§ SIR JOHN OGILVYsaid, he wished to ask the Postmaster General, What measures he intends to take to induce the American Government to transmit the homeward Mails by more expeditious lines of steam packets than those at present employed?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONSir, under the terms of the Convention between this country and the United States each nation provides and pays for the transmission of its own outward mails. By an additional Convention, entered into on the 1st of January of this year, a considerable redaction of postage was made. The effect of this was to reduce the proportion paid for the sea postage from twenty cents an ounce to six cents an ounce, and by an Act of Congress the Postmaster General of the United States was prohibited from paying for the sea service more than that amount. In consequence of the reduction in the amount of the sea postage 727 two of the companies hitherto engaged in the conveyance of the mails—the Cunard and the Inman lines—declined to continue the service. The Postmaster General of the United States had then to fall back on the North German Lloyd's and on two other companies, the Guion and the National. I have received several memorials from important places complaining of the inconvenience and delay caused by this change, and I have forwarded those memorials for the consideration of the Postmaster General of the United States; but, since each country regulates this matter for itself, I have no power to do anything further in the matter.