ost Office had, for many
long-distance services, relied on its own packets; i.e. packets sailing
under contract expressly for the conveyance of the mails and under the
control of the Post Office. In 1818, with the introduction of steam
vessels, this policy was changed and that of Crown ownership of the
packets adopted. This method was found extremely costly, and the
Commissioners of Revenue Inquiry reported emphatically against it.[697]

The policy of providing for the service by contract was then reverted
to. It now appeared, however, that vessels sailing for commercial
purposes could be counted upon to sail and arrive regularly, and the
Government desired therefore to make use of them for the despatch of
mails. It was proposed to forward mails by the _Great Western_ under the
powers conferred on the Postmaster-General by the Act of 1837 (1 Vict.
34, [S] 19) for the prescribed remuneration ([S] 24). The owners refused to
carry mails on these terms, and the Law Officers advised that the
Postmaster-General had no power, either by Statute or Common Law, to
compel the owners to carry mails.[698] It was not found necessary,
perhaps it was not deemed wise, to follow up the question of powers. In
1839 a contract was entered into with Samuel Cunard for the provision of
a steamship service between England and North America, at a cost to the
Post Office of [L]55,000 a year. This policy proved successful. It has
been followed in the case of all the great routes, and has continued
until the present day.

In considering the question of the rates of postage the sums paid to
the shipping companies are a little misleading. The payments were not
then, and are not now, made solely from regard to the fact that the
vessels convey mails. Other considerations, such as the desirability of
encouraging the shipping industry, its value to the commerce of the
nation, and the value of a strong mercantile marine as a naval reserve,
have always entered largely into the question. It was in accordance with
this view, and largely on account of abuses in the administration of the
services by the Post Office which had come to light, that the control of
the Post Office packet services and of contracts for the conveyance of
mails by sea was in 1837 transferred from the Post Office to the
Admiralty. The control was in 1860 retransferred to the Post Office, but
the amount of the subsidies paid to steamship companies conveying mails
has continued to be infl