The Sun.
London, England, 1858-04-06 00:00:00

MAIL CONTRACTS AND ADMIRALTY tt.
AGUNTS. c 44 bird bitton

The next foreign mails that will be sorted on
board the mail packets will be the India and China
ones, and it will probably not be long bef re the
mails will ba sorted on board packets running on
all the mail packet lines. The ocean mail contracts
are very elaborate documents, drawn up with the
greatest care, to secure the carrying of foreign mails
as speedily and as safely as possible. These docu-
ments contain engagements on the part of the Go-
vernment to pay heavy subsidies for carrying mails
according to the contracts, and to inflict heavy
penalties on mail packet companies for failing in
their obligations. The ports at which the packets
shall call, the order in which the packet ports are
to be visited, the time for arrival and stoppage at,
and departure from, each port ; the speed par hour
at which the packets must be driven, together with
the extra time allowed in case of accidents or una-

SUN OFFICE, Seven o'Clock.

NEWMARKET RACES—(This Day.)

[BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.]

SUBSCRIPTION PLATE OF 501.

03d Trick
Rosa Boulaeur
Theodora

SWEEPSTAKES OF 50 SOVS. D.M.

Toxopholite

Mentmore

, ...........................».... 2

Pioneer

Four ran.
NEWMARKET HANDICAP.

voidable delays through bad weather, are distinctly

Monarque
Wouvermans
Worcester . ....

_
laid down in the mail' contracts. In every ocean
mail scheme where there is intercolonial or branch

mad service performed, the departures of the main
steamers on the homeward voyage cannot be fixed
to a day. There must be several days' grace allowed
for the branch steamers to arrive at the junction
ports, but in every contract there is a positive rule
that the main steamers must start for home, weather
permitting, as soon as the intercolonial mails are on

Fourteen ran.
RIDDLESWORTH STAKES.
Leontea walked over.
SALE STAKES.

Eclipse
Telegram • ... • 2
Eurydice 3

board.
The subsidies paid for carrying the seaborne
mails are not sufficient for the maintenance of steam
and the latter are consequently
revenue from passengers and
lose many of the former and much
pforbaecliikggheettd,c
botrnuo
tpdtahenefi
iyevse,
of the latter because their ships are unable to wait
for anything but mails. The mail packet compa-
nies, in order to encourage their commanders to
secure as man'y passengers and as much freight as
possible, allow the captains to victual the ships,
or else give them a percentage on the fares
and freight ; and in order to work the packets
as economically as possible, the engineers are paid a
certain sum for every ton of coals they save during
a voyage. Now the natural result of this desire for
as much passenget and cargo traffic, and as l ittle con-
sumption of fuel as possible, is, that all ocean mail
packet companies aim at running their steamers j us t
fast enough to avoid the mail contract penalties,

SWEEPSTAKES OF 50 SOPS
Polly Peach=
RillPgrew
Proud Preston Peg

NEWMARKET HANDICAP.
7 to 1 agat Fadladeen (t)
No other change.

NEWMARKET HANDICAP.—Mary, Messenger, Queen
Be e, Vilikios, Amsterdam, Hobgoblin, Peeping Tom,
and Dividend filly have paid forfeit.
Arrived—Toxopbilite and Miss Whip filly.

LATEST BETTING.
THE NEWMARKET HANDICAP.
6to 1 apt Pavilion (taken)
7 to 1 agat Monarque (olen)
Bto 1 aget Wouvermana (taken)
8 to 1 apt Fadladeen
9 to 1 agst Br. to Bird-on-the-Wing (taken)
10 to 1 aget Worcester (taken)
10 to 1 aget East Langton (taken)
14 to 1 apt Queen of the East (taken)
20 to 1 agst Bel Esperanza (taken)

asd no faster.
In order therefore that the public interests should
be looked after, the Government hashitherto placed
on board every ocean mail packet a naval lieutenant
as Admiralty mail agent. He carries with him a copy
of the mail contract, and sees that it is strictly ad-
hered to. He is the judge as to the safety of the
packets leaving a port when the proper time has
elapsed, and he dictates what shall be done in all
cases of emergency. He sees also that the proper
speed is kept up, that the packets run a proper
course, that their machinery is in good order, and
that they are properly officered and manned, and he
takes care that the packets arrive at their destina-
tion, not only at the contract time, but before if
possible. He has charge of all mails on board, re-
ceives them from, and delivers them to, foreign
postmasters ; and in case of shipwreck, it is his spe-
cial duty to save them if possible. Moreover, he has
to see all British consuls, ambassadors, and admi-
rals at the various foreign packet ports, to deliver
up to, and receive from, them the most important
Government despatches, and to report to the Ad-
miralty the movements of all foreign ships of war
on the high seas. He has a boat and an officer and
boat's crew to attend on him when on mail service
duty, and cne of the staff of Admiralty agents is
promoted every year to the rank of commander as
a good service reward. For obvious reasons, the
mail packet companies have always been desirous
that the services of the Admiralty agents should be
dispensed with. They have offered to let their own
officers receive and deliver the foreign mails, and
thus save Government the pay of the naval lieu-
tenants. They have likewise agreed to submit to a
reduction in the subsidy, provided the agents were
done away with, and now the Government requires
accommodation on board some of the packets for
Post-office clerks. The companies demand for provid-
ing that accommodation that the Admiralty agents
shall he taken out of all the packets. But Post-office
clerks, being civilians, would be totally unable to see
that the mail contracts were carried out. In ship-
wrecks they would have difficulty to save them-
selves, and would be unable to look after mails.
Besides which, the sorting of the mails on board
the packets can at the most, only accelerate the
delivery of letters twenty-four hours, whet eas Ad-
miralty agents cause the packets to arrive home
days before they otherwise would.
Many of the Admiralty agents are first-rate na-
vigators, and have rendered important service to
commanders iu moments of danger and difficulty,
and their rank adds dignity to the mail service
abroad. Only a few months since, while the Ad-
miralty agent was going down the Spanish main
with the mails he heard that Walker and the
American filibusters had landed at Greytown, an I
knowing that they would lay an embargo on the
Costa Rican mail bag, which is sent across the
Isthmus from their landing-place, he cut open the
Greytown bag, took out the letter bag for Costa
Rica, whioh was enclosed in it, and sent the Costa
Rican mail across the Isthmus from Colon, and
thus deprived the filibusters (1 their booty.
When the mail steamer Candia broke down in the
Mediterranean about fifteen months since, the
Admiralty agent was enabled by his rank and in-
fluence to obtain the loan of a steamer from the
Bey of Tunis to carry on the India mails. Some
time since a mail packet struck on a rock, and the
commander was about to back her ; before ho did
so the Admiralty agent insisted upon getting out
his mails. As soon as he got them out the ship
was backed, and sunk-in deep water, and every-
thing on board of her was lost. The mails in the
Griat Liverpool, Erin, Madrid, Tiber, and other
wrecked packets have been saved by the zeal,
judgment, and nautical skill of the Admiralty
agents. The foreign mails are now become of im-
mense value and importance, and for the exigencies
of commerce, they cannot be carried too quickly to
their destination. With Admiralty agents to see
the mail contracts fairly and fully carried out, and
with Post office clerks, travelling the first and last
stages on the mail steam lines to enable the public
in England to post their foreign letters just previ-
ous to the departure of the outward packet, and
to receive their correspondence immediately after
the arrival in England of the homeward packet,
nothing further can be desired, and it is to be
hoped that the Government will not adopt a
penny-wise-and-pound-foolish policy, and in order
to avoid some additional expense, stop short of all
the completeness that is attainable in their foreign
and colonial mail service.—Daily News.

GREAT NORTHERN.
9to 1 agst Bashi Bazouk (taken)

TWO THOUSAND.
4to 1 agst Clydesdale (offered)
sto 1 agst The Peer (offered)
10 to 1 agst 13'rd-on-Wing (taken)
12 to 1 agst Happy Land (taken)
15 to 1 apt Mentnaore (offered)

THE DERBY.
12 to 1 on The Field (offered)
14 to 1 aget Clydesdale Offers to take)
14 to 1 agst Toxopholite (offers to take)
16 to 1 agat Sedbury (taken)
16 to 1 agst Cock-a-doodle-doo (taken)
50 to 1 agat Meutmore (taken)
100 to 1 aget Massaniello (taken)

MANCHESTER BETTING.—MONDAY EVENING.
THE NEWMARKET HANDICAP.
11 to 2 agar Monarque (taken)
13 to 2 agst any other.

SPORTING EXTRAORDINARY.

At half-past 6 a.m., March the 2d, a native on
board the steamer Aden reported that a large tiger
was swimming towards Mazagon from the opposite
shore. Immediately, with the usual promptness
and love of sport inherent in Englishmen, the coal-
man ler ordered a boat's crew to be got ready, and
four officers—Mr. Maundrell, chief officer ; Mr.
Tottenham, third officer ; Mr. Bain, fouith
officer ; and Mr. Newell, clerk in charge--arrived
with guns and proceeded to the capture. No
time was to be lost, as the powerful aniutal
was fast approaching the shore near the
Bunder at Mazagon. About 15 minutes sufficed to
bring the tiger in sight when he was found at-
tempting to board a native boat lying at anchor,
and with fierce roars he was springing at the side
of the bungalow. The natives, who evidently were
in the greatest terror at the view of the monster
who was attempting to beard them, were with cries
making frantic attempts to repel him with sticks,
and when they perceived the Aden's boat coming
up they by gesture and signsbegged them to hasten.
In a few minutes a volley of four muskets from the
Aden's boat made this monster roar and turn round
to repel the attack from the boat. Soon, however,
a fresh volley from the boat caused him to drop his
head in the water, when with a cheer the boat
was brought alongside the carcass of the huge
animal, and he was taken in tow, and soon placed
on board the Aden. He proved to be a male tiger
of the Royal Bengal species, and his dimensions
will show what a formidable creature he would have
proved had he reached the shore, which in a few
minutes he could have done from the spot where he
was captured. The weight of this animal was
3531 b. ; the length from nose to tip of tail
Bft. 9in., of which his tail measured 3ft. ;
circumference round the body 4ft. 3in. ; height
3ft. 9in. He had four tusks, each tin. long, and 24
smaller teeth ; his whiskers were 9in. long ; the cir-
cumference of his head, 2fc. 8 in. ; and to show the
great strength of this animal I need only say that
round his fora leg he measured lft. 8 in., and the
hind leg 21t. He was a noble creature and beau-
tifully striped ; his skin is no way damaged ; as,
like true sportsmen, the officers aimed at, his head,
through which the bullets found their way, so that
when preserved his skin will remain a lasting
memorial of the prompt manner in which he was
pursued and captured, thus saving the inhabitants
of Mazagon and its vicinity the terror it would have
inspired at having so terrible a visitor in their
neighbourhood.—Bombay Telegraph.

Viscount and Viscountess Villiers are among the
English families of rank passing the Easter holidays in
Paris.
The Right Hon. the Speaker and Lady Charlotte
Denison purpose giving a series of grand din' •• parties
shortly a ter their return to town, at their ma oion in
Carlton House-terrace.