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._
As the circumstances connected with the origin and progress of the
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, and particularly with
its employment in the Contract Mail Packet Service, are but imperfectly
known to a great proportion of the present Proprietors; for their
better information it has been deemed advisable by the Directors to
authorise the printing and circulation of the following Statement and
Abstract.
References, it will be found, are occasionally made to parts of the
proceedings of the Select Committee of the House of Commons, which have
not been printed in this pamphlet, because they would have rendered it
too bulky for convenient perusal. But those who may wish to examine
these proceedings at length, can procure the Parliamentary Blue Book at
Hansard’s offices for the sale of Parliamentary Papers.
AN ABSTRACT,
_&c., &c._
In their last Report, presented to the Proprietors at the general
meeting held on the 31st of May last, the Directors stated that a
Committee of the House of Commons had been appointed, “to inquire
into the Contract Packet Service;” and expressed “their satisfaction
that such an inquiry had been instituted, feeling, as they did, that
as far as the interests of this Company were concerned, it would have
a beneficial tendency, by eliciting facts connected with the origin
and progress of the Company, and its employment in the Contract Mail
Service, which could not fail to show the important national 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 the Company, that for
several years past statements have been made, and circulated with
untiring pertinacity, to the effect, that the Contracts made by the
Government with this Company for the Mail Packet Service had been
obtained through undue favouritism, or corrupt jobbing[1]--that fair
competition had been denied to other parties,--and that the Company
had, in consequence, obtained a much larger remuneration for the
Service than ought to have been given, and were deriving enormous
profits from it.
Although the Directors were aware that these misstatements had obtained
some attention, even in influential quarters, they probably did not
consider it was consistent with the eminent position which the Company
occupies to take any legal proceedings against, or to enter into any
public controversy with, the parties who had been chiefly instrumental
in propagating them.
The forbearance of the Directors has led to a highly satisfactory
result. The continued propagation of these misstatements at last
attracted the attention of a member of the House of Commons so far as
to induce that honourable gentleman to move for a Select Committee to
inquire into the Contract Packet Service.
Although the Committee was moved for and appointed ostensibly to
inquire into the Service generally, its principal object was, as is
sufficiently obvious from its proceedings, to investigate the Contracts
and transactions of the Peninsular and Oriental Company. And the
earlier part of the proceedings of the Committee also show that the
honourable mover and Chairman of it, actuated, no doubt, by a sense
of public duty, entertained, at first, no very friendly views on the
subject in reference to this Company.
The facts elicited in the course of the inquiry, and the glaring
self-contradictions exhibited by the principal witness, when brought to
the test of an examination before the Committee, as well as the hostile
tone adopted by him towards this Company, appear, however, to have
satisfied the honourable gentleman that, while induced to believe that
he was prosecuting a public object, and undertaking a public duty, he
had been made use of, for the mere gratification of private feeling.
And the following two first paragraphs of the Committee’s Report,
which was drafted and proposed by the honourable member himself, are a
sufficient refutation of the misstatements which led to the inquiry.
1. “That so far as the Committee are able to judge, from the evidence
they have taken, it appears that the Mails are conveyed at a less cost
by hired packets than by Her Majesty’s vessels.
2. “That some of the existing Contracts have been put up to public
tender, and some arranged by private negotiation; and that a very
large sum beyond what is received from postage is paid on some of the
lines; but, considering that at the time these Contracts were arranged
the success of these large undertakings was uncertain, your Committee
see no reason to think better terms could have been obtained for the
public.”
As the detached and inconsecutive form in which the evidence of the
different officers of the Government departments was given to the
Committee does not afford a very clear view of the history of the
connexion of this Company with the Contract Packet Service--and, in
particular, does not show the important public advantages which have
been derived from the undertaking of these services by the Company--it
is considered expedient, previously to proceeding with the abstract
of the Committee’s proceedings, to give a brief consecutive statement
of the circumstances under which the various branches of the Contract
Packet Service were undertaken by the Company. And first,
No. I.