G.--Letter to Mr. Warburton (November 16th, 1850), p. 457. H.--Letter to Postmaster-General Lord Canning (June 18th, 1853), p. 460. I.--Memorandum by Sir R. Hill on the Net Revenue of the Post Office (December 18th, 1862), p. 466. J.--Conveyance of Mails by Railway--Memorandum thereon (January 6th, 1857), p. 474. K.--Minute relative to Panama Route to Australia (September 27th, 1858), p. 478. L.--Letter to Lord Canning Governor-General of India (October 24th, 1857), p. 482. M.--Proposed Reduction in the Postage on Newspapers and other Printed Matter (June 12th, 1869), p. 484. N.--Letter to the Lords of the Treasury--Superannuation Grant (March 17th, 1864), p. 492. BOOK II. HISTORY OF PENNY POSTAGE. (_Continued._) CHAPTER XII. COMMITTEE OF ENQUIRY (1843). As the Committee was not moved for until so late in the session, it could not have very long to sit; and, at the end of seven weeks, its inquiry was brought to a close by the approach of the prorogation. This abrupt ending was in two ways unfortunate. In the first place, it cut short the evidence I was giving in a reply to allegations from the Post Office; and, in the second place, it allowed no time for more than the briefest Report. To supply these deficiencies, and to present the whole in readable shape to the public, I drew up a careful statement of the principal facts given in evidence, with my own comments thereon, and published it under the title of "State and Prospects of Penny Postage;"[1] and from this I proceed to abstract or extract, as may appear most convenient. The pamphlet, I may add, contained, in an appendix, the whole of the correspondence asked for by Sir Thomas Wilde; including, therefore, the letters refused by the Treasury, but which I had afterwards laid before the Committee in the course of my evidence. The witnesses before the Committee--first, myself, and afterwards the Secretary of the Post Office, the Postmaster-General, and three other functionaries of the department. "The main part of my evidence consisted of written statements, prepared from day to day, and read before the Committee. The Committee proposed this unusual course, and though I saw that it would greatly increase the labour of preparation, yet, as it enabled me to adopt a better arrangement of matter than could have been secured in an examination altogether _vivâ voce_, I readily complied with their desire."[2]