1390. At what date?--On the 20th of January, 1844; the points upon which they gave information were, “The practicability of the proposal made by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company respecting the mode of ‘effecting the accelerated transmission of the East India Mails and Despatches between Bombay and Suez, combining therewith, for the year 1844, a two-monthly communication with Calcutta and Madras.’ The sufficiency of the means which the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company proposed to employ, and the propriety of their demand of £80,000 per annum for performing a service which the Admiralty understood to be that then performed by the East India Company, namely, conveying the mails by steam vessels between Suez and Bombay monthly; and, in addition to this, between Bombay and Calcutta every second month.” The estimate then goes on in detail: and “With respect to the propriety of the demand of £80,000 per annum the Admiralty forwarded a statement from the Accountant-general of the Navy, showing that the cost of building and equipment of the four steam vessels required for the service, under the naval regulations would be about £250,000, including £6,500 which the Admiralty added to the estimate of their Accountant-general to meet additional fittings for the necessary accommodation of passengers. The Admiralty, however, had every reason to believe that to this estimate of the cost, &c., of the vessels, which they considered to be absolutely necessary for the satisfactory performance of the Mail Packet Service in the Indian seas, the outlay of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company would be increased by an additional sum of nearly £50,000, for what may be termed the luxurious accommodation now expected by passengers. Upon this speculation the Company, of course, subjected themselves to a risk of loss, or corresponding advantage. With respect to the item of coals, which was omitted in the Accountant-general’s return, the Admiralty, in the absence of precise knowledge, estimated the cost upon the best information they could obtain, and their Lordships considered the Commissioners for the Affairs of India to be competent judges of the correctness of their assumed estimate, as well as of the assumed cost of coal depôts, coaling, and other incidental and contingent expenses. The item of oil, tallow, &c., was also assumed, as the consumption of these articles depended on the construction of the engine, both as to principle and manufacture. In explanation of the differences between the following calculations and the Accountant-general’s statement, the Admiralty observed, that the interest of the money was not taken into account in naval expenditure; and that 15 per cent. for wear and tear, and depreciation of hull and machinery, had been adopted, with six per cent. for insurance, in compliance with the suggestion of the India Board, for the purpose of maintaining a comparative uniformity