"Mr. Mortleman, the officer in immediate charge of the mail-bags, acted on the occasion with a presence of mind and forethought which reflect honour on his memory. On seeing that the vessel could not be saved, he must have removed the cases containing the mail-bags from the hold, and have so placed them, that when the ship went down they might float; a proceeding which ultimately led to the recovery of all the bags, except one containing despatches, of which, from their nature, it was possible to obtain copies. I may add, that a similar spirit of determination to perform their duty to the last has, on several previous occasions of exposure to imminent danger, distinguished the conduct of our officers."[211] The following passage from the same page records, not for the first time, foreign aid kindly given to one of our mail-steamers in distress:-- "An instance, calling for grateful acknowledgment on my part [it is the Duke of Argyll who speaks], occurred last year, of prompt and gratuitous assistance given by two foreign Governments in the conveyance of a large mail from India, which was on board a ship belonging to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company bound for Southampton, when, owing to an accident to the machinery, the vessel became unable to proceed. The casualty happened near Tunis; and the Bey gave immediate orders for a steam-vessel in his own service to be got ready to convey both the mail and passengers, without cost, to Marseilles, which was accordingly done; and from Marseilles the mail was, by the French Government, forwarded gratuitously to Calais; whereas, under ordinary circumstances, a mail of the same weight would for this part of the journey alone have entailed a charge of more than £800." It has been mentioned that our number of letters in 1857 was more than 500,000,000; the following passage shows very strikingly that the correspondence of a country is not always according to its population:-- "According to an official return in a recent number of the 'Journal de Saint Petersbourg,' giving various Russian postal statistics for the year 1855, the whole number of letters posted in Russia was about 16,400,000, or almost exactly the same as the number posted in the single city of Manchester and its suburbs."[212] It will be remembered that one of the changes made on the establishment of penny postage was the total abolition of franking, and some account has been given of the monstrous abuses which existed under that pernicious system. As germane to the matter, I quote the following from "Hansard;" the passage being also curious as recording, I believe, the last attack ever made on penny postage within the walls of Parliament:-- "_June 22nd, 1857.--Government Postage._ "On the motion that £88,045 be voted for the postage of Government letters,