1
AN ABSTRACT
OF THE
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE
OF THE
HOUSE OF COMMONS,
APPOINTED SESSION, 1849,
TO INQUIRE INTO THE CONTRACT PACKET SERVICE;
IN SO FAR AS THE SAME RELATES TO THE
PENINSULAR AND ORIENTAL STEAM
NAVIGATION COMPANY;
WITH AN
INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT AND REMARKS.
Presented to the Court of Directors.
ABSTRACTED AND PRINTED FOR THE INFORMATION OF
THE PROPRIETORS OF THE COMPANY.
November, 1849.
2
As the circumstances connected with the origin and progress of the Peninsularand Oriental Steam Navigation Company, and particularly with itsemployment in the Contract Mail Packet Service, are but imperfectly knownto a great proportion of the present Proprietors; for their better informationit has been deemed advisable by the Directors to authorise the printing andcirculation of the following Statement and Abstract.
References, it will be found, are occasionally made to parts of the proceedingsof the Select Committee of the House of Commons, which have notbeen printed in this pamphlet, because they would have rendered it too bulkyfor convenient perusal. But those who may wish to examine these proceedingsat length, can procure the Parliamentary Blue Book at Hansard’soffices for the sale of Parliamentary Papers.3
AN ABSTRACT,
&c., &c.
In their last Report, presented to the Proprietors atthe general meeting held on the 31st of May last, theDirectors stated that a Committee of the House ofCommons had been appointed, “to inquire into theContract Packet Service;” and expressed “their satisfactionthat such an inquiry had been instituted, feeling,as they did, that as far as the interests of this Companywere concerned, it would have a beneficial tendency, byeliciting facts connected with the origin and progress ofthe Company, and its employment in the Contract MailService, which could not fail to show the importantnational benefits which it has been the means of realising,and its consequent claim to public support.”
It is no doubt known to some Proprietors of theCompany, that for several years past statements havebeen made, and circulated with untiring pertinacity, tothe effect, that the Contracts made by the Governmentwith this Company for the Mail Packet Service had beenobtained through undue favouritism, or corrupt jobbing1—thatfair competition had been denied to other parties,—andthat the Company had, in consequence, obtaineda much larger remuneration for the Service than ought4to have been given, and were deriving enormous profitsfrom it.
Although the Directors were aware that these m