§ MR. LENG (Dundee)I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether he is aware that, on each alternate Thursday from this date to the close of the year, a much faster steamer than the vessel carrying the mails by contract is arranged to leave Queenstown for New York at the same hour with the mail steamer; if he is aware that, in the case of these steamers, the average passages last year of the non-mail carrying steamers were fully two days quicker than those of the mail carrying vessels; and will he sanction any method whereby merchants sending correspondence to America may be informed of the advantage of two days' earlier delivery to be gained each alternate Wednesday by sending their letters, not by the mail steamers, but specially addressed?
§ THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Mr. RAIKES,) Cambridge UniversityI am informed that on Wednesday next the contract packet Majestic carries the regular mails from Queenstown to New York, while the private steamer City of Berlin, a much slower vessel, carries ship letter mails. As regards future sailings, the Post Office has no notification at present, as the owners only furnish such information weekly; but it is probable that, on some occasions this year, as last year, a faster non-contract steamer will sail on the same day as the contract packet. The names and dates of sailing of non-contract steamers, as well as those of the contract packets, are published in the Post Office daily list, and the public are notified that all letters superscribed to go by the non-contract steamers, in preference to the contract packets, will be so forwarded.