Admitting, however, that slight detentions do occasionally occur from pressure of Post Office work, it is right to mention that the Post Office has long since urged upon the principal companies the adoption of a plan by which they and the Post Office shall be mutually bound to pay certain penalties for delay, from whatever cause; the Post Office further offering to pay in addition a premium to the companies in every instance in which the prescribed time is not exceeded. This proposal was, however, rejected at the time by every company to whom it was submitted, and since that date (1851) it has only been agreed to by one of the Scotch companies. It should be mentioned, that the Post Office offered in each case to reopen the award, and to readjust the payment by an arbitration, in which the proposed agreement for fines and premiums should be taken into consideration, the object being to render the arrangement as equitable as possible to the companies. I believe that the department is willing to renew this offer on the former basis, or, indeed, to adopt any equitable scheme for insuring greater punctuality. Before concluding this report, it is but just to record a brief admission of the points in regard to which railways have, to a material extent, improved the postal communication of the kingdom. The most important of those benefits is unquestionably the increased rapidity of communication, which has practically brought Edinburgh and Dublin almost as near to London as Birmingham and Bristol were in the days of mail coaches. But the acceleration of speed, great as it has been, has not been the sole cause of the saving of time; for the use of railways has led to the avoidance of many of the stops which formerly took place at what were termed “forward offices,” for sorting purposes, that duty being now performed in travelling sorting offices, during the progress of the train. For this boon the public are clearly indebted to railways, and the Post Office is equally indebted to them for the consequent simplification of its system. The chief of the other benefits which railways have given to the Post Office and the public is greater frequency of postal communication; for, although there would no doubt have been established more numerous day mails, as well as frequent postal communication between certain large towns, if coaches had remained the fastest means of transit, it is scarcely probable that we should ever have been able to concede the very extensive additions to the number of communications throughout the kingdom generally, of which the use of railways has admitted; and the effect of which has doubtless been to cause a greater increase in the number of letters than would otherwise have taken place. The vast advantages comprised in those two improvements can scarcely be overrated; but, having briefly acknowledged them, it hardly devolves upon me, in the present Report, to dilate upon them at any greater length. I am, Sir,