2208. Your impression is, that it was an engagement binding upon both parties; that the East India Company were bound to pay that sum, and that the other parties were bound to perform the service, whether they liked it or not?--My answer to that is, that this £20,000 a year originated in an amalgamation, or at least a pretended amalgamation, between the East Indian Steam Company and the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Packet Company, in 1841. But inasmuch as on 14th October, 1839, the East India Company had replied to the East Indian Steam Company in London, and again in Calcutta, on the 27th of May, 1840, to the inhabitants of Calcutta generally, “that to any well-devised measures, by which the established means of communication might be extended, the Court would be ready to afford due encouragement; but in the present state of circumstances they are unwilling now to enter into any arrangement affecting the measures in progress regarding the communication between Suez and Bombay;” that letter and publication was considered as an engagement on the part of the East India Company to support the extension of a line between Calcutta and Suez. The consequence of that was, that the “Precursor” built for, and the “India” was employed upon that line, under the supposition that they would, when they had adopted this measure, be remunerated. A junction was proposed between the small section of the London shareholders of the East Indian Steam Company and the Peninsular and Oriental Company; and what I say is, that they communicated, either by deputation or by letter, with the East India Company, and proposed that they should give them a grant of £20,000 a year, holding forth that the three parties were to be united. This was a long time in abeyance, but some time in July, as it appears to me, the proposal of the Peninsular and Oriental Company was accepted by the East India Company; but at the time it was accepted, it was accepted upon the recorded opinion that the interests of the “India” and the “Precursor” party were likely to be amalgamated with those of the Peninsular and Oriental Company who had made the offer, and that upon certain terms which are there stated; they were granted the 20,000 a year provided they made four voyages the first year, six voyages the second year, and maintained a monthly communication the third, fourth, and fifth year, with vessels of 500-horse power, between Calcutta and Suez. 2209. Am I to understand you to state that the proposal or contract to which you referred the other day, that the steamers should be 500-horse power, originated with the East India Company?--No, it originated with the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Packet Company. 2210. Then that excluded the “India?”--Yes; the conditions are already in evidence, in answer to question 1819.