he goes with eagerness the first day of its meeting, but is alarmed at observing that the person who had repulsed him was a member of the Committee of Inquiry. He is however politely informed, that he will be sent to, when the Committee desire to receive his testimony. He retires, and waits patiently two months, till the Session is near its close, without hearing any tidings from the Committee. Apprehensive of foul play, he goes again, and procures a hearing. He gives all his information, and refers to official documents, and public accounts, for proof of his assertions; and expecting fully that his statement will excite their astonishment and indignation, he retires again to wait for the Report. To his surprise and dismay, the Report takes no notice of his evidence, though printed, it is

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true, in the Appendix-instead of which, the tradesmen whose rates of charge have so greatly exceeded those in the departments subjected to rigorous competition, are justified by the Committee. This was disheartening indeed; but the writer consoles himself that the Patent Right of one of the great establishments would expire in a very few years, and then the public would have the power of acting frugally and justly. The writer therefore prepares a long and circumstantial statement of the transactions from the commencement of the last Grant of the Monopoly, thirty years before; he carries it himself to the new and illustrious Minister, to whom the people looked up with

The words used by the Committee of 1822, at the close of their Report, are," that nothing tending, in any degree, to countenance imputations against the character of these persons, has appeared in the course of the inquiries of your Committee." The imputations of course alluded to my statement of what Mr. Reeves' Bill in Chancery contains. I despise the insinuation of the author of that Report. Neither imputation nor aspersion of private character have I been guilty of. I stated facts—it was the Committee's duty to investigate and disprove them. The only error I made was in understating the profits charged in Mr. Reeves' Bill in Chancery, at £9000, instead of £13,000-unwilling to err on the unfavorable side. However, I now state the FACTS again. For my credibility I refer to them, and put myself fearlessly on my Country.

an extraordinary degree of confidence, as possessing the power, and, as they hoped and believed, a real inclination, to redress their wrongs, and, as much as possible, relieve their distresses. A very polite note, in the Minister's own hand-writing, acknowledges the receipt of the statement. The writer now feels satisfied that all is in train. He goes contentedly to his family on the Continent, where he had been compelled to remove, from finding his income too small to support them in this Country in the rank of life to which they are entitled, (in consequence of the loss of what he derived from the Government employ, enjoyed by himself and his father for forty years) there to wait patiently the proceedings of the powerful individual to whom he confidently trusted.

What words can describe his astonishment at receiving a letter which informed him, that the injurious and extravagant Monopoly was renewed to the same house of business for Thirty Years more.

Astounding indeed was the information, but there was still a ray of comfort left, as there generally is in most afflictions.

A new Sovereign had ascended the throne, reported by every person to be amiable, benevolent, and gracious, and this oppressive

Monopoly had been renewed in the reign of his predecessor.

This the writer felt to be encouraging and consoling, and he immediately resolved to cross the sea, and once more tender his information, and point out its sources to the new Parliament and the public, in the shape of a pamphlet; not without a hope, though barely a possibility, that our condescending and kind-hearted King himself may become acquainted with its contents, and honor the writer's motives with his approbation.

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This, then, is the best and only apology I can make for the following narrative relating to Public Printing, in which I shall chiefly confine myself to the exclusive Monopoly created by the Patent of King's Printer, which has lately been so injudiciously renewed for Thirty Years.

Here, therefore, I commence a sort of historical statement, in the course of which I shall be compelled to introduce myself on the stage more frequently than is desirable to me, but which is unavoidable, in order to connect my detail, the facts of which I feel confident of being able to prove most satisfactorily :

I. The Stationery Office was established during Mr. Pitt's administration, for the pur