By act of Parliament, 7 William IV, chap. 3, all previous contracts entered into for the conveyance of the mails by sea were transferred to the Admiralty. In the year 1839, the idea was conceived that the vast expenditures required in naval armaments might be made subservient to the purposes of commerce in time of peace. Accordingly, a contract was entered into with Mr. Cunard and his associates, for the conveyance of the mails from Liverpool, via Halifax, to Boston, in five steamers of the first class, for £85,000, or about $425,000 per annum. It was stipulated that they should be built under the supervision of the Admiralty, should be inspected on being received into the service, and certified to be capable in all respects of being converted into ships of war, and of carrying ordnance of the heaviest description. Various stipulations were entered into in this and other contracts of a similar character, which placed these ships under the control of the Government; thus, in fact, making them, to all intents and purposes, at the same time a part of the mercantile and military marine of the country. In 1846, the Government enlarged the contract with Mr. Cunard and his associates, by adding four ships to run from Liverpool to New York, and increased the compensation to £145,000, or about $725,000 per annum. In the year 1840, a contract was made by the Admiralty with the Royal Mail Steamship Company, at £240,000 sterling, or $1,200,000 per annum, for fourteen steamers to carry the mails from Southampton to the West Indies, the ports of Mexico on the Gulf, and to New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah, and Charleston. These ships are of the first class, and are to conform in all respects, concerning size and adaptation to the purposes of war, to the conditions prescribed in the Cunard contracts. They are to make twenty-four voyages a year, leaving and returning to Southampton semi-monthly. Another contract has lately been entered into for two ships to run between Bermuda and New York. These lines employ twenty-five steamers of the largest and most efficient description. In addition to the above, a contract was made, 1st January, 1845, with the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company for a line of similar steamers, seven in number, from England to the East Indies and China, at £160,000 sterling, or $800,000 per annum. This line passes from Southampton, via Gibraltar and Malta, to Alexandria, in Egypt; thence the route continues overland to Suez, at the head of the Red Sea, from whence the steamers again start, touching at Aden, Bombay, and at Point de Galle, in the island of Ceylon, from whence they proceed to Singapore and Hong Kong. There is a branch line connecting with this, from Point de Galle to Calcutta, touching at Madras.