The Company’s Postal Contract having expired on the 31st December, 1867, a new contract was entered into with the Postmaster-General for one year, whereby the Cunard Company undertook to despatch a steamer from Liverpool to New York, calling at Queenstown, returning from New York every Wednesday, also calling at Queenstown. The payment for this service was £80,000, which sum was further reduced the following year to £70,000 per annum for several years. Under the last contract, which was for the period named, the Company guaranteed to sail a steamer from Liverpool (calling at Queenstown) to Boston every Tuesday, in addition to the mail service from Liverpool to New York every Saturday. The last-mentioned contract expired on the 31st December, 1876, on which date a new system of postal remuneration came into operation based on the amount of correspondence carried per voyage, under which system the Cunard Company has carried the mails to the present time. It will thus be seen that the continuity of their mail service has continued unbroken for upwards of sixty years. The invention of compound engines was the latest evolution of marine engineering engaging attention in 1869-70. The Directors of the Cunard Company quickly realised that the saving effected by the use of compound engines was so considerable, without reduction of speed, that their adoption was an imperative necessity. This decision was arrived at too late to furnish with the new style of engines the ABYSSINIA and ALGERIA, each of about 3,300 tons and 2,480 I.H.P., just completed by Messrs. J. & G. Thomson, and placed on the New York station; but the BATAVIA, then on the stocks to the order of another company, was purchased and supplied with machinery on the new principle; and an order was given to the same builders (Messrs. Denny, Dumbarton) for a similar vessel of rather larger tonnage to be named the PARTHIA. A further extension of the Company’s business took place in 1872, by the establishment of a direct line of steamers between the Clyde and the West Indies. The TRINIDAD and the DEMERARA, two sister ships of about 2,000 tons each, were built that year, and placed on the station, but after about twelve months’ trading they were withdrawn, and sent to supplement the Company’s service in the Mediterranean. During the succeeding six years the fleet was increased by the addition of seven large steamers, all fitted with compound engines, the last and largest of which was the GALLIA, of 4,809 tons and 5,300 I.H.P. [Illustration: RUSSIA. Cunard Steamship Co.]