§ MR. KINNAIRDasked the Postmaster General, in reference to the conveyance of the Mails from this Country 269 to North America, If his attention has been drawn to the last Annual Report of the United States Postmaster General, which contains the recommendation, as a means of supplying an efficient steam marine available for immediate use by the Government in case of war, that provision should be made for transportation in American steamers of American Transatlantic Mails, and that such services should be compensated by fixed payments in excess of the ocean postage?
§ Lord JOHN MANNERS, in reply, said, his attention had been called to a paragraph in the Report referred to in the Question of the hon. Member; but he had not heard that any steps had been taken by the United States Government in consequence of that Report. From all the information he could obtain, he had no reason to believe that it was the intention of the Congress to grant subsidies in excess of the ocean postage for the conveyance of mails to Europe.