No. IV. Contract for conveying the Bombay Branch of the India Mails between Southampton and Alexandria.

Two Mail Communications per month with India being thus established,—viz., that by the Peninsular and Oriental Company to Calcutta, viâ Ceylon, and that by the East India Company’s packets between Suez and Bombay,—the Mails for the former being despatched viâ Southampton on the 20th, by the Peninsular and Oriental Company’s vessels, to meet the same Company’s vessels plying between Suez and India, China, &c.,—it became necessary to provide a means of conveyance for the Bombay branch of the India Mail between Southampton and Alexandria, which had hitherto been conveyed by the Peninsular and Oriental Company’s vessels, and was despatched from Southampton on the 3rd of every month. The Government required, at first, a continuous line of steam vessels, of not less than 400-horse power, to ply between Southampton and Alexandria, similar to that conveying the Calcutta branch of the India Mails; and the Peninsular and Oriental Company were called upon to submit proposals for undertaking the Service on that plan.

The Managing Directors represented that to undertake the Service upon that plan would entail a heavy expense upon the public, inasmuch as the expense of maintaining such a communication, by such vessels, would be equal to the expense of the Southampton and Alexandria communication for the Calcutta branch of the Mails, for which the public were then paying about £30,000 per annum; while the passenger traffic, viâ Bombay, would be considerably less, in consequence of the obstruction presented to the conveyance of goods, and the high charge and inadequate accommodation for passengers by the East India Company’s packets. In short, that, looking to these circumstances, £40,000 per annum would scarcely be remunerative for such an undertaking.

This plan was, therefore, abandoned; and, after some others proposed by the Government had been also abandoned, on account of the expense, or being otherwise found impracticable, the Managing Directors submitted a plan and proposal for transmitting the Bombay branch of the India Mail between Southampton and Alexandria, viâ Malta, without causing any additional expense to the public.

This plan was as follows:—They proposed to convey monthly between Southampton and Malta that branch of the India Mails, by means of steam vessels which they had recently placed for commercial traffic, to ply between Southampton, Malta, Constantinople, and ports in the Black Sea; and to provide a steam vessel to convey the Mails between Malta and Alexandria, which should run in concert with these Constantinople steamers, and the East India Company’s steamers conveying the mails between Suez and Bombay. This plan was adopted by the Government; and, after some negotiation, the remuneration for this Mail Service was fixed at £15,535 per annum, or about 4s. 3d. per mile, on an arrangement for twelve months only, as the Company wished to reserve to themselves the option of abandoning it, should it prove seriously unremunerative, or embarrass their commercial traffic. To meet the expense of this Service, it was proposed to the Government to withdraw an Admiralty packet which then formed a monthly communication between Gibraltar and Malta; inasmuch as the steamers of this Company plying to Constantinople, touched regularly both at Gibraltar and Malta, on their passages out and home, and would supply the place of that packet, by which a saving to the public would be effected of from £7,000 to £8,000 per annum. Also, that as, with the two lines of India Mail steamers per month touching at Gibraltar, besides the Peninsular Mail steamers every week, Gibraltar and the south of Spain would have no less than six Mails per month, the Peninsular Mail Service might be reduced to three times a month, or every ten days; for which the Company were willing to make an abatement of £9100 per annum from their contract-money for that Service. These suggestions were adopted, effecting a saving to the public of £16,000 to £17,000 per annum; and, consequently, the monthly conveyance of the Bombay branch of the India Mails between Southampton and Alexandria was, by this arrangement, obtained not only free of any additional expense to the public, but with a financial benefit to it by an increase of the postage revenue.