The mails sent _viâ_ Southampton are packed in wooden boxes of larger dimensions than those sent _viâ_ Marseilles. As the letter postal rate is really double _viâ_ Marseilles what it is _viâ_ Southampton, and as the great proportion of the official letters passing between the Indian office in London and the three presidencies in India, as well as the official correspondence with the army and navy, is conveyed _viâ_ Southampton, the number of letters carried in a box is about the same as in a box _viâ_ Marseilles, notwithstanding the difference of dimensions. The number of newspapers sent in a box _viâ_ Southampton is about a third more than in a box sent _viâ_ Marseilles. In 1850, when there were only two despatches of mails from England to the East per month, _viâ_ Marseilles, and one per month _viâ_ Southampton, the average number of boxes per despatch was 57 _viâ_ Marseilles and 152 _viâ_ Southampton. In 1858, as I have already stated, mails commenced to be despatched between England and Australia by the Overland Route—that is both _viâ_ Southampton and _viâ_ Marseilles. The service is once a month, and the Australian mail forms a part of the mails despatched from Southampton on the 20th of each month, and from Marseilles on the 26th of each month. The dates for the three other despatches of each month are _viâ_ Southampton the 4th, the 12th, the 27th; _viâ_ Marseilles the 3rd, the 10th, and the 17th. I mentioned in the last paragraph but two the number of boxes of mails despatched per month in 1850. In 1861 the average number of boxes despatched _viâ_ Marseilles, on the three occasions in each month when the Australian are not forwarded, was 89; but on the 26th of each month, when the Australian mail is included, the number of boxes despatched was 232. The weight of the mails from the East towards England is never so great as from England towards the East; and this is caused from the fact that for every fifty newspapers that are sent from England to the East there is not more than one sent from the East to England; and the average weight of the latter is little more than one half the average weight of the former. For this reason the number of boxes received on each occasion in each month of 1861, when the Australian mail was not received, was twenty-two; but when the Australian mail was received the number was fifty-three. I regret that I am not able to give the same information for 1861 as regards the Southampton route; but an Appendix to the Report of a Committee of the House of Commons which sat in 1866 upon the postal and telegraph communications of England with the East, enables me to state them with accuracy for the years 1864 and 1865. In 1850 the total number of boxes despatched by that route was 1824, or an average of 152 each departure—in other words, each month; for at that time there was only one despatch a month _viâ_ Southampton.