The Postmaster-General (Lord Canning's) Commission in 1853 on the Packet Service—which included among its members Lord Canning himself and the then Sir Stafford Northcote—did much useful work, and published an able Report giving a brief history of “contract mail-packets”; explaining why, under older conditions, heavy subsidies were necessary, and expressing their opinion that, as now the steamers so employed carry passengers and freight, these large subsidies could no longer be required. When a new route has been opened for the extension of commerce, further continuance of the Service, unless desirable on account of important political reasons, should depend on its tendency to become self-supporting. Among other recommendations made were the omission in future contracts of many conditions whose effect is increase of cost; a reduction of the contract to an undertaking (subject to penalties for failure) to convey the mails at fixed periods and with a certain degree of speed, and an agreement that, except in the case of a new route, contracts should not be allowed to exist for a long period. When at last the management of the Packet Service was transferred from the Admiralty to the Post Office, a useful—indeed necessary—reform was accomplished. While in the hands of the former Department, the Service had become a source of very heavy expense, owing, in great part, to its extension for political reasons very far beyond postal requirements. Great inconvenience had resulted also from the slight control possessed by the Post Office over the Service. In 1857, for example, the contract with the West Indian Packet Company was renewed without the knowledge of either the Postmaster-General or of Rowland Hill. The absence in the contracts of stipulations as to punctuality likewise had ill effects. The most punctual service at this time was that between Devonport and the Cape of Good Hope, as the Union Steamship Company, into whose contract such stipulations had been introduced in strong form, made during 1859 every one of its voyages within the appointed time.