“Celerity of communication.” If Mr. Hill will refer to page 58 of the Royal Commissioners’ Report, he will see that the average speed of the quickest trains in England (those by which the great mails are conveyed) is 36½ miles an hour; the average for similar trains in France is 31 miles, and in other states of Europe it varies from a minimum of 20 to a maximum of 30. The speed of our fastest trains is stated at page 109, _et seq._
We must also request Mr. Hill to refer to the whole series of Postmaster-Generals’ Reports. Every one of them contains paragraphs under the heading “Accelerations,” but in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth, there are no less than seven and a-half pages devoted exclusively to this one subject. In the Tenth Report (undated, but bearing internal evidence of its being intended for the year 1862), it is stated, “a statement of all the accelerations which have been effected within the last ten years, or even a list of all the places in the United Kingdom which have now an earlier arrival, or a later despatch of letters than were afforded to them in 1854, would show conclusively that the Post Office has, during that period, laboured strenuously and successfully to meet the demands of the public. But such statements would be confusing from the multiplicity of their details.” The Postmaster-General therefore confines himself to alluding “to the acceleration of the Scotch mails, which took place in 1859; to that of the Irish mails, which took place in 1860; and to that of the French mails which also took place in the year 1860.” These accelerations are so great, and bear so importantly upon the correspondence of the whole kingdom, not only _inter se_, but with the whole continent of Europe, that each is very completely and elaborately described. In the report for 1864, the Postmaster-General, in addition to mentioning several important accelerations, refers, in a triumphant tone, to the advantages which have been gained to the public by the adoption of railways for conveyance of mails in various districts both of Scotland and Ireland; and in the report for 1865, equal satisfaction is expressed, because most important accelerations were made in the speed of all the main postal trains throughout Ireland. This part of the report concludes as follows. “Contracts for the general use of all ordinary trains were entered into with the Great Southern and Western, the Dublin and Drogheda, and the Dublin and Belfast Railway Companies; and the contract with the Ulster Railway Company was extended. It was chiefly by means of these contracts that the improvements effected in the mail service in Ireland during 1865, were greater than they had been in any previous year for a considerable time past.”