§ MR. HOPWOODasked the Postmaster General, Whether he is aware that a combination of the Peninsular and Oriental with other Steam Shipping Companies and Owners was some time since formed for the purpose of "regu- 23 lating" the freight and carriage of goods from England to China and Japan with the view to secure a monopoly of the carrying trade; and, whether the Government can exert any influence with the first named Company, drawing as it does a large annual subsidy from the Post Office for the carriage of Mails, to induce it to abstain from making an unfair use of its public employment and payment to the injury of trade generally, but especially of shipowners unassisted by national grants?
§ LORD JOHN MANNERSMy attention was called last autumn by a firm in London to a Circular which had just been addressed to merchants and shippers interested in the China and Japan trade by certain shipowners, among whom was the Peninsular and Oriental Company, relative to the carriage of freight; but there is nothing in the mail contract between the Post Office and the Peninsular and Oriental Company which gives me any power to interfere with the proceedings of the Company in such a matter.