§ On the Motion that the Order of the Day for going into Committee on the Consolidated Fund Bill be read,
§ MR. T. DUNCOMBEasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer "what is the reason that the mails from the populous counties of Perth, Forfar, and Aberdeen are detained at the post-office of Inverness for sixteen or seventeen hours daily, when on their way to the inhabitants in the fishing stations on the sea coast of the large counties of Ross, Sutherland, and Caithness, where the people are very sparingly employed, and in great poverty and distress, but which the delays and bad management of the post-office tend to aggravate."
§ The CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERexplained, that under the old mail-coach system, the north and south mails used to meet the east and west at the appointed hours, to deliver the several mails at the regular stations. But under the mixed system of railway and mail coach, the time not coinciding, delays at some points were unavoidable. Those delays would by degrees be corrected; but it required some time to dovetail the system properly.