For the year 1838, the last year, as has been said, throughout which the old rates were maintained, the Post Office accounts, excepting a trifling amount of arrears, contain no charge for packet service, that service having been transferred from the Post Office to the Admiralty, partly in 1823, and the remainder in 1837,[270] so that, for the purpose of comparison, such charge must of course be excluded from the present account. In the Postmaster-General's Report for 1861 is a table (p. 31) prepared with a view to a comparison such as that now under consideration. It is proper to state, however, that a certain change of circumstances has led to a corresponding change in the mode of presenting the account. Formerly, when the year's disbursements were almost identical with its liabilities, their unmodified appearance in the account was sufficient for practical purposes; but, of late years, when, owing to unavoidable irregularities in the large payments made to railway companies, the disbursements and liabilities have often been largely at variance, the latter have been presented in the account in preference to the former, as obviously affording better means for determining the net revenue of the year. The amount arrived at by this mode of proceeding is £1,525,311, or £134,199 less than the net revenue of 1838. It may, perhaps, be objected to the above comparison, that the revenue derived from the packets is greater now than heretofore, and that equity requires a corresponding adjustment of the account. There can be no doubt that the revenue in question has considerably increased, although such increase is not wholly attributable to the improvements in the packet service. If, however, the adjustment thus called for should be made, equity would require corresponding adjustments on other points. Thus, allowance would have to be made, 1st, for a considerable amount of net revenue formerly accruing from various colonial post offices, as, for instance, those of British North America and the West Indies, which have recently been made independent. 2nd, for the great increase in the expense of conveying the mails, which increase, contrary to all that might have been expected, has arisen from the establishment and extension of the railway system. And, 3rd, for the additional expenditure caused by a general increase of salary and by a reduction of individual labour, both made to remedy admitted evils under the old system. It would, indeed, be very difficult, if not wholly impracticable, now to ascertain the result of all these adjustments; but it may safely be maintained that it would leave the account at least as favourable to the Post Office as at present. ROWLAND HILL. December 18, 1862. APPENDIX J. [See p. 279.] _Conveyance of Mails by Railway. Memorandum thereon._