Part 10

[9] The tenor of this memorandum is satisfactory in so far as it recognises the efficiency with which this Company has executed the services contracted for, and its consequent claim to be continued in the performance of it. But in two points his lordship has fallen into error:--

First--In drawing the conclusion that the mileage rate of payment for one line of mail service ought to regulate the payment for another line, without taking into account the various circumstances, such as the amount of commercial traffic, cost of fuel, &c., on one line as compared with the other. Had his lordship informed himself on these matters, he would have learned that it was the large amount of traffic, in the carrying of merchandise to and from Constantinople and the Black Sea, by those steamers carrying the India mails to and from Malta, that enabled the Company to carry the mails in the Mediterranean at so low a rate as 4_s._ 6_d._ (or rather, as was actually the rate, 4_s._ 3_d._) per mile, and that such a circumstance formed no criterion of the rate which would be remunerative on the Southampton and Alexandria line, where there was no such amount of traffic to meet the expenses.

The second point is in his having mistaken those funds necessary to be reserved out of earnings to maintain the integrity of the Company’s property, for an accumulation of capital.

[10] “The company have since built premises in Leadenhall-street, and the managing directors, in consequence, pay to the company £1,000 per annum as a rental, under this agreement.”

[11] “The three managing directors established the trade at their risk, before it became a joint-stock company; and the rate of commission contemplated a remuneration for past as well as future services.”

[12] “This has since been modified: one managing director will retire in 1850, without any consideration, the saving to be credited to the Company.” The salaries of assistants, clerks, and other disbursements which the managing directors have to pay out of their commissions, now amount to £6,000 per annum.

[13] See Report of Committee of the House of Lords on the Post Office, Session 1847.

[14] An instance of the value of these contract steamers, otherwise than in the postal service, occurred at Ceylon, on the breaking out of the insurrection in that island. The Governor, not having troops sufficient at hand to quell it, this Company’s contract steamer, “Lady Mary Wood,” (subsidiary vessel on the China line), proceeded to Madras, and brought up a detachment, which mainly contributed to the prompt putting down of that insurrection. The recent destruction of a number of piratical vessels on the coast of China by this Company’s armed steamer “Canton,” is another instance of their value on distant stations.

[15] The enormous extent of the correspondence conveyed by this Company’s steamers may be inferred from the fact that the mail for India and China, forwarded from Southampton by the “Indus,” on the 20th instant, consisted of 157 chests, amounting, in bulk, to within a fraction of twenty tons, exclusive of 13 bags for the Mediterranean. To this must be added the mail despatched from London on the 24th, _viá_ Marseilles, to be taken up by the same vessel at Malta, averaging 120 smaller chests. Each of the chests or cases forwarded _viá_ Southampton is computed to be capable of containing 10,000 single letters; therefore, allowing that a portion of them is occupied with newspapers, the number of letters must be very great.

[Transcriber’s Note:

Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]