of the postal contracts, the Report says,
in speaking of their results:

"To show what the system is capable of accomplishing, it will be
sufficient that we should call attention to the two great lines of
communication which have been opened, the one between this country
and India, the other between this country and America. The mails
are dispatched twice a month in the one case, and once a week in
the other, and are conveyed to their destination with a regularity
and rapidity which leaves nothing to be desired. The time occupied
in the voyage to and fro between England and Bombay, which, before
the establishment of the Overland Route, averaged about 224 days,
is now no more than 87 days; and the time occupied in the voyage
to and fro between England and the United States, which before
1840 varied from 45 to 105 days, is now reduced to an average
period of 24 days. Nor is the service simply rapid, it is also
regular; and the mercantile community can reckon with the utmost
certainty on the punctual departure of the mails at the appointed
times, and can also calculate with great precision the times of
their arrival.

"The same results have not been so conspicuous on some other
postal lines; but, taking the service as a whole, it has
undoubtedly been brought to a high state of excellence, and its
value to the country, both politically and commercially, is very
considerable."

In speaking further of the objects of the Government postal service,
after inquiring whether the foreign mail service should be extended
any further, it says:

"The object of the Government in undertaking the transmarine
postal service, whether by packets or by the system of ship
letters, is to provide frequent, rapid, and regular communication
between this country and other states, and between different parts
of the British Empire. The reasons for desiring such communication
are partly commercial and partly political. In cases where the
interests concerned are chiefly those of commerce, it is generally
more important that the postal service should be regular, than
that it should be extremely rapid, though of course rapidity of
communication, where it can be obtained without sacrificing other
objects, is of great advantage. It would clearly be the interest
of persons engaged in an important trade, provided there