The Government once again dealt harshly with the Company over the mail contract, requiring them to take over the Admiralty steamers (even though they knew the company had ordered their own). A sequence of threatened withdrawals of co-operation followed; at the same time the C&HR's financial position deteriorated steeply, and the Board seemed to be at loggerheads. In August 1849 the company were promised £100,000 by the LNWR, which was desperately needed, but the LNWR realised they had no powers to make such a loan.