EAST AND SOUTH-EAST 93 



mails, receive a subsidy of twenty-five thousand 

 pounds a year. In the old contract the time allowed 

 for the performance of the outward trip was two hours 

 and five minutes, and for the homeward trip two hours 

 and ten minutes ; under the new contract an hour 

 and three-quarters is allowed in either direction. 



Having regard to the highly important character of 

 the Dover and Calais mail-service, and to the speed 

 at which the new packets, about to be placed on the 

 Holyhead station, will probably cross St. George's 

 Channel, it is not too much to expect that the new 

 century shall scarcely have begun before the English 

 Channel will be habitually crossed in an hour. 



