les,
Mr. Thomas Baring, Mr. Bankes, Mr. William Brown, Mr. Childers, Mr.
Wilcox, Mr. Crogan, and Mr. Henley. Mr. Elliot was added in the place
of Mr. Baring. The Committee sat seventeen days, and examined fifteen
witnesses under oath, many of these being commanders in the Navy,
Secretaries, Presidents, and engineers of the Companies, and other
eminent men in steam. Mr. Cunard was among the witnesses. After taking
evidence and papers extending over about seven hundred and
eighty-three octavo pages, they said in their report, after
recommending that great care should be exercised in making all future
contracts:

"1. That so far as the Committee are able to judge, from the evidence
they have taken, it appears that the mails are conveyed at a less cost
by Hired Packets than by Her Majesty's Vessels.

"2. That some of the existing Contracts have been put up to public
tender, and some arranged by private negotiation; and that a very
large sum beyond what is received from postage is paid on some of the
lines; but considering that at the time these contracts were arranged
the success of these large undertakings was uncertain, Your Committee
see no reason to think that better terms could have been obtained for
the public."

This investigation was made to enable the Government to proceed
intelligently with the many contracts which were to expire in 1850;
and its immediate consequence was, not only the renewal of all the old
contracts with the same parties at the same or larger pay, but the
establishment of several new services.

The British system had operated to the very highest satisfaction of
the public and the Government for twenty years, until 1853, as it has
done ever since; but at that time it was put to a second and very
severe test. It had been suggested, probably by the Lords of the
Admiralty, who had to pay the bills from the Naval fund, that the
packet system was too costly, and should be remodelled, and perhaps
reduced. Complaint was thus made to the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
who, in a Treasury Minute, dated March 1, 1853, says:

"Important as it is to secure rapid and certain communication with
the remote dependencies of this country, and with other distant
states, for national purposes, it is doubtless, under all common
circumstances, from commercial considerations that such facility
of correspondence derives its highest value."

"Her Majesty's Government conceive the time to have