"In arranging the terms of these contracts, the Government seized

the opportunity of requiring that the vessels should be

constructed in a manner that would render them as serviceable for

national defense in war as steam-packets belonging to the Crown

would have been if employed in their stead. A provision to this

effect was first inserted in the contract with the Royal Mail

Company in 1840; and in most of the existing contracts

stipulations are to be found requiring that the vessel should be

of a construction and strength fit to carry such an armament as

the Admiralty may think proper. In several cases they must be

built of wood and not of iron; and there are some contracts which

confer on the Admiralty the right of taking the ships at a

valuation when it may be thought desirable to do so.

"Generally speaking, these stipulations have been fulfilled, as

appears from a return which has been laid before us by the

Surveyor of the Navy, showing the number, tonnage, and power of

the vessels constructed by the various companies under contract

with the Admiralty for the conveyance of the mails,

distinguishing those built of wood from those built of iron, and

stating whether the companies have in any cases violated the terms

of the contracts, and if so, whether any authority has been given

by the Board of Admiralty for the deviation. It results from this

return that out of 98 vessels which had been surveyed by the

Government officers, one only (the 'Australian') has been reported

as incapable of carrying guns if required, and two iron vessels

(the 'Levantine' and the 'Petrel') have been accepted instead of

wooden vessels, on Mr. Cunard's Halifax and Bermuda line. Two

other vessels--one belonging to the Australian Royal Mail Company,

and the other to Mr. Macgregor Laird's West Coast of Africa

line--had also been accepted (temporarily) by Admiralty authority,

although of less tonnage and power than the contracts prescribed.

"The Surveyor's report upon most of these vessels, as regards

their fitness for war purposes, is in the following terms: 'Not

fitted for armament, but capable of carrying guns when so fitted.'

This report accords with the opinion expressed by the Committee of

Naval and Artillery officers upon the vessels which have come

under their notice. It appears, however, from the statements of

that Committee, that although the packets they have examined are

for the most part of sufficient strength to carry and fire a

certain number of guns, the expense of the alterations which would

be necessary before they could be got ready for service would be

very considerable, and that even when such alterations had been

made, the efficiency of the vessels would be very small in

proportion to their size, and that they could not encounter

hostile vessels of equal tonnage without endangering the honor of

the British flag.

"With reference to future contracts, we are decidedly of opinion

that no expense should be incurred for the sake of imposing

conditions for giving a military character to the postal vessels.

We believe the imposition of such conditions to be a measure of

false economy. _Should a war suddenly break out, the immediate

demand for mail steamers would probably be greater than ever, and

it might be exceedingly inconvenient to withdraw them at such a

time from their legitimate use for the purpose of arming them for

battle._ Moreover, the high charge for the packet service has been

borne with the greater readiness, because it has been supposed by

some to include a provision of large but unknown amount, for the

defense of the country; while on the other hand the Naval

Estimates have sometimes been complained of as excessive, on the

ground that the force provided for was in addition to the large

reserve of postal war steamers. We accordingly recommend that for

the future the contracts for the conveyance of the mails should be

wholly free from stipulations of the nature we have been

describing, though it may be desirable in some cases to retain the

power in the Government to take possession of the vessels in the

event of national emergency."

Again, in the _resume_, after considering each of the British lines

separately, the committee say:

"An erroneous impression appears to have prevailed among the

public as to the efficiency of our postal steamers for direct

purposes of warfare. We do not believe that those who are charged

with the direction of the military affairs of the country have

ever regarded them as likely to be of any great service in an

engagement; but their advantages as an auxiliary force will be

very considerable. They will be available, in the event of the

breaking out of hostilities, for the rapid conveyance of

dispatches, of specie, and, to a certain extent, of troops and

stores. Their speed will be such as probably to secure them from

the risk of capture, and will render them highly valuable for

procuring intelligence of hostile movements. They may also be

expected to furnish the Queen's ships with men trained to

steam-navigation, and possessing an amount of local knowledge

which can not fail to be valuable in several ways."

We have arrived at about the same conclusions in this country as those

presented by the British Post Master General to Parliament in 1853, on

this subject. And yet, with our small navy we may at any time need all

of our steam packets for actual service, and the Government should

always have the right to demand them for transport service. We have

abundant evidence that our mail packets are well fitted for carrying

an armament, and being highly efficient in war duty. The testimony of

Commodore M. C. Perry, Mr. Cunningham, and others, as published in the

Special Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1852, is conclusive on

this point. They found that they were built with extraordinary

strength and of good materials.

Many expedients have been proposed for the transmission of our foreign

mails. It is said that the late Post Master General entertained the

purpose of paying some of the foreign screw lines to carry the mails,

if Congress would permit it; but however all parties disapprove of the

contracted policy proposed by that gentleman, I can not believe that

he entertained any purpose so unpatriotic, and so subversive of

American shipping interests. It is true, however, that, as he

frequently said, he would prefer returning to the old packet system,

and carrying the mails by sail, if private enterprise could not carry

them across the ocean without a subsidy. But it is a consoling

reflection that these singular views of that worthy gentleman never

anywhere took root in Congress. Certainly there is no reason why this

great, and rich, and proud nation should resort, like some little

seventh rate power, to expedients in the carriage of our ocean mails.

We are not so poor as to have to live by practices; not so degraded as

to be willing to catch at any little thing that may pass along for

resources. We have a teeming prosperity, an abundant wealth, unending

resources, and a people everywhere clamorous for liberal expenditures

for adequate mails. Why shall we degrade ourselves by depending upon

others for our mail facilities? It alway humbles and mortifies me to

see one human being lick the hand of another; one who acknowledges

himself a stupid drone that must needs have a master to direct and

protect him. And so with our nation when she stoops to subserviency

and begging, for even so much as the postal charities of other

enterprising and commanding nations.

It has been suggested that the Government could secure the transit of

the mails on the receipts, taking both ocean and inland postage; and

indeed a temporary arrangement was made with two of our contending

companies running to Europe, to transport them on these terms; but

such arrangements are temporary only, and can not be made the basis of

regular action. They would operate most unequally on different lines.

While on the European lines they would pay probably one half the sum

of subsidy required, on many other, and especially on new and untried

lines, they would not at first pay probably one tenth. And granting

that on a given line, the receipts during fifteen years would amount

to as much as the whole subsidy required for that time; yet no company

could live on them, as for the first few years the receipts from the

mail would be very small, while the general income of the line from

passengers and freight would also be smaller than at any other time.

Moreover, almost every steam company has to borrow money largely

during its first years, in anticipation of the larger income from

increased trade during the last years of its existence. Thus, while

the system of the receipts would operate most unequally, the same

aggregate sum given in the form of a regular annual subsidy operates

as an assurance for the company and keeps it alive. But the postal

receipts are not adequate to the support of any ocean line. In the

report before cited, the Committee say, at page 5, that the sum of

subsidy then paid was L822,390 per annum, whereas the postal receipts

were only L443,782, or but a fraction over one half. There is probably

no regular service in the world where the postal receipts would pay

for the transport, especially where competition existed.

In making our contracts common-sense must dictate the lines necessary,

and the general treasury should pay for them. There is no good reason

why the sums of subsidy to be paid for mail transportation should be

chargeable on the Post Office Department. Nor is it really of much

consequence where the account is settled, as the general treasury must

after all meet the bills. It may create some misapprehension as to the

services on which the sums annually voted are bestowed. But the

service, whether sea or inland, is alike incapable of sustaining

itself, and is alike beneficial to every citizen of the Republic. And

as this service so greatly benefits commerce, it is well that it

should be paid from the general revenues of the country; from the

duties which it creates. At any rate, almost every Post Master General

will feel better disposed to subsidize ocean mail steamers adequately

if the bills are payable by the treasury department, and not

chargeable upon his own.

It would be well in all new contracts that the law of Congress

authorizing them should require strength of vessel, a fair dynamic

efficiency of performance, water-tight bulkheads for the safety both

of the vessel, and passengers and mails, and all those other

safeguards compatible with speed and mail efficiency. But the most

essential point is the mode of making the contracts. We have pursued

two system in this country, that of the lowest bidder, and that of

Congressional contracts. Some have supposed that as the land mails are

submitted to the lowest bidder, so those of the ocean ought to be

also. But the cases are very unlike. The land service is a familiar

thing, which every farmer understands, because running a wagon is one

of the first things in life that he learns. Every body is familiar

with the land service, and every body has more or less experimented in

it, or in something very similar to it. But it is far otherwise with

that of the ocean. Steamshipping is a comparatively new, a very

difficult, and a very little understood science. But few who know its

difficulties will undertake its hazards. Steam power and its expenses

are by no means understood by the people; and the first mistake made

by those unacquainted with it is in supposing it much cheaper than it

really is. This mistake leads to fatal consequences in bidding for the

ocean service, as most of those unacquainted with the business would

engage to perform a given service for less than the actual price that

it would cost them, and certainly for much less than practical,

experienced men would. And herein consists one of the evils of the

lowest bidder system, that inexperienced persons taking such contracts

either perform them inefficiently, or appeal constantly to Congress

for relief, or for increase of their pay. Such cases are exceedingly

numerous. Post Master General Campbell said that the lowest bidder

system was "a nuisance." Senator Mallory declared in a debate about

the close of the last Congress, that it was a system which never

wrought efficiently, which never gave final satisfaction, and which

generally brought in a set of adventurers. The department and members

of Congress had experienced the annoyance and inefficiency of the

system in the contract for carrying the mails between Key West and

New-Orleans through the Gulf. It was several times given to the

lowest bidder, and as often fell through; being finally awarded by

private arrangement to other parties, at more than double the prices

of the lowest bidders.

In the elaborate Report made in 1852 to the Senate by Gen. Rusk, as

Chairman of the Committee on the _Post Office and Post Roads_, of

which Messrs. Soule, Hamlin, Upham, and Morton were members, in

speaking on this subject the Committee said:

"Contracts to carry the ocean mail should, like all other

contracts made by the Government, be the subjects of a fair

competition, and granted with reference to the public good, due

regard being had to the excellence of the proposals made, under

all the circumstances of the cases which may present themselves.

Your committee are aware that it has been too much the practice to

regard the _lowest_ as the _cheapest_ bid; but experience has

taught them that _lowness of price_ and _cheapness in the end_,

are not convertible terms, as the daily applications, from _low

bidders_, to Congress for indemnity against losses incurred in the

public service, will amply demonstrate. For examples of the kind

the committee would respectfully refer to the numerous

applications for remuneration, in connection with the public

printing, which have for years past occupied the time and

attention of Congress, and threaten to continue to do so to a most

alarming extent, involving, in the end, an accumulation of expense

infinitely beyond the cost that would have attended the

performance of the work, at a fair and liberal compensation. This

may be, by some, called economy, but it is the very worst sort of

economy. It excludes the honest workman, who knows the real value

of the service to be performed, and is unwilling to undertake to

do his duty well, at the expense of himself and family; while it

lets in the needy and greedy speculator who, having nothing to

lose in point of character or money, will readily undertake what

he can not perform, and become dependent upon the magnanimity of

Congress for remuneration for his losses, real or fictitious. An

honest and fair liberality should characterize the dealings

between the Government and individuals, just as much as those

between private citizens; and, when contracts are made, they

should be entered into in the spirit of good faith, and with a

full knowledge of the risks to be run, and the expenses to be

incurred."

It is claimed on the other hand that in contracts made by Congress the

two Committees have every opportunity of testing the value of the

service to be performed, of ascertaining the sum of subsidy really

necessary to its support, of giving to every applicant a fair and

impartial hearing, and of presenting to Congress any case of doubt

and difficulty, or of contested right. When the committees take any

line into consideration it is in effect inviting competition and

proposals from every one else than the projector who supposes that he

has better claims to it, or can perform the service at cheaper rates.

Such proceedings are always open and advertised to the world for

months and sometimes for years. And there are many persons who will

come forward and make a low bid for a service after some one else has

brought it to the attention of the Government and labored it through

Congress, who would not turn their fingers over, or risk a dollar in

bringing it before the nation, and securing for it a due

consideration. These are the adventurers who never produce any thing

themselves by a legitimate and honest effort, but who alway stand back

to take the chances of wresting from some enterprising, more

far-seeing, and more industrious person the fruits of the toil perhaps

of years. There are many enterprises in which the public have taken no

interest because ignorant of the facts. Some enterprising individual

goes zealously to work, travels thousands and tens of thousands of

miles, ascertains all of the facts bearing upon the question,

determines its feasibility or its impracticability, spends years of

time and toil, and many thousands of dollars of money, indoctrinates

the people of his country with the new and interesting facts, travels,

writes, labors day and night for years, finally secures the attention

of the Government and Congress, and asks a fair and reasonable

compensation for the necessary service which he proposes performing

for the public. He has contended with every species of opposition,

overcome unwonted embarrassments, foiled the machinations of selfish,

interested parties who would through all time mislead the public if

they could but continue a monopoly of trade, and finally succeeded in

getting a bill through Congress for the establishment of the

long-sought line.

This done, he supposes that he is of course to be rewarded for the

effort, the toil, and the expenditure of years, and that he will have

an opportunity of indemnifying himself for his losses and sacrifices.

He hears many beautiful apostrophes to the principles of equal justice

and right which are said to characterize the legislation of his

country, and control the action of the Government; but he is not

prepared to hear that some adventurer has carried off his prize simply

because by chance or by concert he has made his bid one thousand or

ten thousand dollars lower than the prime projector. He becomes

disheartened; finds that the country neither appreciates nor desires

honorable effort and enterprise; that it will not reward the citizen

in his self-sacrificing attempts to benefit the country and himself

together; and that it will look on with careless indifference while

his almost vested, his equitably vested rights, are neglected or

stricken down. This is certainly one of the practical and demoralizing

effects of the lowest bidder system, which respects no rights, however

sacred, simply because based upon a dogma which is technically true.

The system of the lowest bidder is technically correct, but

practically wrong. It can not be carried out in practice without

abandoning equity and honest rights under the plea of technicalities

and the action of chances. It is in reality but a species of gambling,

a miserable lottery, in which those who are most honest and truthful

are invariably sacrificed. It is proper, then that Congress should not

only establish the postal routes, but also determine either

specifically or proximately the compensation to be paid; or leave this

entirely to the discretion and the largest liberty of action of the

Post Master General. Responsibility must attach somewhere if justice

is obtained. With the lowest bidder system it rests and operates

nowhere; and the most important operations of the Government are taken

out of the hands of a wise public functionary and the intelligent

legislators of the country, and put into a great wheel of fortune,

where the proper person has, probably, but one chance in a hundred.

This although true in every case of contract, is eminently so in cases

of untried lines, where the experiment is to be made, and where it is

generally necessary that an individual shall have spent years in

bringing it to light.

I come to the conclusion, therefore, that the Government can discharge

the clear and unquestionable duty of affording liberal mail facilities

to the people, only by establishing all of the lines which the

commerce and convenience of the country and the Government require; by

maintaining them as a fixed policy of the country from generation to

generation; by encouraging enterprising companies to continue

well-performed services, and enterprising citizens to open new avenues

of trade and wealth; and by paying for the same from the general

treasury of the people, and from the revenues which these postal

facilities, more than any other series of influences, conspire to

produce and to conserve. (_See Report of Lord Canning, Section IX.:

also Report of Gen. Rusk, Paper E: also remarks of Hon. Edwin

Croswell, Paper E._)

SECTION IX.

THE BRITISH SYSTEM, AND ITS RESULTS.

STEAM MAIL SYSTEM INAUGURATED AS THE PROMOTER OF WEALTH, POWER,

AND CIVILIZATION: THE EFFECT OF THE SYSTEM ON COMMERCE: THE LONG

PERIOD DESIGNATED FOR THE EXPERIMENT: NEW LINES, WHEN, HOW, AND

WHY ESTABLISHED: THE WORKINGS OF THE SYSTEM: FIRST CONTRACT MADE

IN 1833, LIVERPOOL AND ISLE OF MAN: WITH ROTTERDAM IN 1834:

FALMOUTH AND GIBRALTAR, 1837; ABERDEEN, SHETLAND, AND ORKNEYS,

1840: THE "SAVANNAH," THE FIRST OCEAN STEAMER: THE SIRIUS AND

GREAT WESTERN: CUNARD CONTRACT MADE IN 1839: EXTRA PAY "WITHIN

CERTAIN LIMITS:" MALTA, ALEXANDRIA, SUEZ, EAST-INDIES, AND CHINA

IN 1840: THE PENINSULAR AND ORIENTAL COMPANY: WEST-INDIA SERVICE

ESTABLISHED IN 1840: POINTS TOUCHED AT: PROVISIONAL EXTRA PAY:

PANAMA AND VALPARAISO LINE ESTABLISHED IN 1845: HOLYHEAD AND

KINGSTON IN 1848: ALSO THE CHANNEL ISLANDS: WEST COAST OF AFRICA

AND CAPE OF GOOD HOPE IN 1852: CALCUTTA VIA THE CAPE IN 1852, AND

ABANDONED: PLYMOUTH, SYDNEY, AND NEW SOUTH WALES ALSO IN 1852, AND

ABANDONED: INVESTIGATION OF 1851 AND 1853, AND NEW AUSTRALIAN

CONTRACT IN 1856: HALIFAX, NEWFOUNDLAND, BERMUDA, AND ST. THOMAS

IN 1850: NEW-YORK AND BERMUDA SOON DISCONTINUED: COMPARISON OF

BRITISH AND AMERICAN SUBSIDIES, RATES PER MILE, TOTAL DISTANCES,

AND POSTAL INCOME: THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT PAYS HIGHER SUBSIDIES

THAN THE AMERICAN: WORKINGS AND INCREASE OF THE BRITISH SERVICE:

GEN. RUSK'S VIEWS: SPEECH OF HON. T. B. KING: COMMITTEE OF

INVESTIGATION, 1849: NEW INVESTIGATION ORDERED IN 1853, AND

INSTRUCTIONS: LORD CANNING'S REPORT AND ITS RECOMMENDATIONS: GREAT

BRITAIN WILL NOT ABANDON HER MAIL SYSTEM: THE NEW AUSTRALIAN

LINE: TESTIMONY OF ATHERTON AND MURRAY: MANY EXTRACTS FROM THE

REPORT: STEAM INDISPENSABLE: NOT SELF-SUPPORTING: THE MAIL

RECEIPTS WILL NOT PAY FOR IT: RESULT OF THE WHOLE SYSTEM: ANOTHER

NEW SERVICE TO INDIA AND CHINA: SHALL WE RUN THE POSTAL AND

COMMERCIAL RACE WITH GREAT BRITAIN? CANADA AND THE INDIES.

It is admitted that it is the clear and unquestionable duty of the

Government to establish ample foreign mail facilities for the nation,

and that the only means of accomplishing this is by guaranteeing a

liberal allowance for a long term of years for the transport of the

mails, and paying for the same from the general treasury of the

country. We will, therefore, now examine the British ocean steam mail

system, and shall see that the practice of that great nation fully

corroborates and sustains the views which have been advanced in the

preceding chapters.

The steamship policy of that nation has not been treated as a matter

of slight or secondary importance. British statesmen from the earliest

days of the development of marine steam power saw the influence which

it was likely to exert in the revolutions of commerce and the control

of the nations of the world, and determined, with the sagacious

foresight and the firm, fixed purpose for which they are

distinguished, that it should be at once inaugurated as the great

instrument of individual wealth and national power. They properly

conceived that the nation which used this transforming agent most

freely in commerce, defenses and diplomacy would unquestionably exert

a high controlling influence over the nations of the earth, and make

every land tributary to its wealth and power. The end justifies the

effort, and the few temporary sacrifices and insignificant

expenditures which have been made. The British nation launched at once

into an extended foreign mail system which has been twenty years

maturing and untouched, and which, on a small annual expenditure, has

given it the profitable control of every trade and every market on the

face of the globe. It was wisely conceded that a long period would be

necessary to make the great experiment of marine steam mails, and that

term was granted in the outset. When the first term of twelve years

had ended, the contracts were renewed for another term of twelve

years, in every instance with the companies first authorized, and the

sums of subsidy were in every case increased. Not only thus. New lines

were established all along the course of these experiments, in a quiet

executive way, without agitation, without lobbying, without

corruption, just as the Post Master General would put some short and

necessary land route into operation. The last of these lines

established was that in 1856, between Southampton and Australia for

seven years, at an annual subsidy of L185,000, or $925,000. And this

line was established, not because there was no postal communication;

for the Government already had a semi-monthly line to China, India,

and Australia, and another around Africa; but because the increased

demands of British trade, and convenience to the British public, made

it necessary.

During all of this time the system has operated with unbroken

regularity. Established on a great general principle, as well as the

highest possible expediency, it has been regarded as a fixed policy of

the Government and the people, and has been suffered to do its

excellent work quietly and undisturbed. The legislation introducing it

was not an accident. It was not a spasm of generosity to the people;

but it was a fixed purpose of the British public; the wise and only

adequate means adapted to accomplish an important, an indispensable

end. The first contract for carrying the mails in steamers, was made

by the Post Master General in 1833, with the "Mona Isle Steam

Company," to run semi-weekly between Liverpool and the Isle of Man at

L850 per annum. This Company has run the line ever since, a period of

twenty-four years, and at the same price per annum. After this, a

contract was made in 1834 with the "General Steam Navigation Company,"

for the semi-weekly conveyance of the mails between London and

Rotterdam, and London and Hamburg, at L17,000 per year. The contract

was not annulled until 1853, nineteen years, when it was found best to

send the mail by a new route; that is, to Ostend, and over the

railways of Belgium. The first contract for a long voyage was made

with Richard Bourne, in 1837, to convey the mails weekly from Falmouth

to Vigo, O Porto, Lisbon, Cadiz, and Gibraltar, for L29,600 per annum.

The contract was transferred in 1843 to the "Peninsular and Oriental

Company," Southampton was substituted for Falmouth, the weekly trips

were changed to three per month, and the subsidy was reduced

accordingly, or to L20,500 per annum. The service has been performed

on these terms ever since. The Aberdeen and Shetland contract was made

in 1840, at L900 per year, after a failure to run on L600, by a

previous arrangement. It now continues as then made.

It is known that the first passage across the Atlantic was made in the

American steamer "Savannah," which left Savannah, Georgia, on the 25th

May, 1819, and at the end of twenty-two days arrived in Liverpool,

steaming only fourteen days of the time. The Savannah was only 350

tons tonnage, and had an engine of ninety horses' power. Captain Moses

Rogers was her commander. The "Sirius" arrived in New-York on the 23d

of April, 1838. The steamer "Great Western" next followed, in the same

year. And although this was only nineteen years ago, it is instructive

to notice the observations which the _London Times_ made at that day.

That journal said, March 31, 1838:

"There is really no mistake in this long-talked of project of

navigating the Atlantic ocean by steam. There is no doubt of the

intention to make the attempt, and to give the experiment, as such, a

fair trial. The Sirius is actually getting under way for America."

On the 4th of July, 1839, the British Government entered into a

contract with Samuel Cunard of Halifax for a semi-monthly mail line

between Liverpool, and Halifax, and Boston, at the sum of L60,000 or

$300,000 per annum. That contract inaugurated a new era in our

American commerce with the old world, and gave an impulse to those

international interests and those commercial amities which have bound

Great Britain and the United States in the bonds of enduring

friendship and mutual, neighborly dependence. Boston soon proved

inadequate to the support of the entire line, and half of the steamers

were sent to New-York; and thus they continue to run to this day. It

is a singular fact that since that contract was made, eighteen years

ago, there has never been one transatlantic steamer except those of

Mr. Cunard running to or from that port. This contract was renewed

with Mr. Cunard in 1850, when weekly trips were required for the

greater portion of the year, and the subsidy was advanced, not in the

ratio of the service, which was only doubled, but as three to one,

from L60,000 to L173,340, or from $300,000 to $866,700. The experience

of twelve years had demonstrated both the necessity of continuing the

line, and of increasing the subsidy which the Government paid, to such

a sum as would secure good steamers, regularity of trips, and

efficiency of service. The Company now has nine steamers, with 18,406

tons aggregate tonnage, and 6,418 horses' power. The contract, which

is to continue for twelve years, until 1862, was so altered in 1852 as

to provide for a weekly service as well in winter as in summer; and it

will continue in force from 1862 until twelve months after notice may

be given for the discontinuance of the line. The compensation for the

same is at the rate of 11_s_ 4-1/2_d_ per mile. Lord Canning's Report

to Parliament in 1853, before noticed, in particularizing on this

line, said:

"An additional allowance, _within certain limits_, is to be made to

the contractors in the event of an increase in the rate of insurance

on steam vessels, or in the freight or insurance of coals, as compared

with the rates payable at the date of the contract, if proved to the

satisfaction of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty."

Thus, instead of abandoning this line after an experiment of twelve

years, and finding that it could never be self-supporting, the British

Government wisely determined to let their policy produce its full

fruits, and continued it for another similar term of years, with three

times the former subsidy, for only twice the old service. (_See

Collins and Cunard Lines, Sec. X._)

A contract was made in 1840 for steam to Malta, Corfu, and Alexandria,

and the service was extended in 1845 to Suez, Bombay, Ceylon,

Calcutta, Hong Kong, and Shanghae. It was renewed again in 1853,

terminable in 1862, or after twelve months' notice, with a service

between Sydney and Singapore, with the "Peninsular and Oriental

Company;" and the subsidy for the whole service was increased from

L199,600 or $998,000 per annum, to $1,224,000 per annum. The Company

have thirty-nine vessels of 48,835 tons, and 12,850 horses' power, and

run 796,637 annually, at 6_s_ 1-3/4_d_ per mile. The steamers run the

whole service of 796,637 miles annually, at this low rate because much

of the service is confined to the Mediterranean, as for example, their

line from Southampton to Vigo, O Porto, Lisbon, Cadiz, and Gibraltar;

and also that between Marseilles and Malta. This is but like the

coasting trade at the utmost, and is not ocean navigation proper.

Before the contract was renewed the same company got for the service

between Hong Kong and Ceylon, 12_s_ 7_d_ per mile, and for that

between Suez and Calcutta, L1, 0_s_ 1-1/2_d_ per mile.

The contract with the "West-India Royal Mail Packet Company" was made

in 1840 for a semi-monthly service to the West-Indies, Central

America, and Mexico, at L240,000, and for 547,296 nautical miles per

annum. The contract was renewed on the same terms in 1846, and again

in 1850, when the Brazil service was added, and the subsidy increased

to L270,000 or $1,350,000 per annum, for twelve years, or until 1862,

and one year after notice shall have been given. The length of the

routes now run by the Company is 37,000 nautical miles, with

thirty-four stopping places. The West-India service of 393,432 miles,

is performed at the rate of 10_s_ 10-1/2_d_ per mile, under special

contract; no advertisement ever having been made for tenders. The

Brazilian portion of the service embraces 153,864 miles annually. Pay

per mile for the whole Royal Mail service is 9_s_ 10_d_ per mile. This

Company has twenty steamers, of 29,454 tons, and 9,308 horses' power.

On the Brazil portion of the service the touches are at Lisbon,

Madeira, Teneriffe, St. Vincent, Pernambuco, Bahia, Rio de Janiero,

Monte Video, and Buenos Ayres. On the West-India division, St. Thomas

is the central depot, after touching at the Azores. Ten branch lines

radiate from St. Thomas to Antigua, Barbados, Blewfields, Carriacou,

Carthagena, Aspinwall, (which they call Colon,) Demarara, Dominica,

Grenada, Greytown, Gaudaloupe, Havanna, Honduras, Jacmel, Jamaica,

Martinique, Porto Rico, St. Kitt's, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Santa

Martha, Tampico, Tobago, Trinidad, and Vera Cruz. Lord Canning says:

"It is stipulated that if at any time, from causes recognized by the

Lords of the Treasury as being of a 'distinctly public and national

character,' the insurance on steam vessels shall rise above 6_l_ 6_s_

per cent., the freight of coals above 1_l_ 2_s_ 6_d_ per ton, and the

insurance on coals above 2_l_ 2_s_ per cent., the Company shall

receive an additional sum, to be settled by arbitration, but not to

exceed 75,000_l_ a year in the whole."

The special contract for the West Coast of South-America, with the

"Pacific Steam Navigation Company," for three round trips per month

between Panama and Valparaiso, touching at Buenaventura, Guayaquil,

Payta, Lambayeque, Huanchaco, Santa, Pisco, Islay, Arica, Iquique,

Cobija, Copiapo, Huasco, and Coquimbo, was made in 1845, at L20,000,

or $100,000 per annum, for five years. It was renewed in 1850 for ten

years; and hence, expires in 1860, if notice may be given to that

effect; the trips being only semi-monthly, and the subsidy increased

to L25,000 per annum. The Company has seven steamers, of 5,719 tons,

and 2,396 horses' power. (_See List of British Mail Lines, Paper B,

page 193._)

The contract for running fast packets between Holyhead and Kingston,

in Ireland, was made in 1848 with the "City of Dublin Steam Packet

Company," for L25,000 per annum, and is terminable at twelve months'

notice after 1860. The line is run twice every day. The service to the

Channel islands, from Southampton to Jersey and Guernsey, was

established in 1848, at L4,000 per annum, for three trips per week.

That of the West Coast of Africa was established in 1852, at L21,250

per annum. Leaving Plymouth, the steamers touch at Madeira, Teneriffe,

Goree, Bathurst, Sierra Leone, Monrovia, Cape Coast Castle, Accra,

Whydah, Badagry, Lagos, Bonny, Old Calabar, Cameroon, and Fernando Po.

This contract was made with the "African Steamship Company," for a

monthly service, and terminates in 1862 if twelve months' notice be

given. There must be three steamers of 700 tons each, and the pay is,

for 149,880 miles annually, at 2_s_ 6_d_ per mile. The contract with

the "General Screw Steamshipping Company," for service semi-monthly

from Plymouth to the Cape of Good Hope and Calcutta, touching on the

return voyage at St. Vincent, Ascension, Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius,

Point de Galle, Madras, and St. Helena, for L50,000 per year, to be

reduced after two years to L40,000 annually, and that to the Cape of

Good Hope and Port Natal, touching at Mossel and Algoa bays, Buffalo,

and Port Francis, for L3,000 per annum, with the same Company, were

both made in 1852; but the service was found impracticable on the

terms, and was abandoned. That from Plymouth every two months to

Sydney and New South Wales, with the "Australian Royal Mail Steam

Navigation Co.," for L26,000 per annum, and touching at St. Vincent,

Simon's Bay, or Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope, King George Sound, Port

Philip, and St. Helena, was made also in 1852; but was likewise soon

abandoned, as the subsidy in each case was too small.

About this time the Chancellor of the Exchequer requested a thorough

investigation into the foreign steam packet system. This was made in

the most searching manner in 1853; and such was the effect that it was

determined not only to sustain all of the existing lines in all of

their integrity, but to extend the system and afford additional

facilities to British commerce and the British people. Accordingly, a

new contract was made last year, 1856, with the "European and

Australian Mail Steam Packet Company" for a monthly service between

Southampton, Marseilles, Malta, Alexandria, Suez, and Sydney, at an

annual subsidy of L185,000, or $925,000. The Company has seven

steamers of 13,410 tons, and 3,290 horses' power. They run 336,000

miles per annum, and receive 11_s_ per mile from the Government. It

must be borne in mind, too, that when this line was established there

were already two lines to the East-Indies and China, and one to

Australia. This makes two to Australia, and three to the East

generally.

There is also a contract, made in 1850 with Mr. Cunard, for running

monthly between Halifax and Newfoundland, and Halifax, Bermuda, and

New-York, as well as between New-York and Bermuda and St. Thomas.

New-York was soon dropped from the list, doubtless because the British

steamers yielded us more advantage than was gained by the mother

country or the Provinces, and the line is now continued, at the

original compensation, L14,700, or $73,500, between Halifax and

Newfoundland, and Halifax, Bermuda, and St. Thomas, connecting with

the Cunard steamers. The steamers are small coasters, and run at the

rate of 3_s_ per mile. Hence, they make 98,000 miles per annum.

The ocean mail steamers of Great Britain run 2,532,231 miles per year,

at a total cost to the Admiralty of L1,062,797, or $5,333,985. The

ocean mail steamers of the United States run 735,732 miles per year,

at a total charge on the Post Office Department of $1,329,733. The

British steamers run three and a half times as many miles as ours do,

and receive for it a sum more than four times as large. The average

price paid to their principal companies, as the West-India Royal Mail,

the Cunard, the Australian, and the Peninsular and Oriental, including

its Mediterranean coasting service, is 9_s_ 7_d_, or $2.39 per mile;

while the average price paid by us, or for the Collins, Havre, Bremen,

Aspinwall, and Panama, San Francisco and Oregon, is $1.80-3/4 per

mile. The highest sum paid per mile by the British Government is 11_s_

4-1/4_d_, or $2.83-1/2, to the Cunard Company, $2.75 to the

Australian, and $2.46 to the West-India; and the lowest, 6_s_

1-3/4_d_, or $1.53-1/2 to the Peninsular and Oriental, much of whose

service is coasting. This is saying nothing of the Pacific and the

African coasting lines. The highest sum which we pay is to the Collins

line, $3.10-1/2 per mile; and the lowest to the Havre, $1.00-1/2 per

mile; while the sums paid to all of the other companies range but

little above the last figures. The lowest rate per mile paid to any of

the lines under the contract, was to the Pacific Mail, $1.70. It must

not be forgotten that the low rates per mile of the Havre and Bremen

result from those lines taking the postages, since their contracts

expired; a sum by no means adjusted to the service done. They had

ships that they could not let lie idle. Under their regular contracts

the pay per mile of the Bremen line was $2.08, and of the Havre

$1.76-1/2. While the British Government pays to four of her principal

transmarine services an average of $2.39 per mile, we pay to five of

ours an average of $1.80-3/4 only, or but about two thirds as much as

she does. While our total annual expenditure for foreign mails is

$1,329,733, a sum by $20,267 less than that paid to the single service

of the West-India Royal Mail Company, that of Great Britain is

$5,333,985. And, while our total income from transmarine postages is

$1,035,740, a sum but little short of that paid in subsidy, taking the

present Bremen and Havre services at the estimates of last year for

sea and inland postages combined, the income from the whole

transmarine service of Great Britain, including ocean and inland

postage, was, when the last report was made in 1853, L591,573, or

$2,957,865; but little above half the sum paid in subsidy, and

including the French, Belgian, and Dutch routes, where the postal

yield was much greater than from the ocean lines. The estimates which

I present below have been made with great care from distances and

subsidies furnished me by the reliable First Assistant Post Master

General, Hon. Horatio King, from the last report of the late Post

Master General, and from the report of the British Post Master

General, Lord Canning, before noticed. Every item is consequently

authentic.

AMERICAN.

----------+------+----------+----------+----------+-------+------------------

| | | | Gross | Total |

Line. |Trips.|Distances.| Subsidy. | Postage. | Miles | Pay per Mile.

----------+------+----------+----------+----------+-------+------------------

Collins, | 20| 3,100| $385,000| $415,867|124,000| $3.10-1/2

Bremen, | 13| 3,700| 128,987| 128,937| 96,000| 1.34

Havre, | 13| 3,270| 88,484| 88,484| 85,020| 1.00-1/2

Aspinwall,| 24| 3,200| 290,000| 139,610|153,600| 1.88-3/4

Pacific, | 24| 4,200| 348,250| 183,238|201,600| 1.70

Havana, | 24| 669| 60,000| 6,288| 32,112| 1.86-1/2

Vera Cruz,| 24| 900| 29,062| 5,960| 43,200| .67

| | |==========|==========|=======|==================

| | |$1,329,733|$1,035,740|725,732|$1.80-3/4 Average.

----------+------+----------+----------+----------+-------+------------------

Total average per mile, $1.80-3/4. Average of five principal lines, $1.80-3/4.

BRITISH.

KEY:

A: Cunard,

B: Royal Mail,

C: Pen. and Oriental,

D: Australian,

E: Bermuda and St. Thomas,

F: Panama and Valparaiso,

G: West Coast Africa,

H: Channel Islands,

I: Holyhead and Kingston,

J: Liv. and Isle of Man,

K: Shetland and Orkneys,

-----+------+----------+----------+------------+---------+--------------------

| | | | Gross | Total |

Line.|Trips.|Distances.| Subsidy. | Postage. | Miles | Pay per Mile.

-----+------+----------+----------+------------+---------+--------------------

A | 52| 3,100| L173,340|L143,667.10s| 304,000|11s 4-1/2d $2.38-1/2

B | 24| 11,402| 270,000| 106,905.00 | 547,296| 9s10 $2.46

C | 24| [F]| 244,000| 178,186.11 | 796,637| 6s 1-3/4 $1.53-1/2

D | 12| 14,000| 185,000| 33,281.12 | 336,000|11s00 $2.75

E | 24| 2,042| 14,700| | 98,000| 3s00 $0.75

F | 24| 2,718| 25,000| 5,715.00 | 130,434| 3s10 $0.96

G | 12| 6,245| 23,250| 3,196.02 | 149,880| 2s 6 $0.62-1/2

| | | | French | |

| | | | Belgian, | |

| | | | and Dutch | |

| | | | Postage. | |

H | 156| 132| | {74,430.08 | 41,184|

I | 730| 64| | {36,158.09 | 93,440|

J | 112| 70| | {10,032.15 | 14,560|

K | 52| 200| | | 20,800|

| | |==========|============|=========|====================

| | |L1,062,797|L591,573.07s|2,532,231| 9s 7d $2.39

-----+------+----------+----------+------------+---------+--------------------

Total Average per Mile, $2.10-1/3. Average of four principal lines, $2.39.

[F] The Peninsular and Oriental Company run twice per month between

Southampton and Alexandria, and between Suez and Calcutta and Hong

Kong; twice per month between Marseilles and Malta; between Singapore

and Sydney every two months; and three times per month between

Southampton and Gibraltar, touching at Vigo, O Porto, Lisbon, and

Cadiz.

It would hardly be expected that the lines of this country should run

at cheaper rates than those of Great Britain, as the prime cost of

ships and their repairs, fuel, wages, insurance, etc., are much

cheaper there, and as they have more paying freights, in their

manufactured goods. It only explains to us, what has alway seemed a

mystery; that while the regular companies in England were making

money, nearly all of those in the United States not only had not made

money, but were embarrassed more or less, and were selling their

stocks at sixty to eighty cents on the dollar.

It is pleasing and instructive to examine the steam mail service of

Great Britain, and see the gradual, unfaltering progress that she has

made from year to year, since 1833; increasing the mail facilities and

the sums paid for them by constant accretion based on system, rather

than by any spasmodic legislation, or the ruling caprices of the

moment. These improvements have not come all in a mass, or in any one

year. Neither have they been abandoned at times of financial

embarrassment, or commercial depression. At such periods they have

been as regularly fostered as in the times of the most flush

prosperity; and have ever been properly considered one of the prime

agents and necessities for restoring commerce to its normal condition

and a safe equilibrium. The transmarine service, which cost but

L583,793, or $2,918,965, per annum until 1850,[G] now costs

L1,062,797, or $5,333,985; within a fraction of double the sum. While

the increase has not been slow, it has been steady and systematic,

just as it was necessary to meet the wants of British commerce

throughout the world. The language of the Hon. Senator Rusk on this

subject, in his Report made to the Senate, Sep. 18th, 1850, found in

Senate Ex. Doc. No. 50, 1st Session of 32d Congress, in Special Rep.

Secretary of the Navy, 1852, is forcible and worthy of remembrance. He

says:

[G] See Second Report, Steam Communication with India, 1851. Appendix,

page 419.

"The importance of the steam mail service, when considered with

reference to the convenience which it affords to the social

intercourse of the country, is as nothing when compared with its

vast bearing upon the commerce of the world. Wherever facilities

of rapid travel exist, trade will be found with its attendant

wealth. Of the truth of this proposition, no country, perhaps,

affords a more forcible illustration than Great Britain, as none

has ever availed itself, to so great an extent, of the benefits of

easy and rapid intercommunication between the various portions of

her almost boundless empire. The commercial history of England has

shown that mail facilities have uniformly gone hand in hand with

the extension of trade; and wherever British subjects are found

forming communities, there do we find the hand of the government

busy in supplying the means of easy and safe communication with

the mother country. With a view to this, we have beheld England

increasing her steam marine at an enormous expense, and sustaining

packet lines connecting with every quarter of the globe, even in

cases where any _immediate_ and _direct_ remuneration was out of

the question. The great object in view was, to draw together the

portions of an empire upon which the sun never sets, and the

martial airs of which encircle the globe, and to make British

subjects who dwell in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and even

Oceanica, all feel alike that they are Britons."

The Hon. Thomas Butler King, formerly Chairman of the Naval Committee,

in a speech in the House, 19th July, 1848, said on this subject:

"In the year 1840 a contract was made by the Admiralty with the

Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, at two hundred and forty thousand

pounds sterling, or one million two hundred thousand dollars per

annum, for fourteen steamers to carry the mails from Southampton

to the West-Indies, the ports of Mexico in the Gulf, and to

New-Orleans, Mobile, Savannah, and Charleston. These ships are of

the largest class, and are to conform in all respects, concerning

size and adaptation to the purposes of war, to the conditions

prescribed in the Cunard contracts. They are to make twenty-four

voyages or forty-eight trips a year, leaving and returning to

Southampton semi-monthly.

"Another contract has recently been entered into, as I am

informed, for two ships to run between Bermuda and New-York. The

West-India line, in consequence of some disasters during the first

years of its service, was relieved from touching at the ports of

the United States; but in the spring of last year it was required

to resume its communication with New-Orleans, and is at any time

liable to be required to touch at the other ports on our coast

which I have named. Thus it will be perceived that this system of

mail steam-packet service is so arranged as not only to

communicate with Canada and the West-Indies, the ports on the

Spanish Main and the Gulf coast of Mexico, but also to touch at

every important port in the United States, from Boston to

New-Orleans.

"These three lines employ twenty-five steamers of the largest and

most efficient description, where familiarity with our seaports

and the whole extent of our coast would render them the most

formidable enemies in time of war. It is scarcely possible to

imagine a system more skillfully devised to bring down upon us, at

any given point, and at any unexpected moment, the whole force of

British power. More especially is this true with respect to our

_southern_ coast, where the great number of accessible and

unprotected harbors, both on the Atlantic and the Gulf, would

render such incursions comparatively safe to them, and terrible to

us. And when we reflect that the design of this system is, that it

shall draw the means of its support from our own commerce and

intercourse, we should surely have been wanting in the duty we

owed to ourselves and to our country, if we had failed to adopt

measures towards the establishment of such an American system of

Atlantic steam navigation as would compete successfully with it."

Previous to the renewal of the several foreign mail contracts, in

1850, the Treasury ordered, 26th April, 1849, the formation of a

Committee in these words: "_Ordered_, that a Select Committee be

appointed to inquire into the CONTRACT PACKET SERVICE." That Committee

was composed of Sir James Hogg, Mr. Cardwell, Sir Wm. Clay, Mr.

Cowper, Mr. Alderman Thompson, Mr. Fitz Roy, Mr. Hastie, Mr. Mangles,

Mr. Thomas Baring, Mr. Bankes, Mr. William Brown, Mr. Childers, Mr.

Wilcox, Mr. Crogan, and Mr. Henley. Mr. Elliot was added in the place

of Mr. Baring. The Committee sat seventeen days, and examined fifteen

witnesses under oath, many of these being commanders in the Navy,

Secretaries, Presidents, and engineers of the Companies, and other

eminent men in steam. Mr. Cunard was among the witnesses. After taking

evidence and papers extending over about seven hundred and

eighty-three octavo pages, they said in their report, after

recommending that great care should be exercised in making all future

contracts:

"1. That so far as the Committee are able to judge, from the evidence

they have taken, it appears that the mails are conveyed at a less cost

by Hired Packets than by Her Majesty's Vessels.

"2. That some of the existing Contracts have been put up to public

tender, and some arranged by private negotiation; and that a very

large sum beyond what is received from postage is paid on some of the

lines; but considering that at the time these contracts were arranged

the success of these large undertakings was uncertain, Your Committee

see no reason to think that better terms could have been obtained for

the public."

This investigation was made to enable the Government to proceed

intelligently with the many contracts which were to expire in 1850;

and its immediate consequence was, not only the renewal of all the old

contracts with the same parties at the same or larger pay, but the

establishment of several new services.

The British system had operated to the very highest satisfaction of

the public and the Government for twenty years, until 1853, as it has

done ever since; but at that time it was put to a second and very

severe test. It had been suggested, probably by the Lords of the

Admiralty, who had to pay the bills from the Naval fund, that the

packet system was too costly, and should be remodelled, and perhaps

reduced. Complaint was thus made to the Chancellor of the Exchequer,

who, in a Treasury Minute, dated March 1, 1853, says:

"Important as it is to secure rapid and certain communication with

the remote dependencies of this country, and with other distant

states, for national purposes, it is doubtless, under all common

circumstances, from commercial considerations that such facility

of correspondence derives its highest value."

"Her Majesty's Government conceive the time to have arrived when

the entire charge of the packet service should be deliberately

examined and reviewed, with joint reference to the questions--how

far the purposes with which the present system was begun have been

accomplished--how far the total amount of service rendered to the

State is adequate to the total annual expense--how far there may

be cause for a more than commonly jealous and scrupulous

consideration of such further schemes of extension of the system

as particular interests or parties may press, or even such as

public objects may recommend from time to time; lastly, how far,

on account of the early period at which certain of the contracts

are terminable, or on account of requisitions put in by the

contractors themselves for the modification of the terms, or for

any other reason, it may be prudent to entertain the question of

any revision of those terms, or of laying down any prospective

rules with regard to them; such only, of course, as may comport

with the equitable as well as the legal rights of the parties, and

may avoid any disappointment to the just expectations of those

classes who may have felt a peculiar interest in the establishment

and extension of these great lines of communication."

After remarking that some of the vessels of some few Companies were

unfit for purposes of war, the "Minute of the Treasury," in

instructing the Committee, further says:

"At the same time, it is not to be conceived that, on account of

this failure in a portion of the design, the country has cause to

regret having paid a larger price than was intended to be paid

simply for the establishment of these noble chains of

communication, which well nigh embrace the world. The organization

of a complete postal system upon the ocean, with absolute fixity

of departures, and a general approach to certainty in arrivals,

was a great problem, of high interest and benefit, not to England

only, but to all civilized countries; and this problem may now be

said to have been solved by England, for the advantage of mankind

at large. It was to all appearance altogether beyond the reach of

merely commercial enterprise; and if the price paid has been high,

the object has been worthy, and the success for all essential

purposes complete."

As a consequence of this "Minute," the Lords Commissioners of Her

Majesty's Treasury appointed a Committee, consisting of Viscount

Canning, Post Master General of Great Britain, as President; Hon. Wm.

Cowper, on behalf of the Board of Admiralty; Sir Stafford H.

Northcote, Bart.; and Mr. R. Madox Bromley, Secretary to the Board of

Audit. The Committee organized, examined the Evidence and Report of

the Committee of 1849, also the three large volumes of Evidence and

Report taken by the Committee in 1851 on "Steam Communication with

India and Australia," and the many elaborate documents of this class

published by the Admiralty. After discussing thoroughly all of the

political, financial, commercial, ethical, and social questions

connected with rapid steam mail communication, they made an elaborate

and detailed examination of all the contracts existing with the

Government, and of the affairs of the various companies, with a view

to deciding whether the ocean mail service should be abridged, or

continued, or extended. They reported to both Houses of Parliament,

July 8th, 1853. The conclusion of the Committee was, not only that the

present service was demanded by every interest of the country and

should be sustained, but that it should be judiciously extended, so as

to meet all of the wants of the British public of whatever class. As

elsewhere remarked, the new line established last year to Australia

and India, at a cost of $925,000 per annum, for seven years, was a

legitimate result of that test and that report, made in the most

searching manner by the very ablest men of the kingdom; and this,

notwithstanding the reports purposely circulated in this country every

few years that Great Britain intends abandoning her steam mail system.

She will abandon that system, as her practice plainly indicates, only

when her people shall have discovered some means of making and

preserving wealth without effort, enterprise, commerce, or

manufactures. (_See page 99, Mr. Atherton's Reply._) The Report says:

"Before the application of steam to the propulsion of ships, the

contracts were often made for short periods, the Government being

able to find, among the vessels already employed in trade, some of

speed sufficient for the purpose; but when it became requisite to

dispatch the mails by steam, the ordinary supply of trading

vessels would no longer suffice, and the Government had to call

into existence a new class of packets.

"The postal service between England and the adjacent shores of

Ireland, France, and Belgium, was at first performed by steam

packets belonging to the Crown; but for the longer voyages it was

thought better to induce commercial companies to build steamers;

and with that view the contracts were at first made for periods

which, unless previously terminated by failure to fulfill their

engagements, would secure to the company the full benefit of their

original outlay, by continuing the employment of their vessels

until they might be expected to require extensive repairs, or to

become unfit for continued service. In 1837 steam communication

was created with Portugal and Gibraltar; in 1840 with Egypt, with

the West-Indies, and with North-America.

"When the public interest requires the establishment of a postal

line on which the ordinary traffic would not be remunerative for

steamers, the subsidy to be allowed in the contract may be

ascertained either by the test of public competition, or by

calculating the amount which, on an estimate of the probable

receipts and expenditure, will cover the deficiency of receipts,

or by comparing it with the cost of war vessels if employed for

the same purpose."

"The objects which appear to have led to the formation of these

contracts, and to the large expenditure involved, were--to afford

a rapid, frequent, and punctual communication with those distant

ports which feed the main arteries of British commerce, and with

the most important of our foreign possessions; to foster maritime

enterprise; and to encourage the production of a superior class of

vessels which would promote the convenience and wealth of the

country in time of peace, and assist in defending its shores

against hostile aggression.

"These expectations have not been disappointed. The ocean has been

traversed with a precision and regularity hitherto deemed

impossible--commerce and civilization have been extended--the

colonies have been brought more closely into connection with the

Home Government--and steamships have been constructed of a size

and power that, without Government aid, could hardly, at least for

many years, have been produced.

"It is not easy to estimate the pecuniary value of these results,

but there is no reason to suppose that they could have been

attained at that time at less cost."

After noticing the objects of the postal contracts, the Report says,

in speaking of their results:

"To show what the system is capable of accomplishing, it will be

sufficient that we should call attention to the two great lines of

communication which have been opened, the one between this country

and India, the other between this country and America. The mails

are dispatched twice a month in the one case, and once a week in

the other, and are conveyed to their destination with a regularity

and rapidity which leaves nothing to be desired. The time occupied

in the voyage to and fro between England and Bombay, which, before

the establishment of the Overland Route, averaged about 224 days,

is now no more than 87 days; and the time occupied in the voyage

to and fro between England and the United States, which before

1840 varied from 45 to 105 days, is now reduced to an average

period of 24 days. Nor is the service simply rapid, it is also

regular; and the mercantile community can reckon with the utmost

certainty on the punctual departure of the mails at the appointed

times, and can also calculate with great precision the times of

their arrival.

"The same results have not been so conspicuous on some other

postal lines; but, taking the service as a whole, it has

undoubtedly been brought to a high state of excellence, and its

value to the country, both politically and commercially, is very

considerable."

In speaking further of the objects of the Government postal service,

after inquiring whether the foreign mail service should be extended

any further, it says:

"The object of the Government in undertaking the transmarine

postal service, whether by packets or by the system of ship

letters, is to provide frequent, rapid, and regular communication

between this country and other states, and between different parts

of the British Empire. The reasons for desiring such communication

are partly commercial and partly political. In cases where the

interests concerned are chiefly those of commerce, it is generally

more important that the postal service should be regular, than

that it should be extremely rapid, though of course rapidity of

communication, where it can be obtained without sacrificing other

objects, is of great advantage. It would clearly be the interest

of persons engaged in an important trade, provided there were no

legal impediment in the way, to establish a regular postal

communication in connection with it, even without aid from the

state. This, however, would not extend to many cases in which

there are political reasons for maintaining such services, while

the commercial interests involved are of less magnitude. _Nor is

it probable that private communications would be nearly so rapid

as those directed by the Government; for a high rate of speed can

only be obtained at a great expense, which will generally be found

to be disproportionate to the benefits directly received from it,

unless under peculiar circumstances of passenger traffic._ Lastly,

it is to be considered that there are several services which, if

they were not carried on by the British Government, would probably

be undertaken by the Governments of foreign states, and that it is

not likely that private individuals or associations would in such

cases enter into competition with them.

"From these considerations we infer that, even upon the lines in

the maintenance of which the greatest commercial interests are

involved, private enterprise can not be depended upon for

providing a complete substitute for Government agency; while it is

clear that in others, where regular communications are desired

solely or chiefly for political purposes, such agency is

absolutely indispensable. _It is, however, obvious, that to

establish a Government system in some cases, and to leave others

wholly to private persons, would cause much inconvenience._ The

conclusion therefore follows, that it is right that the Government

should have the management of the whole of the transmarine postal

communication, as it also has that of the communication within the

country.

"In undertaking this duty, the Government will in the first place

have regard to the national interests, whether political, social,

or commercial, involved in the establishment and maintenance of

each particular line. Care must, however, be taken, in cases where

the communication is desired chiefly for commercial purposes, to

guard against an undue expenditure of public money for the benefit

of private merchants. The extension of commerce is undoubtedly a

national advantage, and it is quite reasonable that Parliamentary

grants should occasionally be employed for the sake of affording

fresh openings for it, by establishing new lines of communication,

or introducing new methods of conveyance, the expense of which,

after the first outlay has been incurred, may be expected to be

borne by the parties availing themselves of the facilities offered

them. But this having once been done, and sufficient time having

been allowed for the experiment, the further continuance of the

service, unless required for political reasons of adequate

importance, should be made to depend upon the extent to which the

parties chiefly interested avail themselves of it, and upon its

tendency to become self-supporting."

Noticing the greater or less sums at which private companies may be

induced to undertake short line postal service, and stating that the

line is both benefited and injured by the necessity of punctual

sailing hours, the Report states the reason why subsidies are

required, thus:

"The vessels now under contract with the Government are, however,

for the most part, required to maintain high rates of speed. The

contractors are also subject to a variety of conditions, designed

partly to secure the efficiency of the postal service, and partly

to render their vessels available for other national purposes

wholly unconnected with that service. In return, they are in the

receipt of subsidies largely in excess of the amount of revenue

derived from the mails they carry, and those subsidies are

guaranteed to them for terms of years varying from four to twelve,

most of which have at the present time not less than seven or

eight years to run. An Estimate printed in the Appendix, will show

that while the amount of the subsidies to foreign and colonial

lines, as contracted for in the past year, was no less than

L822,390, the sums received for postage upon these lines can not

be estimated at more than L443,782."

The Report further says, as to the mode by which postal communication

can be procured, "where frequent and rapid communication already

exists, it is only necessary for the Government to secure from time to

time the services of vessels already engaged in private traffic." But

as there are no such cases in the transmarine routes, and as private

enterprise supplies the demand of steam lines only on the short

routes, like the inter-island service of Great Britain, or that to the

Continent, or the service of the Sound, the North River, short coast

routes, etc., in the United States, the Report goes on to say:

"There still remain, however, some cases in which there exists no

private communication sufficient to render such a mode of

proceeding practicable. Where this is so, and where a

communication has to be created, it will be necessary that

contracts of longer duration should be made, _for it is

unreasonable to expect that any person or association of persons

should incur the expense and risk of building vessels, forming

costly establishments, and opening a new line of communication at

a heavy outlay of capital, without some security that they will be

allowed to continue the service long enough to reap some benefit

from their undertaking. It must be borne in mind, that the

expensive vessels built for the conveyance of the mails at a high

rate of speed are not in demand for the purposes of ordinary

traffic, and can not therefore be withdrawn and applied to another

service at short notice_. It is, then, fair, that on the first

opening of a new line, contracts should be made for such a length

of time as may encourage the building of ships for the purpose, by

affording a prospect of their employment for a considerable number

of years. But we see no sufficient reason for continually renewing

such contracts for periods equally long, after the object has once

been attained."

(_For the views of the Committee on the adaptation of the mail packets

to naval service, see pages 146 and 147._)

The Committee in summing up, presents the result of the investigation

and the fruits of the service in the following impressive light:

"The value of the services thus rendered to the State can not, we

think, be measured by a mere reference to the amount of the postal

revenue, or even by the commercial advantages accruing from it. It

is undoubtedly startling, at first sight, to perceive that the

immediate pecuniary result of the Packet System is a loss to the

Revenue of about L325,000 a year; but, although this circumstance

shows the necessity for a careful revision of the service, and

although we believe that much may be done to make that service

self-supporting, we do not consider that the money thus expended

is to be regarded, even from a fiscal point of view, as a national

loss."

It has never been a favorite idea with British statesmen that the

packet service should be self-sustaining; nor have they had any

evidence to believe that steam companies could live on the postal

receipts. It is evident from the following that the packet system is

sustained without any reference whatever to the postal income, and for

commercial, political, and social purposes alone; only using the

income so far as it goes as a part of the contributions by the people

to the general treasury. It says:

"Your Lordships have seen from our Report that in framing these

contracts various objects have entered into the consideration of

the Government, the cost of which ought not in our opinion to be

charged upon the revenues of the General Post Office. A simple

comparison of the receipts and expenditure upon some of the lines

is in itself sufficient to prove this. If the Post Office is to be

considered as a department producing revenue, it is not to be

supposed that a line of vessels which costs the State L240,000 a

year, and brings in no more than L56,002, (as is the case with the

West-Indian packets,) or one for which L25,000 is annually paid,

and which returns little more than one fifth of that sum, (as the

Pacific line,) can be maintained as a part of its machinery; and,

in fact, the contracts for many of the services have been made

without reference to any estimate or opinion on the part of the

Post Master General of their probable value as postal lines."

It thus becomes abundantly evident from the Reports of Parliamentary

Committees, from the "Acts of Parliament," and from the practice of

the Admiralty and Post Office Departments, as well as from the

unvarying experiences of twenty-four years, that the steam mail packet

system of Great Britain was primarily adopted, and ever since

sustained as the choicest means of giving to that nation the

irresistible control of the world. Watching this system from the germ

to its present maturity, we have seen the overshadowing tree reach

higher and higher, and the circle of each year's growth expand more

and more, until the outer ring now embraces the whole civilized and

savage world. An additional evidence of this arrives this very day.

The Atlantic brings intelligence (_New-York papers, Nov. 22d_) that

Great Britain has just completed another mail contract, by which the

Peninsular and Oriental Company are to run a third semi-monthly

service to India and China; so that the Government and people of Great

Britain shall have a weekly communication with those regions, while we

have none except through them, although we are many thousand miles

nearer to those countries.

It has been said that we should not attempt to run the postal and

commercial race with Great Britain. Why not? Because she has many

colonies, and must needs keep up communication with them. And why have

steam instead of sail to them? Because steam is the means of more

readily _controlling_ them. Grant it; and for the very same reason we

wish steam with all the world; not that we may control the world, for

this is costly and unremunerative, as Great Britain finds; but to

conform it, and especially to _control_ its commerce. Great Britain

has possessions in the West-Indies; but they are of the most

insignificant importance when compared with the trade of the many

islands and countries near them, which she does not possess, and with

the Central American, Californian, Mexican, Peruvian, Chilian,

New-Granadian, Venezuelan, and Spanish markets, which she controls and

uses. So with India and the Mauritius. It is a matter of sore

satisfaction that she is compelled to govern them as a means of

reaching their rich trade, which, however rich, is far less important

than that of China for which she so strives. So also with Canada. She

was told some years since that, if she wished to secede from the

Kingdom, because the Government would not assist in building a certain

railroad, she might go, and carry peace, also, with her. The

Government would scout the idea of running the Cunard line to Canada

alone, and would not touch even at Halifax, except that the ships are

compelled to go in sight of the place; as the "great circle" on which

they sail nearly cuts the city. Great Britain runs that line because

her trade with the United States requires it. That trade is worth to

her every year twenty of her Canadas, as that of the West-Indies is

worth a dozen of all the possessions which she has there. As to

running the race of commerce with her, it is simply a _sine qua non_,

on which there is no difference of opinion among Americans who love

their country.

SECTION X.

THE MAIL LINES OF THE UNITED STATES.

THE MAIL LINES OF THE UNITED STATES: THE HAVRE AND BREMEN, THE

PIONEERS: THE BREMEN SERVICE RECENTLY GIVEN TO MR. VANDERBILT:

BOTH LINES RUN ON THE GROSS RECEIPTS: THE CALIFORNIA LINES:

WONDROUS DEVELOPMENT OF OUR PACIFIC POSSESSIONS: THE PACIFIC MAIL

STEAMSHIP COMPANY: ITS HISTORY, SERVICES, LARGE MATERIEL, AND

USEFULNESS: THE UNITED STATES MAIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY: ITS RAMIFIED

AND LARGE EXTRA SERVICE: EFFECT UPON THE COMMERCE OF THE GULF: ITS

HEAVY LOSSES, AND NEW SHIPS: STEAMSHIP STOCKS GENERALLY AVOIDED:

CONSTANTLY FAR BELOW PAR: THE COLLINS LINE: A COMPARISON WITH THE

CUNARD: ITS SOURCES OF HEAVY OUTLAY, AND ITS ENTERPRISE: THE

AMERICAN MARINE DISASTERS COULD NOT HAVE BEEN PREVENTED BY HUMAN

FORESIGHT: THE VANDERBILT BREMEN LINE.

It is not my intention to notice the various lines in detail, or in

any wise become their apologist, eulogist, or prosecutor. As a general

thing they have discharged their obligations to the Government and the

people in the most creditable manner; in a much better manner than

could have been expected of them, considering the novelty of such

enterprises in this country and our total want of experience either in

steamship building or ocean steam navigation. It is a cause of great

gratulation and satisfaction that springing into the great arena of

the mail and passenger strife at a single bound, our steamers at once

took the lead in the race, and have ever since distanced those of the

whole world in speed, comfort, general accommodations, and cheap

transit. This may be asserted as a rule without a single exception.

The Collins steamers and the steamer "Vanderbilt" have beaten the

Cunarders by nearly a day and a half on the average voyages; the Havre

and Bremen steamers make just the same time as the Cunarders; and the

California steamers of both lines have signally beaten those of all

the English lines in the West-Indies, the Mediterranean, and the

Pacific and Indian oceans. Indeed the triumphs of our steamers

generally and specially have been so decided in every valuable point

that we have great reason to be proud of the attainments to which the

legislation of 1846 and '47 led. We have nothing to record to the

credit of our legislation since that period.

The Havre and Bremen services were the first established in the United

States; and as the pioneers in our mail steamshipping they have both

proven themselves valuable to the country. The Bremen line went into

the hands of Mr. Vanderbilt during the present year, on the expiration

of the old contract; the "Ocean Steam Navigation Company" being

unwilling to attempt the performance of the service on the small mail

pay of the gross ocean and inland postages, even with their old ships.

Mr. Vanderbilt having three ships wholly out of employment, determined

to try the service. How far it will prove remunerative we shall not be

able to determine until the steamers shall have run through one or two

winters as well as summers.

The Havre service was continued in the old hands. Mr. Livingston had

two fine new ships, which had been running but little over one year,

and which, adapted specially to the mail, passenger, and transport

trade of France, could not easily be withdrawn from the business for

which they were built; while it would have been quite impossible to

find for them employment in any other trade. He, consequently, made a

temporary arrangement with the Department for one year, agreeing to

transport the mails, as during the old contract, for the gross ocean

and inland postages. With this small remuneration the Havre line gets

a smaller pay than any other running; but one dollar per mile. The

Company have deserved well of the Government for their untiring

efforts to perform their contract; one of the greatest sacrifices

being the necessity of building two costly new steamers just as their

contract was about to expire. They suffered most severely from

disaster. Both of their fine and fast steamers, the "Franklin" and the

"Humboldt," were lost; and they were compelled to supply their places

by chartering at exorbitantly high prices, until they built the two

excellent vessels now running, the "Arago" and "Fulton." These two

steamers run probably more cheaply than any ever built in any country;

otherwise, being as large as they are, about twenty-six hundred tons

each, they could by no means live on the small mail pay now given

them. It may be that both these and the Vanderbilt Bremen steamers are

losing money; although the latter vessels are much smaller, and have

the advantage of an immense emigrant trade. I have no means of knowing

the position of affairs in either company.

But no loss to the Havre Company has ever been so great as that of its

late President, Mr. Mortimer Livingston. An honorable and just man in

his dealings, both with individuals and the Government, he eschewed

every attempt by which some sought to pervert and deprave the

legislation of the country, and presented all of his views in

steamshipping on high, honorable, and tenable grounds. He pursued the

profession in an enlarged spirit of enterprise, and was not unmindful

of his duties to his country, while he endeavored to establish

legitimate trade and preserve a profitable private business which had

been well founded long before the introduction of ocean steam. He was

a worthy and most honorable gentleman, and is a loss to the whole

public.

Prominent among the steamship enterprises of the country stand the two

lines which connect the Atlantic and Gulf seaboard with our large and

rich possessions in the Pacific, California, and Oregon. Established

at a time when California was held by military government, and when

Oregon was a wild untamed wilderness, these lines became the means of

developing the richest portion of the American continent, and binding

the far distant western world in close connection with the old

confederacy, notwithstanding the mighty Cordilleras and Rocky

Mountains which rose like forbidding barriers between them. Important

as these possessions were, naturally and geographically, they acquired

a new interest about the time that the Pacific and the Aspinwall

Steamship Companies were established. The contracts which were made

with these companies would certainly have ruined them but for the

discovery of gold in California. This opened a new and brilliant field

of effort, and the opportunities offered by these companies soon

determined tens of thousands of our hardy and enterprising countrymen

to enter and develop it.

It is pleasing in this connection to trace the almost mysterious

progress of our Pacific territory during the past eight years, and the

agencies producing it. Among these agencies none have been so

effectual as the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. That Company was

compelled to form an establishment of the most effective character

four to five thousand miles away from home, and as it was at the

time, thirteen thousand miles distant. The country was wholly new, so

much so that it was, in most parts of the field which it had to

occupy, extremely difficult to procure ordinary food for their

operatives. Their ships had to make a voyage more than half of that

around the world before they arrived at their point of service; and

they found themselves without a home when there. The steamer

"California," which left New-York on the 6th October, 1848, was the

first to bear the American flag to the Pacific ocean, and the first to

salute with a new life the solitudes of that rich and untrodden

territory. She was soon followed by the "Panama" and "Oregon," and in

due course of time by the "Tennessee," the "Golden Gate," the

"Columbia," the "John L. Stephens," the "Sonora," the "Republic," the

"Northerner," the "Fremont," the "Tobago," the "St. Louis," and the

"Golden Age." From a small beginning that Company now has the finest

steam fleet in the United States, although the difficulties in forming

it were probably much greater than any of our other companies had to

contend with.

These steamers found nothing ready to receive them in the Pacific. The

Company was compelled to construct large workshops and foundries for

their repair, and now have at Benicia a large and excellent

establishment where they can easily construct a marine engine. They

had also to build their own Dry Dock; for that of the Government at

Mare Island was not ready until 1854. Theirs has ever been most useful

to the United States, as it furnished the only accommodations of that

class in the Pacific. They had also to make shore establishments at

Panama, San Francisco, and Astoria, which, with coal depots, etc.,

were extremely costly, owing to materials having to be transported so

far, and labor at the time being so high. The price of labor in

California at all times depends on the profits which can be made by

digging gold, and the prices paid for this species of labor have ever

been enormous. Beyond this most unusual price of labor along the

Pacific seaboard, the coals which they have used, whether from the

Eastern States or from England, have been invariably shipped around

Cape Horn, and have never cost less than twenty dollars per ton. For a

large portion of the time the Company had to pay thirty dollars per

ton for coal, and in one instance fifty dollars. Coal, like all other

provisions of the steamers, has generally been purchased from those

who sent it out on speculation, and took all the advantages of the

peculiar market. Twelve dollars per ton is a low price for freight to

California or Panama. In addition to this, the cost price of the coal,

the handling, the wastage, and the insurance, will amount to about

eight dollars per ton, making it never less than twenty dollars

delivered. I have frequently seen coals sell even in Rio de Janeiro,

which is but about one third of the distance from us, at eighteen to

twenty-four dollars per ton. The nine steamers running consume about

35,000 tons of coal annually. If the vessels transporting it be of

1,000 tons each, it will employ something near thirty-five of these

vessels at profitable rates, in this one item of their business alone.

Such expenditures are not necessary to any other steam company in the

world. The British lines in the Indian Ocean and the China Seas are

supplied with domestic coal which comes at very reasonable prices, and

is shipped but a short distance.

Yet this Company performs this distant and difficult service with

great regularity and at a low price. They have never lost a trip, a

mail-bag, or a passenger by marine disaster during the eight years

that they have been running in the Pacific. This results from the fact

of the Company having thirteen steamers. If all of the steamers now in

commission were sunk, they could supply their place from their reserve

fleet and have no hiatus in their service. Such a spare fleet is an

enormous expense; but it is positively indispensable to regular and

highly efficient service. It is singular that under these

circumstances they can perform the service at $1.70 cents per mile. It

is a notorious fact that these steamers could not have supported

themselves in 1854-55 without the aid which they obtained from the

Government for the services which they performed. They never have

transported much freight, as it would not bear the transhipment at

Panama. The small quantity which they had was during the first years

after the discovery of gold, and then only. They have never at any

time brought any eastward. The Panama Railroad was a splendid

consummation of which the world had dreamed for years, and toward

whose completion this Company was highly instrumental. Yet it did not

enable the steamers to transport freight, and it never will.

These steamers run the 3,300 miles between Panama and San Francisco by

a time-table. They arrive at either end within a very few hours of

thirteen and a half days, including all of the stoppages, which are

also made at specified hours. Thus the average speed of the steamers

is about 254 miles per day. They touch at Acapulco and Mazanilla, and

supply San Diego, Monterey, San Pedro, Santa Barbara, San Luis, and

Obispo, ports of California, from Panama by a branch line. This is an

extra service, and is not taken into account in calculating the

mileage paid the Company.

The steamers have carried probably 175,000 passengers to California,

and have brought back about $200,000,000 in gold. They have also by

their semi-monthly line from San Francisco to Oregon assisted in

populating that rich and beautiful agricultural district, and making

it available for useful purposes as a part of the United States. They

have converted the wilderness of California into a smiling garden, and

will ere long produce the same effect on Oregon. With that coast

comparatively unprotected, and with the small standing army sustained

in this country, they become very important as a ready means of

concentrating on the Pacific coast a large army in a few days. They

also afford a ready transit for the changing crews of our national

vessels, which, when once around the Horn, may remain there several

years; having to change their crews only.

The large property of this Company in the Pacific can be made

available for no other purpose than that for which it was created. Any

company to be thoroughly effective there, must create its own stock,

and support works on the same general plan as those created by the

British East-India Company. Their success in building up this large

establishment on the Pacific was simply an accident; and that accident

the discovery of gold. But for this the Company would have failed in

two years, or gone back pleading to Congress for relief. But the gold

crisis saved it, and the enterprise was very remunerative for the

first few years; but since 1853 the profits have been limited, while

for one or two years the Company have sustained actual loss. They

calculated too largely on the prospective business with California,

and have too large a sum invested to make much for the future. And

yet, with a smaller investment they could not perform the service,

except in that dangerous, cheap, indecent way, of innumerable wants

and deprivations, which the American people have begun to despise.

They have had some few disasters, but none of those of a fatal

character in the Pacific. The "Winfield Scott" was lost in entering

the harbor of Acapulco; the "Tennessee" in entering that of San

Francisco in a dense fog. The "San Francisco" was lost, as will be

remembered, on this side, near our coast, as she sailed with troops

for the Pacific. The Nicaragua Transit Company fared much worse with

their steamers in the Pacific. They lost the "North America," the

"Independence," the "S. S. Lewis," the "Pioneer," and the "Yankee

Blade." Mr. Wm. Brown also lost his steamer "America," which he was

running between San Francisco and Oregon. She was burned.

Their dividends for four years have been but twelve per cent. And

should they be at any time thrown out of the service, more than half

of their property would be irretrievably lost. This percentage of

dividend would be large enough but for such possibilities as these,

which may soon reduce it to a deficit and a loss. Thus it is that

steam stock should declare three times the dividend of other stocks,

to be eventually equal to them. And hence it is that, with the clear

record of this Company before the Government, and with an investment

of between three and four millions of dollars, being at the same time

free from debt, the stock of the Company is selling at thirty-three

per cent. below par. This is a good exemplification of my views in the

preceding Sections regarding the costs, and hazards, and low values of

ocean steam stocks generally. Nor are the stocks of this Company kept

from the public. They are advertised and sold at public auction at

these reduced rates every day in the year in this city; and no one of

the five hundred and four stockholders, among whom these interests are

diffused, seems anxious to put "his all" in the enterprise. And yet

there are some people who call such companies a monopoly. If a

monopoly, why do they not come forward, buy the stocks, keep them in

their own hands, and profit by them; especially as a monopoly must be

doubly good when it can be bought for two thirds the cash originally

paid for it!

I have noticed this Company thus fully, because its extent of stock,

and large field of operation, make it a fit illustration of the views

which I have advanced throughout this work. I have no desire to

depreciate the stock, or in any other way injure the Company, as my

own enterprise gives me quite enough to do.

Many of the views advanced with regard to the Pacific Mail Company

will apply to the United States Mail Steamship Company. That Company,

at the outset, built very fine steamers, and ran them incessantly,

until they were unfit for duty. They have constantly supplied their

place, and have at all times, by building and by chartering at the

highest prices, kept up a large and costly fleet for their ramified

service. The service contemplated in their original contract, at

$1.88-3/4 cents per mile, is but about two thirds of that actually

performed. The contract required them to run 3,200 miles semi-monthly,

but they actually perform semi-monthly 5,200. (_See Mr. King's Letter,

Paper G._) The actual service has required nearly twice the number of

steamers necessary to do that for which they contracted, although a

part of it is in the coasting trade. Consequently the steamers have

been rapidly worn out, from too heavy duty, and the stock of the

Company has never paid as well as it should. The Company have,

morever, suffered severely from disaster. The "Crescent City" was lost

on the Bahama Banks, in 1855; all hands saved. The "Cherokee" was

burned when in active service, in 1853; and the "George Law," or

"Central America," but recently foundered at sea in a terrible gale.

They were all good ships; but like those other excellent ships, the

"Arctic" and "Pacific," they could not defy the powers of pure

accident. In the same gale the "Empire City" was dismantled, having

all of her upper works swept off, while the "Illinois" was injured by

being on the Colorado Reef. They have both been undergoing most costly

repairs for several weeks. While writing this, the "Philadelphia" is

also in the shop. She recently broke her shaft and her cross-tail, and

had to put into Charleston. All of these repairs cost an immense sum

of money, and are calculated, with the severe losses which the Company

has sustained, to dishearten the most hopeful and enterprising. Yet,

since these disasters, and the completion of the "Moses Taylor," the

Company are about laying the keel of another fine ship. This is

another verification of my statement that the mail companies are in

nearly every instance compelled to build new steamers in the very last

years of their contracted service. The new "Adriatic" attests the same

fact on the part of the Collins Company. (_See pages 141 and 142._)

The Company have had at various times the "Falcon," "Ohio," "Georgia,"

"Crescent City," "El Dorado," "Cherokee," "Empire City," "Illinois,"

and "Philadelphia," and now have the three last-named ships, the

"Granada," the "Star of the West," and the new steamer "Moses Taylor."

The benefits conferred by the Company's lines on the trade of the

country generally, and especially on our southern seaboard and Gulf

connections, have been almost incalculable. They found all of these

ports in the undisputed possession of the British, whose steamers

furnished the only mail and locomotive facilities of the times. By

their superior speed and accommodations the "Georgia" and the "Ohio"

soon drove those enterprising steamers from our coast, and confined

them to the foreign countries of the Gulf and the Carribean Sea, where

they yet rule triumphant in news, transport, and commerce. Our

southern harbors are no longer filled with British cruisers, while in

their stead we have built up a noble war marine, inured thousands of

Americans to the ocean steam service, and made one most effective

movement in the direction of successful defenses. (_See Letter of Hon.

Edwin Croswell, Paper E, page 200._)

Of the Collins Company it is hardly necessary that I should speak.

They have received much the largest subsidy from the Government; but

they have had a most difficult task to perform. Their ships have never

been surpassed in any country, whether as to the excellent style of

their prime construction, their large size, or their very unusual

speed. They have literally been engaged in a continual race across the

ocean for seven years, determined at whatever cost and hazard to far

excel those of the Cunard line. And this they have done most signally

in all points of accommodation and speed. They have gained one and a

half days the advantage over the Cunard line on their average voyages

for the seven years. And this was no small achievement. By reference

to Section IV. it will be seen how great is the cost of attaining and

maintaining such speed with a steamer. The Collins ships, being so

much larger than the Cunarders, the four present an aggregate tonnage

nearly equal to the eight by which they run their weekly line. It is,

moreover, not proportionally so expensive to maintain seven or eight

ships on a line as four. The prime cost and repairs are by no means so

great when engines are duplicated, or two sets built from the same

patterns. Again, the general outlay in docks, shore establishment,

offices, company paraphernalia, advertising, and innumerable items, is

as great for a small as for a large fleet of steamers. The Collins

line has to contend against all this. It also found the Cunard line

long and well established, and inwrought into the public favor. It had

the business, and most important of all, it monopolized the only

freights passing between the two countries; those from England to

America, which British shippers gave of course to British ships. They

have had also to pay much larger prices for construction, repairs,

wages, etc., than the Cunard Company; and not having so large a

service and so large a fleet, they have not had so many reserve ships

to fall back upon; but have been compelled frequently to send their

ships off but half repaired, which of itself entailed immensely heavy

expenses in ultimate repairs. There is very much to be said in favor

of this Company, which has endeavored to build the finest ships in

the world, and navigate them the most rapidly. If they have

prominently failed in any thing it is in building larger ships,

running them faster, and being far more enterprising with them than

was required of the Company by the contract with the Government. Their

disasters have been saddening and severe; and yet they have resulted

from nothing which could have been controlled by human foresight.

There is a great error in supposing that there are more marine

disasters among American than among British ships. Such is not the

case, as a careful examination of the lists will show.

Of the mail line belonging to Mr. Vanderbilt, between New-York and

Bremen, _via_ Southampton, it is impossible now to say any thing. The

steamers "North Star" and "Ariel," the one of 1,867-60/95 tons, and

the other of 1,295-28/95 tons, have but recently commenced the

service, on the gross mail receipts. Whether Mr. Vanderbilt desires to

make the service permanent or not, I am not advised.

The service of the Charleston and Havana line has been performed with

great regularity; and although the return from it in the form of

postages has been small, yet it has been of essential service to the

South, in opening communications toward the Gulf, and in establishing

much needed travelling facilities between Charleston, Savannah, and

Key West.

PAPER A.

LIST OF AMERICAN OCEAN STEAMERS.

The mail service has 8 lines, and 21 steamers in commission, of 48,027

registered tonnage. Much of this tonnage belongs to supply ships, as

for instance those of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. (_See

Section I._)

_Collins Line, 3 steamers, 9,727 tons._

Adriatic, 4,144-74/95 tons: Atlantic, 2,849-66/99 tons: Baltic,

2,733-1/95 tons.

_Havre Line, 2 steamers, 4,548 tons._

Arago, 2,240 tons: Fulton, 2,308 tons.

_Vanderbilt Bremen Line, 3 steamers, 6,523 tons._

North Star, 1,867-60/95 tons: Ariel, 1,295-28/95 tons: Vanderbilt[H],

3,360-54/95 tons.

[H] Independent, running between New-York, Southampton, and Havre, in

connection with the Bremen steamers.

_United States Mail Steamship Company, 6 steamers, 8,544 tons._

Illinois, 2,123-65/95 tons: Empire City, 1,751-21/95 tons:

Philadelphia, 1,238-1/95 tons: Granada, 1,058-90/95 tons: Moses

Taylor, 1,200 tons: Star of the West, chartered, 1,172-1/95,

(contracting for a new ship.)

_Pacific Mail Steamship Company, 13 steamers, 16,421 tons._

Golden Gate, 2,067-35/95 tons: Golden Age, 2,280 tons: J. L. Stephens,

2,189 tons: Sonora, 1,616 tons: St. Louis, 1,621 tons: Panama,

1,087-31/95 tons: California, 1,085-64/95 tons: Oregon, 1,099-9/95

tons: Columbia, 777-34/95 tons: Republic, 850 tons: Northerner, 1,010

tons: Fremont, 576 tons: Tobago, 189 tons.

_Charleston, Savannah, Key West, and Havana, 1 steamer_, the Isabel,

1,115 tons.

_New-Orleans and Mexico, 1 steamer_, the Tennessee, 1,149-1/2 tons.

The Coasting Service has 8 lines, and 23 steamers, of 24,071 tons

registered tonnage.

_New-York, Havana, and New-Orleans_, 2. The Black Warrior, 1,556-1/95

tons: Cahawba, 1,643-1/95 tons = 3,199 tons.

_New-York, Havana, and Mobile_, 1. The Quaker City, 1,428-3/95 tons.

_New-York and Savannah_, 4. Alabama, 1,261-13/95 tons; Florida,

1,261-13/95 tons: Augusta, 1,310-61/95 tons; Star of the South,

(propeller,) 960-1/95 tons = 4,793 tons.

_New-York and Charleston_, 4. Columbia, 1,347 tons: Nashville, 1,220

tons: James Adger, 1,151 tons; Marion, 962 tons = 4,680 tons.

_New-York and Virginia_, 2. Roanoke, 1,071 tons: Jamestown, 1,300 tons

= 2,371 tons.

_Philadelphia and Savannah_, 2. Key Stone State and State of Georgia,

each about 1,300 tons = 2,600 tons.

_Boston and Baltimore_, 2. Joseph Whitney, 800 tons: Unknown, 800 tons

= 1,600 tons.

_New-Orleans and Texas._ The Charles Morgan, Texas, Mexico, and

Atlantic, averaging 600 tons each=2,400 tons.

_New-Orleans and Key West._ The General Rusk, 600 tons, and the

Calhoun, 400 tons = 1,000 tons.

There are also several propellers running: between New-York and

Charleston, New-York and Portland, and between Philadelphia and the

South. They are all, however, small, and irregular in their trade. The

Calhoun is not a regular steamship.

Steamers lying up, 18. Registered tonnage, 24,845 tons.

Queen of the Pacific, 2,801-92/95 tons.

Washington, 1,640-71/91 tons.

Prometheus, 1,207-61/95 tons.

St. Louis, 1,621-14/45 tons.

Brother Jonathan, 1,359-52/95 tons.

Oregon, 1,004-89/95 tons.

Southerner, 900 tons.

Herman, 1,734-45/95 tons.

Northern Light, 1,747-91/95 tons.

Uncle Sam, 1,433-44/95 tons.

California, 1,058 tons.

Northerner, 1,012 tons.

Ericsson, 1,902-1/95 tons.

Star of the West, 1,172-33/95 tons.

Daniel Webster, 1,035 tons.

Orizaba, 1,450-62/95 tons.

Panama, 1,087 tons.

Fremont, 576 tons.

The registered tonnage of these vessels was furnished me by Mr. S. P.

Ingraham, of the New-York Custom-House.

PAPER B.

The following paper, prepared by Mr. Pliny Miles from the reports to

which we have alluded, presents the British steam mail service in

full detail.

"The following tabular statement gives the particulars of the

ocean mail service of Great Britain, now carried on almost

exclusively by steamships. The numbers in the margin, running from

1 to 15, will point out the different lines in the recapitulation

at the close.

LINE OF COMMUNICATION, |

CONTRACTORS, AND CONTRACT PRICE. | PLACES CONNECTED.

---------------------------------+--------------------------------

1.--Liverpool and Isle of Man. | Liverpool and Douglas, Isle of

_Mona Isle Steam Co._ Twice a | Man.

week. $4,250 per annum. |

|

2.--England and Ireland. _City of| Holyhead and Kingstown, near

Dublin Steam Packet Co._ Twice a | Dublin.

day. $125,000 a year. |

|

3.--Scotland and Shetland. | Aberdeen, Wick, Kirkwall,

_Aberdeen, Leith and Clyde | (Orkney,) and Lerwick,

Shipping Co._ Weekly, $6,000 a | (Shetland.)

year. |

|

4.--England, Spain, and | Southampton, Vigo, Oporto,

Gibraltar. _Peninsular and | Lisbon, Cadiz, and Gibraltar.

Oriental Steam Navigation Co._ |

Three times a month. $102,500. |

|

5.--Mediterranean, India, and | Southampton, Malta, Alexandria,

China. _Peninsular and Oriental | Suez, Aden, Bombay, Calcutta,

Steam Navigation Co._ Twice a | Singapore, Hong Kong, and

month to India--monthly to China.| Shanghae.

$1,121,500. |

|

6.--England and United States. | Liverpool, Halifax, and Boston;

_Sam. Cunard._ Weekly. $866,700. | and Liverpool and New-York.

|

7.--North America, (Colonial.) | Halifax, Newfoundland, Bermuda,

_Sam. Cunard._ Monthly. $73,500. | and St. Thomas.

|

8.--West-Indies, Mexico and | Southampton, Kingston,

South-America. _Royal Mail Steam | (Jamaica,) St. Thomas, Vera

Packet Co._ Semi-monthly to the | Cruz and Aspinwall; Southampton,

West-Indies and Gulf of Mexico, | Lisbon, Madeira, Teneriffe, St.

and monthly to Brazil. | Vincent, Pernambuco, Bahia, Rio

$1,350,000. | Janeiro, Monte Video, Buenos

| Ayres, and St. Thomas.

|

9.--England, France, and Belgium.| Dover and Calais. Dover and

_Jenkings and Churchward._ Daily | Ostend.

to Calais; thrice a week to |

Ostend. $77,500. |

|

10.--Channel Islands. | Southampton, Jersey, and

_South-western Railway Company._ | Guernsey.

Thrice a week. $20,000. |

|

11.--West Coast of South-America.| Panama, Callao, and Valparaiso.

_Pacific Steam Navigation Co._ | Allowed to touch at Buenaventura,

Twice a month. $125,000. | Guayaquil, Peyta, Lambayeque,

| Huanchaco, Santa, Pisco, Islay,

| Arica, Iquique, Cobija, Gopiapo,

| Huasco, and Coquimbo.

|

12.--Scotland and Orkney. _John | From Scrabster Pier (Thurso) to

Stanger, Esq., of Stromness._ | Stromness, (Orkney.)

Daily in summer; every other day |

in winter. $6,500. |

|

13.--West Coast of Africa. | Plymouth to Madeira, Teneriffe,

_African Steamship Co._ Monthly. | Goree, Bathurst, Sierra Leone,

$106,250. | Monrovia, Cape Coast Castle,

| Accra, Whydah, Badagry, Lagos,

| Bonny, Old Calabar, Cameroon and

| Fernando Po; omitting Cameroon,

| Calabar, and Bonny on return.

|

14.--South-Africa, Mauritius, and| Dartmouth to Cape of Good Hope,

Calcutta. _Adam Duncan Dundas, | Mauritius and Calcutta.

Esq._ Monthly. $205,000. |

|

15.--England and Australia. _The | Southampton, Marseilles, Malta,

European and Australian Mail | Alexandria, Suez, and Sydney.

Steam Packet Co._ Monthly. |

$925,000. |

The following are the names of the steamers in service in each

line, with the amount of tonnage, the horse power of each, the

draught of water, the number of the officers and crew attached to

each one, and, when it could be obtained, the date that each

vessel was surveyed and approved for the service. Where the date

of survey of a vessel is unknown, it is placed as near as possible

with others surveyed at the same time, the vessels in each line

being arranged in chronological order:

1. LIVERPOOL AND ISLE OF MAN.

Draft of

Horse Water. Date of

Name, Class, etc. Power. Tonnage. F. I. Crew. Survey

----------------------+------+--------+--------+-----+------------

King Orry, 190 429 0 0 22 Dec., 1845

Tynwald, iron, 260 657 8 9 29 Oct., 1846

Benmy Chree, 130 295 6 6 18 June, 1847

Mona's Queen, iron, 220 508 8 6 22 M'ch, 1853

====== ======== =====

Total, 4 vessels, 790 2,089 91

2. ENGLAND AND IRELAND.

Prince Arthur, iron, 220 418 8 8 26 July, 1852

Llewellyn, iron, 342 654 9 6 29 Oct., 1852

Eblana, iron, 372 685 8 11 31 Jan., 1853

St. Columba, iron, 350 650 8 10 29 Sept., 1853

====== ======== =====

Total, 4 vessels, 1,284 2,407 115

3. SCOTLAND AND SHETLAND.

Fairy, 120 350 -- 18 --

Duke of Richmond, 180 500 -- 24 --

====== ======== =====

Total, 2 vessels, 300 850 42

4. ENGLAND, SPAIN, AND GIBRALTAR.

Sultan, iron, 420 1,001 14 0 67 Jan., 1853

Madrid, iron, 133 448 10 2 40 Feb., 1853

Tagus, 280 691 14 8 41 Jan., 1854

Alhambra, 140 642 13 7 52 July, 1855

====== ======== =====

Total, 4 vessels, 973 2,782 200

5. MEDITERRANEAN, INDIA, AND CHINA.

Lady Mary Wood, 270 619 0 0 40 Feb., 1842

Precursor, 520 1,783 18 0 121 July, 1844

Pekin, iron, 415 1,003 14 0 78 Jan., 1847

Oriental, 420 1,427 13 0 78 M'ch, 1848

Achilles, 430 823 16 0 59 June, 1849

Malta, iron, 460 1,222 0 0 82 Sept., 1848

Hindostan, 500 1,595 16 10 53 July, 1849

Singapore, iron, 465 1,189 12 6 96 M'ch, 1851

Ganges, iron, 465 1,189 14 7 69 June, 1851

Pottinger, iron, 450 1,275 17 6 82 April, 1852

Formosa, screw, iron, 177 658 13 6 60 Aug., 1852

Chusan, screw, iron, 100 765 11 3 45 Aug., 1852

Haddington, iron, 450 1,303 17 7 105 Nov., 1852

Vectis, 400 900 0 0 51 --

Shanghae, screw, iron, 90 825 0 0 60 --

Manila, 60 646 0 0 60 --

Bentinck, 520 1,973 19 3 83 Nov., 1852

Euxine, iron, 430 1,071 15 6 72 Jan., 1853

Bengal, screw, 465 2,185 17 6 115 Feb., 1853

Valetta, 400 984 12 2 51 July, 1853

Norna, screw, 230 1,040 0 0 80 Nov., 1853

Colombo, screw, 450 1,808 0 0 118 Dec., 1853

Ripon, iron, 445 1,400 14 9 94 Dec., 1853

Douro, screw, 230 903 13 3 63 Dec., 1853

Bombay, 280 1,240 0 0 84 --

Madras, 288 1,217 0 0 82 --

Indus, iron, 450 1,302 17 9 88 Jan., 1854

Candia, screw, iron, 450 2,212 18 9 115 June, 1854

Nubia, 450 2,095 21 0 122 -- 1855

Pera, screw, iron, 450 2,013 19 0 129 Jan., 1856

Ava, screw, iron, 320 1,372 17 0 94 Feb., 1856

Alma, screw, iron, 450 2,164 20 0 124 M'ch, 1856

Aden, screw, iron, 210 507 18 9 40 Aug., 1856

Delta, screw, 210 985 0 0 64 -- 1856

Delhi, screw, 450 2,400 0 0 125 -- 1856

Unknown, 4 vessels.

====== ======== =====

Total, 39 vessels, 12,850 46,053 2,877

6. ENGLAND AND UNITED STATES.

Europa, 650 1,777 15 6 88 July, 1848

Canada, 680 1,774 19 6 88 Nov., 1848

Niagara, 630 1,774 19 6 88 Dec., 1849

America, 630 1,729 15 3 88 Jan., 1850

Asia, 800 2,073 19 0 105 May, 1850

Africa, 800 2,050 0 0 105 Oct., 1850

Arabia, 870 2,328 16 7 105 Dec., 1852

Persia, 858 3,587 21 0 165 Feb., 1856

====== ======== =====

Total, 8 vessels, 5,918 17,092 922

7. NORTH AMERICA, (Colonial.)

Merlin, 120 451 0 0 26 May, 1850

Delta, screw, iron, 180 700 12 10 34 June, 1852

====== ======== =====

Total, 2 vessels, 300 1,151 60

8. WEST-INDIES, MEXICO, AND SOUTH-AMERICA.

Dee, 410 1,269 18 0 87 May, 1846

Trent, 450 1,293 17 7 87 April, 1848

Eagle, 263 496 11 10 57 July, 1849

Derwent, 280 708 15 0 66 July, 1850

Magdalena, 760 2,250 19 0 108 May, 1852

Medway, 420 1,305 17 6 72 May, 1852

La Plata, 939 2,404 21 10 114 Aug., 1852

Conway, 270 827 12 10 55 Sept., 1852

Orinoco, 800 2,245 20 11 108 Oct., 1852

Avon, 450 2,069 17 0 94 M'ch, 1853

Teviot, 450 1,258 18 1 97 April, 1853

Parana, 800 2,222 21 2 120 May, 1853

Clyde, 430 1,335 19 1 87 June, 1853

Thames, 413 1,285 18 3 72 Aug., 1853

Solent, 420 1,805 14 11 88 Oct., 1853

Camilia, iron, 213 640 9 0 34 Oct., 1853

Wye, screw, iron, 180 818 14 0 45 Feb., 1854

Atrato, iron, 758 2,906 20 6 127 M'ch, 1854

Tamar, 400 1,873 18 7 93 June, 1854

Prince, 200 446 8 8 35 July, 1854

====== ======== =====

Total, 20 vessels, 9,306 29,454 1,667

9. ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND BELGIUM.

Alliance, 120 300 7 3 16 --

Vivid, 120 300 7 0 16 --

Violet, 120 300 7 0 16 --

Empress, 100 308 6 6 16 --

Queen, 100 307 6 6 16 --

Ondine, 80 250 6 0 16 --

====== ======== =====

Total, 6 vessels, 640 1,765 96

10. CHANNEL ISLANDS.

Atalanta, 120 240 8 4 21 Oct., 1846

Wonder, iron, 150 449 0 0 22 Feb., 1853

Courier, iron, 184 440 7 0 18 April, 1853

Dispatch, iron, 183 443 7 6 22 Aug., 1853

Express, iron, 160 380 7 4 24 Nov., 1853

====== ======== =====

Total, 5 vessels, 797 1,852 107

11. WEST COAST OR SOUTH-AMERICA.

New-Granada, iron, 210 600 13 0 41 Nov., 1846

Bolivia, iron, 252 705 0 0 41 Oct., 1849

Inca, iron, 370 549 13 0 55 Aug., 1851

Lima, iron, 370 1,122 10 8 55 Nov., 1851

Bogota, iron, 394 1,122 13 6 61 April, 1852

Valdivia, screw, iron, 480 782 13 2 41 Nov., 1853

Valparaiso, iron, 320 839 13 6 84 --

====== ======== =====

Total, 7 vessels, 2,396 5,719 377

12. SCOTLAND AND ORKNEY.

(Unknown,) 60 250 6 0 16 --

13. WEST COAST OF AFRICA.

Hope, iron, 120 833 15 0 46 --

Charity, iron, 120 1,007 15 6 52 --

Ethiope, 120 674 0 0 42 --

Candace, 120 900 0 0 46 --

Retriever, 120 900 0 0 46 --

Niger, 120 900 0 0 46 --

Gambia, 130 637 14 0 42 --

====== ======== =====

Total, 7 vessels 850 5,951 320

14. SOUTH-AMERICA, MAURITIUS, AND CALCUTTA.

Five screw steamers,

Total, 5 vessels, 2,000 8,000 -- 570 --

15. ENGLAND AND AUSTRALIA.

Oneida, 400 1,600 15 6 84 --

Simla, 630 2,510 17 2 88 --

European, 530 2,200 18 9 115 --

Columbian, 530 2,300 17 6 120 --

(Unknown,) 400 1,600 0 8 88 --

(Unknown,) 400 1,600 0 8 88 --

(Unknown,) 400 1,600 0 8 88 --

====== ======== =====

Total, 7 vessels, 3,290 13,410 671

RECAPITULATION.

KEY:

A: Lines.

B: Number of steamers.

C: Horse Power.

D: Tonnage.

E: Number of men.

F: Service commenced.

G: How often.

H: Annual Compensation.

------+----+--------+--------+-------+------+-----------+-------------

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H

------+----+--------+--------+-------+------+-----------+-------------

1 | 4 | 790 | 2,089 | 91 | 1833 | 2 a week | $4,250

2 | 4 | 1,284 | 2,408 | 115 | 1850 | 2 a day | 125,000

3 | 2 | 300 | 850 | 42 | 1840 | 1 a week | 6,000

4 | 4 | 973 | 2,782 | 200 | 1852 | 3 a month | 102,500

5 | 35 | 12,850 | 46,053 | 2,877 | 1853 | 2 a month | 1,121,500

6 | 9 | 6,418 | 18,406 | 922 | 1850 | 1 a week | 866,700

7 | 2 | 300 | 1,151 | 60 | 1854 | 1 a month | 73,500

8 | 20 | 9,308 | 29,454 | 1,667 | 1851 | 3 a month | 1,350,000

9 | 6 | 640 | 1,765 | 96 | 1854 | 1 a day | 77,500

10 | 5 | 797 | 1,852 | 107 | 1848 | 3 a week | 20,000

11 | 7 | 2,396 | 5,719 | 378 | 1852 | 2 a month | 125,000

12 | 1 | 60 | 250 | 16 | 1856 | 1 a day | 6,500

13 | 7 | 850 | 5,951 | 320 | 1852 | 1 a month | 106,250

14 | 5 | 2,000 | 8,000 | 575 | 1856 | 1 a month | 205,000

15 | 7 | 3,290 | 13,410 | 671 | 1857 | 1 a month | 925,000

|====|========|========|=======| | |=============

Total, 121 | 42,254 |140,139 | 8,137 | | |$5,114,700[I]

-----------+--------+--------+-------+------+-----------+-------------

[I] There are some lines not here noticed, which swell the sum to

$5,333,985.--T. R.

PAPER C.

PROJET OF FRANCO-AMERICAN NAVIGATION.

Mr. Wm. Iselin, of Havre, kindly furnished me the following:

"The French Government has offered the following contracts:

"Havre to New-York, 26 voyages a year, fr.3,100,000, or $620,000.

"Bordeaux to Rio Janeiro, touching at Lisbon, Goree, Bahia, or

Pernambuco, and a branch line from Rio Janeiro to Montevideo and

Buenos Ayres, 24 voyages a year, fr.4,700,000, or $940,000. The

Government now requires 13 departures from Bordeaux and 13 from

Marseilles at the same price.

"Nantes to St. Thomas, thence to Guadalupe, and thence to

Martinique, with the following branch lines:

"No. 1. St. Thomas to St. Martha or Carthagena, and thence to

Aspinwall.

"No. 2. St. Thomas to Porto Rico, thence to Havana, Vera Cruz, and

Tampico.

"No. 3. From Martinique to Cayenne.

"The subvention offered is fr.6,200,000, or $1,400,000.

"The total amount of subvention offered for the 3 lines is

therefore 14 millions of francs per annum, or $2,800,000.

"The Messageries Imperiales have given a tender for the Brazil

lines.