A somewhat unfair use has been made, by the Post Office, of my statement with regard “to the cost of running a train.” That statement was made, as you will see by reference to my Address, for the purpose of enabling you to consider the broad principles which ought to govern railway companies in respect of passenger traffic. It is palpable that I never contemplated, in that estimate, what would be the cost of running a train, put on without reference to the convenience of the public, or to the advantage of the railway company, and yet entailing all the charges of a special engine and night-service. The Post Office has, however, quoted and made use of this expression, as if it was applicable to all cases. The Report gives a list of railways and branches, twenty-five in number, to which Post Office rates of from 2s. to 4s. 6d. a mile are paid. The list commences with the line from Chester to Birkenhead, and concludes with that of the Limerick Junction to Limerick. Only two of the lines in this list are railways running out of London, and the payments to those lines are made under very special circumstances, one of them being for the Foreign Mail. The rest are all small cross lines, such as the Leeds and Selby, Perth and Dundee, Peterborough and Grimsby, and Dundalk and Castle Blayney, upon many of which the mail train is a special train, put on in the middle of the night, exclusively for the purpose of carrying a small quantity of letters. Wherever there is the least service performed, it is obvious that the proportionate rate of charge must be the highest; and in each of these petty cases, the arbitrators, no doubt, found some good reason why rates above the average should be paid. Upon cross roads, wherever a mail cart had formerly to be used, the Post Office was obliged to pay its whole expenses. And upon cross lines of railway, in the same manner, it is to be expected that the whole expenses of a special train will have to be borne by those who use it. “The Post Office department,” says the Report, “would be well satisfied if the 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.”