The advertisement of the British Government leads to the inference that it desires the conveyance of the fast mails,—that is the mails that now take the route _viâ_ Marseilles—by way of Brindisi, as soon as all the arrangements for their transit are completed. It is to be feared, however, that the French Post Office, instigated no doubt by the Paris, Lyons and Mediterranean Railway Company, whose interests are concentrated at Marseilles, _and who has no love whatever for the Mont Cenis Railway_, will offer all the opposition in its power to the divergence from Marseilles to Brindisi taking place. In the first instance the department gave assurances that it would not only not put obstacles in the way of the British Government making the transfer, but would co-operate with it and assist it whenever required to do so. But in December last, the Marquis de Moustier, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, addressed to Earl Cowley, the British Ambassador at Paris, a despatch which contained a memorandum from the French Post Office, the object of which was to show that the Brindisi route would only save ten hours over that _viâ_ Marseilles, for mails from England, and would not effect any saving for mails coming from Egypt towards England. The memorandum contains several errors of fact, the most conspicuous of which is that the calculations are the same as were brought forward by the department when the _Ferrovia Meridionale_ was only opened as far as Ancona, whereas it is now extended to Brindisi, 559 kilometres farther southwards, and therefore that much the nearer to Alexandria. I have reason also to know that the French Government expressed, in December last, to the British Government, its willingness to reduce its present transit rate for British correspondence to and from India, China, Australia, &c., _one-half_, provided the fast mails continued to be conveyed _viâ_ Marseilles, and that they be not deviated to Brindisi. For these reasons I am sure that the Italian Government will see the necessity and importance of vigorous action; and vigour is all the more necessary, as the officers of the British Post Office have very frequently made the avowal that their leading principle in all their postal arrangements is to make each self supporting. Therefore, unless under compulsion to the contrary, they would probably accept such a proposal,—at all events I am convinced that they would, if they could. At the present time the British Government sustains a loss of about 1,000,000 francs (£40,000), a-year by its Anglo-Eastern mail services. So far as regards the substitution of Brindisi for Marseilles in the conveyance of what are known in this country as “THE FAST EASTERN MAILS.”