first-class engineer and corps of assistants from one of the North River packets; but as soon as the ship got to sea, and heavy weather came on, all the engineers and firemen were taken deadly sick, and for three days it was constantly expected that the ship would be lost. It is abundantly evident from all of the testimony, that most of the mail packets are capable of carrying a handsome armament. Mr. Atherton says to me in his letter: "Many of our ocean steamers are fit for naval service of every description; and they are generally fit for all transport service." The Report of Lord Canning, the British Post Master General, to which I have referred, was made in 1853, in obedience to a Treasury Minute issued by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who directed the Post Master General to form a committee, and report to both houses, on the propriety of continuing and extending the mail steam packet system; as there had been suggestions that the sum expended for the mail service was large. These gentlemen after a lengthy investigation of several months, the examination of a great number of witnesses, and the record of their testimony in shorthand, made their report, accompanied by the evidence in a large volume. At page 5 of the report, in speaking of the requirements for naval efficiency, they say: "In arranging the terms of these contracts, the Government seized the opportunity of requiring that the vessels should be constructed in a manner that would render them as serviceable for national defense in war as steam-packets belonging to the Crown would have been if employed in their stead. A provision to this effect was first inserted in the contract with the Royal Mail Company in 1840; and in most of the existing contracts stipulations are to be found requiring that the vessel should be of a construction and strength fit to carry such an armament as the Admiralty may think proper. In several cases they must be built of wood and not of iron; and there are some contracts which confer on the Admiralty the right of taking the ships at a valuation when it may be thought desirable to do so.