The dissatisfaction of the contractors, appears to have continued, and, indeed, became more intense as the coaches improved and multiplied, till at last a committee of the House of Commons was appointed to investigate the circumstances, which, however, I should have thought were not very far to seek; but at any rate, it elicited some good, sound, common sense from Mr. Johnson, the superintendent of mail coaches. He was of opinion that anything under fivepence a mile was too little, and that mail coaches which received less than that were decidedly underpaid. Still the competition was so great that persons were generally found to undertake the contract for less; but he did not desire to bring forward persons to take it at less than threepence a mile, as it would be injurious to them if they excited that sort of opposition. He considered that a dividend of four pounds a mile a month was sufficient to cover loss, but with scarcely sufficient profit. Indeed, fast coaches ought to share five, and I can quite bear him out in this. He was, evidently, a very sensible, practical man, and knew that innkeepers would be found to horse mails for almost nothing, merely for the sake of the prestige which attached to them, the increased custom they brought to the bar, and old rivalry, which was often exceedingly strong, and he preferred to pay a fair sum to be sure and keep responsible men. He considered that mails, on account of the limited number of passengers, worked at a disadvantage when opposed by other coaches; and no doubt he was right, because if a coach carrying fifteen or sixteen passengers was nearly empty to-day, it would be remunerated by a full load to-morrow; whereas, the mail with only seven, when full, could not be reimbursed by one good load. It required to be pretty evenly loaded every day to make it pay. He said a majority of our mail coaches are not earning what is considered the minimum remuneration for a public carriage. He considered that to run toll free and duty free was sufficient to secure them against competition, but, curiously enough, this never seems to have been tried, for though the roads were compelled to let the mails run without paying toll, the Chancellor of the Exchequer always claimed the mileage duty, which was twopence a mile. There was also a duty of five pounds for the stage-coach licence, or what was termed the plates, which they were obliged to carry. The mails, however, were excused from carrying the plates, as it was said His Majesty's mails ought not to be disfigured; but whether they enjoyed the more substantial benefit of having the five pounds remitted I have not been able to ascertain. As time went on, and fast coaches increased, Mr. Johnson must have been at his wit's end to know how to get the mail bags carried. Mail carts appear to have been an expensive luxury, as they cost a shilling a mile, and he could generally do better with the coach proprietors.