THE DOVER Cortmeer. The Committee on Packet and Telegraphic Contracts
has adopted the following brief and telling report on the Dover contract.
" 1. The attention of your committee, during the short time which bas elapsed since they were appointed, has been chiefly directed to the postal packet service for Dover.
" 2. A contract, dated 1st of April, 1854, to continue until 1st of October, 1858, was entered into with Messrs. Jenkings and Chuichward (who bad offered the lowest terms by public tender), for conveying the mails between Dover and Calais and Dover and Ostend.
" 3. An agreement was signed on or about the 20th of June, 1855, sub- stituting for the above contract another, extending the term from the 1st of October, 1858, until the 20th of June, 1863; this extension, which was agreed to by the Admiralty without previous consultation with the Treasury or the Post-office, does not appear, from the evidence laid before this cam:- mittee, to have been made with due care and consideration for the public interest.
" 4. On the 26th of April, 1859, an agreement was entered into, again substituting another contract, further extending the term until the Nth of April, 1870. Your Committee have failed to discover sufficient public grounds to justify this extension, which appears to have been conceded by the Treasury on the recommendation of the Admiralty, but in opposition to the views of the Postmaster-General, and, as appears to the Committee, without sufficient inquiry into the grounds upon which the claim for the extension of the contract was preferred. " 5. It is in evidence before this Committee that Mr. Churchward, one of the contractors, on the eve of the last general election, at the time when the extension of his contract was under consideration at the Treasury, volunteered his support, as an influential elector for Dover, to the Honour- able Captain Carnegie, one of the Lords of the Admiralty, if he should become a candidate for that borough, on the expectation that his contract was to be extended, and expressed his intention, if required, to vote for two Government candidates for Dover ; though the Committee think it right to add that the renewal of the contract had been recommended by the Ad- miralty to the Treasury at least six weeks before the date of the conver- sation referred to, and that it appears to your Committee that the officers with whom the decision of the question rested, that neither the Admiralty nor the Treasury were influenced in granting the renewal of the contract by any corrupt or political motive. Your Committee consider that the conduct of Mr. Murray, the private secretary of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was open to grave censure • but they have not sufficient evidence to show that any member of the Government was cognizant of the conversation between Mr. Murray, Mr. Churchward, and Captain Carnegie. " 6. While most anxious for the fulfilment of all engagements entered into in good faith between the Government and individuals, the Committee sub- mit for the consideration of the House whether Mr. Churchward, in having resorted to corrupt expedients affecting injuriously the character of the representation of the people in Parliament, has not rendered it impossible for the House of Commons, with due regard to its honour and dignity to vote the sums of money necessary to fulfil the agreement to extend *. Churchward's contract from the 20th of June 1863 to the 26th of April 1870.1
"7. Although some evidence has been taken respecting the general mar nagement of the postal packet service, the Committee abstain, in the present incomplete state of their inquiry, from offering any opinion on the subject, beyond the expression of a desire that the important matters referred for their investigation may be again brought under the notice of a Committee at the earliest opportunity.'
COST OF PRINTING PARLIAMENTARY PAPER1L-It appears from a re- turn recently issued that the cost of printing reports and papers pre- sented to Parliament by command of her Majesty during the session of 1858, amounted to 29,731/. 8s. 6d. thus distributed :-War Department, 29831. 68. 7d.' India Board, 21691. 5e. 3d. - Admiralty, 20/. 13.. 411. ; Home Office, 21741. 118. 10d. • Colonial Office, 767/. Os. 6d. ; Treasury, 3283/. 2s. 11d. ; Board of Trade, 6016/. 19s. 10d. • and the Irish Govern- ment, 95411. le. 8d. This sum of 29,7314 8a. bd. is exclusive of the printing ordered by the two Houses, which is, of course, from its volu- minous nature, much more costly than that taken cognisance of in the return.
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