RENEWAL OF THE INDIAN MAIL CONTRACT. GOVBRNMENT took a course
doubly unusual in the negotiation respecting the renewal of the contract for the conveyance of the Indian mails,—first in throwing the service open to renewed com- petition when it had been efficiently performed by the holders of the contract, and then in retracting to accept the offers which were at first slighted. No doubt, the Government can justify the renewal of the contract, by the security which it has for the effi- cient performance of the service in the past conduct of the Com- pany, and by the terms which it has obtained. In 1840, the promoters of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company were invited to send in a plan for the con- veyance of the mails ; their plan was adopted, but its execution was thrown open to public competition ; the Company obtained the contract, by the terms which it offered. The conditions have been fulfilled, the service has been executed ; to the profit of the Company of course, but still more of the public. Twenty-eight vessels, most of them of a large class, have been built, and added to the naval strength of the country ; a special condition requiring that the larger should be fitted for being armed. The crews of these ships number 2,000 persons • and besides that force ship- ping to the amount of some 60,000 tons, with crews of 3,060 per- sons, is employed in the transport of coal for the mail-steamers. One million sterling of capital has been invested in the attainment of these objects.
In May last the service was again thrown open to public ten- der ; and although the Company once more came forward with terms advantageous to the public, the renewal of the contract was placed in considerable doubt. The reason does not appear, but it is to be inferred that the Government was biased in some degree by the common notions in favour of "the lowest tender "; other parties seeking to underbid the Company. The usual respect for "vested interests" wavered before the modern dogma ; and al- though respect for the steady performance of set duties, the mu- tual security conveyed in the conduct of the past, claimed a due recognition by a continuance of confidence, the sunken capital of the Company, its special marine, and its not unnatural reliance on the official faith, were all to be cast away. Such an application of competition is a burlesque on free trade. The sole question ought to have been, whether the terms of the contract were fair or not ; if not, better terms should have been demanded.
Government has retracted, and can justify its inconsistency by the terms of the new contract : but those were the very terms offered by the Company in May.
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