an annuitant, and every receipt of money from a person assured, must be transmitted either from or to London, as the case may be. So that, in addition to the proposals of the “somewhat formidable appearance,” thousands of documents per annum in connection with that business will find their way into the mail bags. Let us hark back to say that no rejoinder to Mr. Stephenson’s answer was ever given. Nevertheless, the answer, complete and conclusive as it was, had no effect on Post Office intentions, for during the session of 1857, the Duke of Argyll,[42] then Postmaster-General, was induced by the permanent officers of the establishment to introduce a bill into the House of Lords for making “further Provision for the Conveyance of Mails by Railway.” Mr. William Lewins[43] tells us, in his book called _Her Majesty’s Mail_, that His Grace deserves the gratitude of his country for introducing it. But it was well known that His Grace, like most of the Postmasters-General who have preceded him during the last twenty years, took but little interest in the working of the department over which he nominally presided, and knew little, probably nothing, of the bill, the obnoxious contents of which he was called upon to father. It was, however, justly viewed with great apprehension by all the railway interests of the kingdom, and in consequence of the hostility excited by its appearance, it was withdrawn before it reached a second reading. In the very lame defence of it, given in the Fourth Annual Report, we find it mildly stated, that “taken as a whole, the bill certainly cannot fairly be represented as a measure opposed to railway interests.” Whether this be correct or not, at all events it can be stated that the department has never since proposed any similar enactment. From 1858 it has also ceased to use language such as “experience has satisfied me, that as the law now stands, it is impossible either to secure regularity in the conveyance of the mails, or to have that full use of the railways which the public demand, which the department is anxious to afford, and which would be beneficial to the companies themselves.”[44] The relations between the companies and the department have been amicable during the last seven or eight years, and there is now scarcely a railway in the kingdom upon which mails are conveyed that has not adopted a system of general contracts. The Post Office acquires, by means of them, the right, for a fixed gross payment per annum, of using _all_ the trains of the company for the transport of mail bags. There are certain trains which of course must be run for the convenience of the Post Office, such as the night mail trains to and from London, with their branch trains and ramifications. The same as regards Dublin, and, in a lesser degree, Edinburgh. But the expenses of these trains to the companies is considered in coming to a decision as to the total price to be paid.