The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

APPENDIX J. 475
mail service. The right to levy certain fines for irregularity
on condition of paying certain premiums for punctuality.
The right to erect the apparatus for the exchange of bags.
5th. The engagement to be for three years certain, terminable
afterwards by either party on twelve months' notice.
The following table exhibits the amount of debentures issued by
the several companies enumerated, and the average rates of interest
on such debentures, as shown by the last published accounts.* It
also exhibits the sum which each company would save if the whole
of their loans were raised at three and a quarter per cent., and the
amount, according to the latest award, payable by the Post Office
for postal service. A comparison of the two last items shows that if
the Government advanced the whole of the loans, the companies in
question would be considerable gainers, even though they carried the
mails for nothing. Such an arrangement, however, is not contem-
plated, and the comparison is made merely with a view of showing
the capabilities of the plan.
The companies have been selected, not with a view of exhibiting
the results in a favourable light, but simply because they have a
large postal service.
Railway Company.