In 1839 the British and French Governments arranged that the Indian mails should be sent by way of Marseilles and thence taken by an Admiralty packet to Malta to be transhipped to another Admiralty packet for conveyance to Alexandria. As was to be expected, an arrangement of this sort, involving such possibilities of delay, did not last long, and the Government advertised for tenders for the mails to be carried between Alexandria and England, with calls at Gibraltar and Malta both ways. Four tenders were sent in, and that of the Peninsular Company, which offered to do what was required for £34,200, was accepted. The company also offered to charge reduced fares to officers travelling on the public service and to carry Admiralty packages for nothing. The urgency of a more regular steam communication between England and India than was supplied by the sailing or auxiliary Indiamen was now being extensively discussed, and the Government was asked to subsidise a line of steamers between England and Calcutta which should make the passage in thirty days. The Peninsular Company offered to carry the mails between England and Alexandria with the two steamers _Great Liverpool_ and _Oriental_, and in 1840 the company was incorporated by Royal Charter under the name of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, with a view to the extension of its operations to the Far East. The _Great Liverpool_ was of 1540 tons, and had been built for the Liverpool and New York trade, and the _Oriental_ was of 1600 tons and 450 horse-power. The company was afterwards requested to place two smaller steamers on the Malta and Corfu branch of the mail service, and did so for no less than £10,712 below what it had cost to maintain the Admiralty packets. [Illustration: THE “HINDOSTAN” (P. & O. COMPANY, 1842).]