[14] An instance of the value of these contract steamers, otherwise than in the postal service, occurred at Ceylon, on the breaking out of the insurrection in that island. The Governor, not having troops sufficient at hand to quell it, this Company’s contract steamer, “Lady Mary Wood,” (subsidiary vessel on the China line), proceeded to Madras, and brought up a detachment, which mainly contributed to the prompt putting down of that insurrection. The recent destruction of a number of piratical vessels on the coast of China by this Company’s armed steamer “Canton,” is another instance of their value on distant stations. [15] The enormous extent of the correspondence conveyed by this Company’s steamers may be inferred from the fact that the mail for India and China, forwarded from Southampton by the “Indus,” on the 20th instant, consisted of 157 chests, amounting, in bulk, to within a fraction of twenty tons, exclusive of 13 bags for the Mediterranean. To this must be added the mail despatched from London on the 24th, _viá_ Marseilles, to be taken up by the same vessel at Malta, averaging 120 smaller chests. Each of the chests or cases forwarded _viá_ Southampton is computed to be capable of containing 10,000 single letters; therefore, allowing that a portion of them is occupied with newspapers, the number of letters must be very great. [Transcriber’s Note: Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.] End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Abstract of the Proceedings of the Select Committee of the House of Comm, by Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company and Great Britain. Parliament. House