In these cases it will be seen that the rates paid by the Post Office for the use of only a fraction of the train exceeded the whole cost of running, as calculated by Mr. Stephenson himself, by from 60 to 260 per cent. But these rates, while they no doubt include in some cases special elements of expense not covered by the average of 15d. per mile, are independent of the receipts obtained from passengers, parcels, and in some cases from goods, earnings which, added to the Post Office allowance, have, in many instances, rendered the mail train one of the most profitable trains on the line. It should be mentioned that the rates of payment quoted above applied, in some few of the cases, to trains which were running as passenger trains before the Post Office employed them for the mails, the times of departure and arrival, places of stopping, &c., being adopted by the Post Office almost exactly as the company had arranged them for their own convenience. In these instances the extravagance of the charge for the mails becomes of course the more remarkable. I should imagine that the Post Office department would be well satisfied if those mails, the hours of which are absolutely fixed by notice, were conveyed at rates based on Mr. Stephenson’s estimate of the actual running cost, making some allowance, on the one hand, for the benefit derived by the company from the train, and adding, on the other hand, compensation for any special extra expenses to which the company may be subjected by the requirements of the Post Office, together with a full allowance for profit. I believe that some basis such as this has long been considered a desideratum by this department, and it is to be hoped that Parliament may see fit ere long to place the question on a footing of this nature. It may not be inappropriate to mention here, in further refutation of Mr. Stephenson’s charge of illiberal treatment, that although the law officers of the Crown have given an opinion that Government can claim exemption from toll on railways, such claim has for many years been abandoned by the Post Office. The arbitrators acting for the department always considered the railway companies both as carriers and proprietors of the road, and from their calculations accordingly. It may also be observed that the strongest desire is usually evinced by railway companies to obtain the conveyance of the mails, a desire which is certainly incompatible with the assumption that no profit is allowed for that service, and strangely at variance with Mr. Stephenson’s theory that railway companies are indifferent to postal traffic.