6 JANUARY 1849, Page 13

The contract between the Admiralty and the Peninsular and Oriental

Steam Navigation Company has been definitively renewed, on the terms of the offer made by the Directors. The contract is to last for a period of four years, and afterwards until notice of discontinuance shall be given by either of the contracting parties. The payment for the first year is to be 24,000E, with an abatement of 500/. in each subsequent year, so long as the contract shall continue; a condition which the Directors expect to ful- fil by help of the gradual development of the Company's passenger and commercial traffic; while it is one which will tend to insure the perma- nence of the connexion between the Company and the service.