This plan was as follows:--They proposed to convey monthly between Southampton and Malta that branch of the India Mails, by means of steam vessels which they had recently placed for commercial traffic, to ply between Southampton, Malta, Constantinople, and ports in the Black Sea; and to provide a steam vessel to convey the Mails between Malta and Alexandria, which should run in concert with these Constantinople steamers, and the East India Company’s steamers conveying the mails between Suez and Bombay. This plan was adopted by the Government; and, after some negotiation, the remuneration for this Mail Service was fixed at £15,535 per annum, or about 4s. 3d. per mile, on an arrangement for twelve months only, as the Company wished to reserve to themselves the option of abandoning it, should it prove seriously unremunerative, or embarrass their commercial traffic. To meet the expense of this Service, it was proposed to the Government to withdraw an Admiralty packet which then formed a monthly communication between Gibraltar and Malta; inasmuch as the steamers of this Company plying to Constantinople, touched regularly both at Gibraltar and Malta, on their passages out and home, and would supply the place of that packet, by which a saving to the public would be effected of from £7,000 to £8,000 per annum. Also, that as, with the two lines of India Mail steamers per month touching at Gibraltar, besides the Peninsular Mail steamers every week, Gibraltar and the south of Spain would have no less than six Mails per month, the Peninsular Mail Service might be reduced to three times a month, or every ten days; for which the Company were willing to make an abatement of £9100 per annum from their contract-money for that Service. These suggestions were adopted, effecting a saving to the public of £16,000 to £17,000 per annum; and, consequently, the monthly conveyance of the Bombay branch of the India Mails between Southampton and Alexandria was, by this arrangement, obtained not only free of any additional expense to the public, but with a financial benefit to it by an increase of the postage revenue. DISCONTINUANCE OF THE ABOVE ARRANGEMENT. This arrangement was not remunerative to the Company, inasmuch as the expense of the steam vessel, which, in consequence of it, the Company were obliged to run between Malta and Alexandria, was fully equal to the whole amount of the sum received for the conveyance of the Mails between Southampton and Alexandria, and it also subjected the Company to some additional expenses in carrying on their trade with Constantinople and the Black Sea ports. The Directors have on former occasions publicly stated that they had, notwithstanding, no intention of breaking up the arrangement, considering it as a link in the chain of extensive postal communication, from which, as a whole, the Company were deriving a large portion of their income.