"THOMAS STOCK, President. July 7th, 1828." A strong memorial (under the hand of Thomas Cookson, President) was forwarded to the Postmaster-General. Francis Freeling, Secretary, in his reply for the Postmaster-General, refused to admit that the port of Bristol did afford the requisite facilities for a station for His Majesty's packets. When the projected works were carried out the matter would be reconsidered by the Government. Replying further, Mr. Freeling, on the 2nd March, alluded to the impossibility of despatching the mails at a fixed time every day in the year, and said that that presented insurmountable objections to the choice of Bristol as a station for His Majesty's packets. He said that the first requisite for a packet station was that the port should afford the means for embarking and landing the mails at all times of tide and under all circumstances of weather. The Bristol Dock Directors and a Standing Committee of the Society of Merchants considered the matter, but did not see their way to press it under the chilling response received from the Postmaster-General. The Board did not give up the case, for in the Annual Report 28th January, 1833, it was stated that the proposition for establishing at this port a mail packet station by steam vessels to the South of Ireland was being diligently pursued, and that the House of Commons having appointed a Committee to enquire into the communications between England and Ireland, a favourable opportunity was presented of again urging the advantages Bristol port was calculated to afford. The numerous appeals, representations, and enquiries did not result in the manner desired, and to this day the mails from the South of Ireland for Bristol and its district follow the same route _viâ_ Waterford and Milford Haven, the only difference being that from the latter port to Bristol the service is carried on by rail instead of by road. Bristol became a mail packet station eventually, as steamships carried the American mails between this port and New York for several years, commencing in 1837, the year of Her Most Gracious Majesty's accession to the throne. The _Great Western_, constructed under the direction of Brunel, the famous engineer of the Great Western Railway, was chiefly used in the service. [Illustration: THE "GREAT WESTERN." THE FIRST STEAMER WHICH CARRIED MAILS FROM BRISTOL TO NEW YORK.]