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 better terms could have been obtained for the public.”
As the detached and inconsecutive form in which the evidence of the different officers of the Government departments was given to the Committee does not afford a very clear view of the history of the connexion of this Company with the Contract Packet Service—and, in particular, does not show the important public advantages which have been derived from the undertaking of these services by the Company—it is considered expedient, previously to proceeding with the abstract of the Committee’s proceedings, to give a brief consecutive statement of the circumstances under which the various branches of the Contract Packet Service were undertaken by the Company. And first,
No. I.
THE PENINSULAR MAILS.
Previous to the 4th of September, 1837, the arrangements for the Mail Packet communication with the Peninsula were as follows:—
Mails to Lisbon were conveyed by sailing Post-office Packets, which departed from Falmouth for Lisbon every week—wind and weather permitting. Their departures and arrivals were, however, extremely irregular; and it was no very infrequent occurrence for the Lisbon Mail to be three weeks’ old on its arrival at Falmouth, instead of being brought in five days, with an almost mail-coach or railway precision, as is now the case.
The communication with Cadiz and Gibraltar was only once a month by a steam packet.
The originators and original proprietors of the Peninsular Steam Company, who had, for upwards of a year previously to the time above mentioned, been running steam vessels at a considerable loss between London and the principal Peninsular ports, finding themselves in a position to effect a great improvement in the arrangements for transmitting the Mails, applied to the Government of that day on the subject, but were at first coldly received, and their suggestions disregarded. They continued, however, to prosecute their enterprise; and the celerity and regularity with which their steam packets made their passages soon began to attract the attention of the public. The merchants began to complain loudly of the inefficiency of the transmission of the Mails by sailing packets; and it was at last intimated, from an official quarter, to the Managers of the Peninsular steamers, that if they had any plan or proposals to submit for an improvement of the Peninsular Mail Service, the Government was then prepared to receive and consider the same.
In consequence of this intimation, a plan and proposal was drawn up for a weekly transmission of the Mails between Falmouth and Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, Cadiz, and Gibraltar, by efficient steam packets, and at a cost to the public which should be less than that of the then existing inferior arrangement—namely, sailing packets to and from the Port of Lisbon, and a steam packet, once a month only, to and from Cadiz and Gibraltar.