"As I have stated over and over again, looking at it as regards the Post Office revenue now, as compared with what the Post Office revenue was before the penny post, the surplus of income over expenditure is somewhere about £600,000."[10] After disposing of the "fallacious return"--fallacious to the extent of £600,000 per annum--I proceeded to the proof of the different allegations of my petition. I described a serious error lately made in a treaty with France--an error the more vexatious as being the result of needless meddling. Extract from my evidence:-- "The next and last case under this head [Economy] is the new postal treaty with France, which, however excellent in its general objects and effects, is, in consequence of important errors in the details, operating very unfavourably on our portion of the revenue derived from the united postage, French and English, on letters between the two countries. Our scale of postage, as the Committee will bear in mind, ascends by half-ounces up to one ounce, and then by ounces. The French scale, on the other hand, ascends by quarter-ounces. Several important results flow from this distinction. As every letter, in regard to a portion of its postage, is under the quarter-ounce scale, the great majority of letters will be just within the quarter-ounce; such letters, therefore, though liable to a French rate of 20_d._ per ounce, and a British rate of only 10_d._ per ounce, would be charged 10_d._ each, viz., 5_d._ British and 5_d._ French--the whole being collected sometimes by the one Post Office, sometimes by the other. Under the old system each Government would retain its own 5_d._, and hand over the second 5_d._ to the other Government. The English Post Office, however, in order to relieve itself of the trouble of accounting for the letters _numeratim_, proposed a clause by which each Government would have accounted to the other for the whole mail at once, according to its weight in bulk. I pointed out to the Treasury how unfairly towards our own Government the proposed stipulation would operate, and the proposal of the Post Office was consequently rejected. It appears, however, by the treaty that it was subsequently revived, with a slight modification, which no doubt was thought would obviate the evil, but which only slightly mitigates it. Under the treaty, we are to pay in respect of a mail, the postage of which is collected in England, 20_d._ an ounce to the French for their share of the postage; whereas on a mail the postage of which is to be collected in France, we are only to receive 12_d._ per ounce. Applying this rule to the great majority, which, as before said, are just under the quarter ounce, the ultimate effect is, that of our 5_d._, when the postage is collected in France, the French hand over to us only 3_d._,