2019. Will you read any previous letter on the same subject which was laid before the Admiralty by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Packet Company?--“Admiralty, 6th March, 1849.” (This is from the Secretary of the Admiralty to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Packet Company.) “Gentlemen, it having been represented to my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty that the contract steam packet, ‘Achilles,’ was delayed in her voyage from Point de Galle to Hong Kong, in November last, she having sailed from the former place on the 29th of that month, and not arriving at Hong Kong until the 23rd of December; thus being 175 hours beyond the time allowed by the contract; I am commanded by my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to call your attention to the circumstance, and to acquaint you that it appears that the place intended for coals on board the ‘Achilles’ was occupied by opium chests, and the coals placed on deck, and the vessel overloaded; and that my Lords are informed that her arrival at Hong Kong, 175 hours after she was due, was owing to the excess of cargo, and to the negligent and lazy manner in which the vessel was coaled at Singapore.” 2020. What was the result of that letter?--The secretary of the Company answered it on the 10th of March, 1849--“I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, dated 6th instant, calling the attention of the Directors of the Company to a representation which has been made to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, that the Company’s contract steamer, ‘Achilles,’ was considerably delayed upon her voyage from Point de Galle to Hong Kong, in November last, and that such delay was owing to the excess of cargo, and to negligence in the coaling at Singapore. In reply, I am instructed to express the great regret with which the Directors have received this communication, and to acquaint you, for the information of their Lordships, that a rumour having already reached them that some representations of the kind had been addressed to their Lordships, the Directors, by the mail of the 24th of February, wrote to the Company’s superintendent at Bombay, calling upon him for full and immediate explanation of the circumstances. Until the receipt of his report it will be impossible for the Directors to say how far the allegations in question are well founded; but, in the meantime, they are anxious to state that their standing instructions to all the agents and officers of the Company are, that the punctual performance of the mail service is to be ever regarded by them as paramount to every other consideration, and that any departure from that principle will be visited by the Directors with the utmost severity. The Directors take this opportunity of acquainting you, for the information of their Lordships, that having found by experience that no commercial house, however high its respectability, can represent the Company so efficiently at foreign stations as an