THE DUKE OF MONTROSEI beg, my Lords, to lay upon the table of the House a copy of a Convention which has just been entered into between this country and the United States. By the provisions of this Convention, the postage of letters passing between the two countries will he reduced from 1s. to 6d. We also hope that we shall be able to have in future more frequent communication with America, and I have no doubt that we shall in a short time arrive at that which has never hitherto been expected, daily communication with that country. By means of another Convention we hope also to effect a very considerable reduction in the postage of letters to Canada, going through the United States—a reduction from 1s. to 8d., and to secure at the same time great facilities for communication with the new colony of British Columbia. We shall be able to send letters to that colony in a much shorter time than now, by the Isthmus of Panama, at a very reduced cost and much more frequently. I think your Lordships will be of opinion that these arrangements will be extremely satisfactory to the country at large. I must add, my Lords, that the Government of the United States has acted in this matter with the greatest cordiality, and has displayed the greatest anxiety to facilitate the communications to which I have alluded. I am also desirous of taking this opportunity to make a few remarks on the postal arrangements which have been entered into for India and China. After long consideration of the subject in a Committee of the House of Commons it was resolved by them to recommend to the Government that they should give notice to determine the existing contracts, have 1201 open tenders for future contracts, and establish more frequent communication with India. It was proposed, in fact, by these arrangements, that we should have a weekly mail to Bombay, and from Bombay by railway to Calcutta and Madras. We have followed these recommendations of the Committee, and have given notice to terminate the existing contracts, and also for the sending in of the tenders for new contracts for the service both from Marseilles to Alexandria, and from Brindisi to Alexandria, and from Alexandria to Bombay, China, and Australia. A very curious misapprehension has got abroad among the public, and it has been alluded to in the other House of Purliament and in many of the newspapers, to the effect that in taking a course really and truly following out the recommendations of the Committee we were intending to give up the control of the postal communication with India which we possess by keeping it in our own hands, and to throw it entirely into the hands of a foreign Government. My Lords, that is an entire and most gratuitous mistake. Such an idea never entered my mind or that of any Member of the Government; and the only ground there could be for this suspicion was that in giving notice for our tenders we did not state that we would not contract with any foreign Government. From this the notion has been taken that we were going to contract with the Societé Messageries Impériales of France, and to give up the entire control of the English communication by our own vessels. There is no ground for that notion; and I can only imagine that it originated because in the Committee of the House of Commons it was suggested that we should avail ourselves of the assistance of the Messageries Impériales in certain cases; and it was also suggested by some that the service should be thrown into the hands of the Messageries Impériales, if the contract would be taken cheaper than by any of our own countrymen. That is wrong; but I do not mean to say that we ought not to avail ourselves in certain cases of the Messageries Impériales; and at present we do so, because we send letters to Marseilles and to China by those boats; but that is only a supplementary arrangement, assisting the service which we have under our own control. I say that to throw everything into the hands of a foreign country would be extremely impolitic, although we might in the first instance do these duties at a cheaper rate; and it is an entire mistake 1202 to imagine that it was our intention. Such a course was suggested, if it has been suggested at all, by the very persons who are now finding fault with our supposed arrangement. They said that we should not keep up the contract with the Peninsular and Oriental Company, and that we should give notice and throw it open; and now they find fault with the Government for doing what has been recommended by the Committee, saying that the Peninsular and Oriental Company have some very fine ships, and have done the work satisfactorily. I would not have troubled your Lordships with this statement but for there having been an entire misconception on the part of the public, of which it was necessary that they should be disabused.