In responding to the toast of "His Majesty's Ministers," Lord Londonderry alluded to the great growth that had taken place in the population, trade, and prosperity of Bristol during the late Queen's reign. Last February, he said, in eighteen days, the amount paid on goods taken out of Bond reached £487,000. Of this sum, no less than £430,000 was paid in the last eight days, and of this £370,000 came from a single firm for withdrawals of tobacco from Bond. This included the enormous single cheque paid by that firm one day for a quarter of a million--the largest single cheque ever known at His Majesty's Customs at Bristol. He also congratulated Bristol on the great development to her trade that must come through the inauguration in February last of the new service to the West Indies. This, he was sure, would do much not only to strengthen the ties that bound this country to the West Indian Colonies, but also to restore to Bristol some measure of that position she had once enjoyed in the trade of the United Kingdom. He was rather glad his good friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer was not there that night, for if he heard how much was spent in benefiting those who relied on the Post Office, and how little they handed over to the national exchequer, he would not be inclined to meet him when he suggested certain postal reforms, as he intended to do next year. He hoped they would invite him to meet Sir Michael in Bristol, for he might then be inclined to grant him (the speaker) any request he might make. He wanted them to recognise that the Postmaster-General's good intentions, and they were many, were controlled by Parliamentary and statutory exigencies. He had also been asked to improve their rates on foreign letters and parcels, as well as to cheapen the delivery of letters and parcels from abroad; but it was entirely forgotten that he had to reckon with foreign Powers. A Postal Reformer had declared, in a letter, that it was possible to create an ideal Post Office. He wished he could accede to every one of his requests, but he had to consider Parliament; he was not master himself. He thought that if they were to meet the requirements of the public as they were anxious to do, they must proceed in the course in which they were moving at present--with steadiness and sureness, and not promise things which it was impossible to fulfil. The Ex-Postmaster of the House of Commons, Mr. E.W. Pike, is a Somersetshire man; he was born at Ilchester, and his grandfather was the last Governor of the Gaol of that town. When Mr. Pike was ten years of age, his father received an appointment under the act constituting the new County Court system, and removed to Temple Cloud in the Bristol district. The family afterwards moved to the adjacent village of Clutton, and Mr. Pike went there with the other members.