with the estimate given in their Secretary’s letter of the 24th of November, founded upon the Parliamentary documents supplied by the East India Company. The investment the Admiralty were willing to admit for the first cost and equipment of three first-class and one second-class steam vessels, being £250,000; this capital, if dealt with as suggested, would require an annual expenditure, for performing the Mail Service between Bombay and Suez, in wages and victuals, of £35,000; for coals (taken at 48s. per ton,) £29,000; for oil, tallow, &c., £1,500; 15 per cent. on £250,000 for wear and tear, and depreciation of vessels and machinery, £37,000; six per cent. insurance, £15,000; four per cent. interest on capital, £10,000; making £128,300. To this sum of £128,000 must be added the expenses of coal depôts at Bombay, Aden, and Suez, and the cost of coaling the vessels at these stations, &c., which, according to the items supplied by the Parliamentary document, ordered to be printed on 3rd July, 1843, appeared to be, for coal depôts, £7,644; wages of mechanics and apprentices not attached to particular vessels, expense of receiving ships, and miscellaneous charges of the steam department, £8,594, making a total of £16,238; thus increasing the amount of annual expenditure by upwards of £20,000, as the Admiralty considered that at least £4,000 difference must exist between supplying vessels of more than double the horse power and tonnage of those of the East India Company, making an annual outlay of £148,000 per annum for performing a distance of 70,080 miles.[4] The result of this calculation, therefore, exhibited the comparative cost of the Mail Service on the line between Suez and Bombay as follows: If performed by the East India Company, in their, comparatively speaking, small vessels, as shown by their return to Parliament, after deducting passage-money, £108,000 per annum, which does not appear to include the cost of coal depôts. If performed by vessels of 500-horse power, and 1,500 tons, without deducting passage-money, £148,000 per annum. If performed by contract, by vessels of 500-horse power, and 1,500 tons, £80,000 per annum. The Admiralty, in conclusion, observed, that should a mail communication, as suggested by them, extending from Suez to Calcutta, be determined on, the increase in the item of coals (calculated at 33s. 6d. per ton) would be £15,000, and three coal depôts, with the expense of coaling, &c., might be taken at £20,000 per annum, in round numbers.” 1391. What is the date of that report you are reading from?--It is the report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords, ordered to be printed 21st June, 1847. 1392. You spoke of vessels of 1,800 tons, and vessels of 1,500 tons; do you mean to say they were of that number each, or that there were three vessels 600 tons each?--1,500 tons each, or 1,800 tons each, the larger class of vessels.