§ MR. TOTTENHAMasked the Postmaster General, What amount per train mile is now paid for the Irish and Scotch Mail Services respectively over the London and North Western Railway system, and bringing into the calculation the £30,000 paid to the Chester and Holyhead Company's representatives, and any other sums that may be paid to subsidiary Companies, or their representatives, along either route; if he will also state what is the gross sum now paid to the London and North Western Company for the Scotch Mail Service from London to the end of their system; and, if he will lay upon the Table a Copy of the contract for the same?
§ MR. FAWCETTSir, in reply to the hon. Member's Question, I beg to say that there are no Scotch mail trains in the same sense in which there are Irish mail trains; for the trains which carry the Scotch mails carry also the bulk of the mails for the English districts through which they pass; whereas the Irish mail trains are used almost exclusively for the conveyance of letters going to or coming from Ireland. But even were there no difference in this respect, it would be impossible to divide the payment made to the London and North-Western Railway Company, so as to assign a stated sum to particular mail 1968 trains, as the general contracts embrace under one payment the whole of the mail service performed within a given area, whether by trains under the control of the Post Office, or by trains run for ordinary traffic.