The mails conveyed from Great Britain by steam to the quarters
mentioned would in their courses be due:--
London to Halifax, Quebec, and New York, forty-six days; from
Halifax to West Indies, according to the distance of the island
or place; Havannah, twenty-two days; Jamaica, thirty-one days;
Barbadoes, fifty days, &c., &c. London to Rio de Janeiro,
sixty-five days, and Buenos Ayres, fifteen days more; London to
Madeira and Teneriffe, thirty-four days; London to Barbadoes, and
all the West Indies, from Demerara to Havannah, and Chagres
inclusive, sixty-five days, and to Honduras, Vera Cruz, and
Tampico, fifteen days more. If the mails are conveyed by sailing
packets on the four great lines from Fayal, then the time for all
would be fifteen days additional.
Large as the above-mentioned sums are, still the revenues of Great Britain
and Ireland, and their Colonial dependencies in the Western World (p. 047)
(say 55,000,000_l._ yearly), ought to defray the cost without feeling
any embarrassment. The cost, however, is nothing, when compared to the
benefits and the advantages which the nation and individuals would
derive from it. Time saved and actively employed is every thing. It is
capital, which, if not employed at the moment, can never be again
employed--a capital which, if suffered or forced to remain unemployed,
or to escape unemployed, can never again be found or replaced. The
exports of Great Britain amount at the declared value, and including
freights and charges, to 75,000,000_l._ per annum. By employing
steam-packets on even a portion of the present work, instead of
sailing-packets, _fifteen_ days would be gained in every line of
communication. Remittances arriving fifteen days earlier would be a
profit to the commercial interests of the country of 167,793_l._,
independent of the additional advantages which every merchant would
gain when, instead of his funds wandering on the Atlantic, or lying
idle and unproductive on the other side of it, he had these in hand,
to lay out to good account as opportunity might offer. Even Government
itself, from the want of regularity and frequency of transmission,
lose, in their money transactions in the West Indies, above 8000_l._
yearly, and much more in not being able to learn quickly and regularly
the state of the exchanges in the great money marts in the Western
World.
Moreover, the Plan above recommended, conducted judiciously, and
carried into effect to the extent pointed out, would amply repay
either the Government or the individuals who may undertake it.
Travelling would be prodigiously increased. Some of the wealth of
foreign countries would be drawn by it to this country and her
dependencies. Everywhere activity and industry would be encouraged
and increased. The Post-office revenue would be greatly
augmented,--perhaps doubled. The expenditure also would all be on
British materials and labour.
_Cost of the New System and the Present System._
In order to understand the subject fairly, it becomes necessary
to contrast the capital and the expenditure required under the (p. 048)
NEW PLAN with the capital and the expenditure required for the
_Present System_; and also, from data, which, though these in some
points may not be perfectly accurate, are at any rate sufficiently so,
to show the income which may reasonably be expected under the working
of the Plan recommended. Every one practically acquainted with the
subject, with the countries and combinations, with the objects alluded
to and brought forward, will acknowledge the general accuracy of the
data, and the great superiority and advantages in every way, and in
every thing, of the new plan over the present system.