THE ADVANTAGES OF OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION, FOREIGN AND COASTWISE, TO THE COMMERCE OF BOSTON, AND THE MANUFACTURES OF NEW ENGLAND. BBY PLINY MILES. AUTIIOR OF " POSTAL REFORMI," RAMIBLES IN ICELAND," &C. BOSTON: PRINTED BY EMERY N. MOORE & CO., 1 WATER STREET. 1857. CONTENTS. [ALPHABETICAL INDEX AT THE CLOSE OF THE WTORK.] PAGE. CHAPTER I. Boston Trade compared with New York-National Statistics -Lines of Steamships connecting the various American Ports with Europe................................................... 1 CHAPTER II. Tonnage and Customs Duties in Different Ports-Increase of Trade at Singapore since the advent of Steamships-List of Steamships owned by the Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company................................................. 5 CHAPTER III. Fluctuations of Trade-Trade departing from slight causes -Examples of Bristol and Liverpool - Greenock and Glasgow -Hull, Southampton, Portsmouth - Liverpool Trade compared with London-Holland and Venice.10 CHAPTER IV. Increase of Trade with the Zollverein since Steamers have run to Bremen-Trade with Africa-Frequent trips necessaryStatistics of Emigration, and the number of Americans travelling abroad for thirty-six years.................................. 15 CHAPTER V. Distances across the Atlantic by the various routesAdvantages of Boston —Steamship Trade of Great BritainBusiness of the General Steam Navigation Company - Bonded Trade through Boston to Canada............................. 21 CHAPTER VI. Opposition of Liverpool to a Packet Station in IrelandAdmiralty Commissioner Report —Limerick, Foynes, Valencia, Galway and Belfast-Time of Crossing the English Channel-Short Voyages preferred by Travellers........................... 26 iv CONTENTS. PAGE. CHAPTER VII. Resources, Trade, Productions and Wants of different Cities and Districts of Ireland-Corn Trade of Great BritainIrish Linen Manufacture.................................... 31 CHAPTER VIII. Steamships competing with Sailing Vessels-Fruit Trade -Ocean Telegraph-Advantages of Steamers to EmigrantsProsperity of Ireland-Sale of Encumbered Estates-Decrease of Pauperism-Emigration.................................... 36 CHAPTER IX. Sketch of Ocean Steam Navigation —The First Steamer crossing the Ocean-The Cunard Line —Comparative speed of Screw and Paddle-wheel Steamers-Saunderson's Propeller-If Ireland is to have Steamships, Irishmen must act............... 42 CHAPTER X. Ocean Mail Service-Statistics of Letter Correspondence and Newspapers between the United States and Europe —Correspondence restricted by High Ocean Postage-Bad Policy of High Rates..................................................... 48 CHAPTER XI. Origin of the Post Office-Enormous Subsidies paid to two Steamship Companies-False Economy and Injustice of the present Exorbitant Rates of Trans-Atlantic Postage.................... 56 CHAPTER XII. The Coasting Trade-Exports and Imports for Ten Years-Manufactures of Boston-Receipts of Produce Coastwise -Domestic Trade with Cuba-European Steamship Lines to the West Indies and South America............................. 63 CHAPTER XIII. Railroads in the United States, and throughout the world-Wealth, Population, and Tonnage of the United Statescost of Freight to the Mississippi valley....................... 74 CHAPTER XIV. Steamships between Great Britain and the New England Coast..................................................... 83 CHAPTER XV. The Grand Trunk Railway of Canada-the true Position of the Road and the Interest of the Stockholders............... 87 Boston, Mass., Jan. 1, 1857. PLINY MILES, ESQ., BOSTON. DEAR SIR,-The undersigned have noticed with much interest the several articles on the subject of Ocean Steam Navigation, recently published in the BOSTON POST, of which we understand from the editors you are the author. We believe that the interests of Boston imperatively demand the further and immediate extension of the facilities of communication by Ocean Steamers, and more especially with Southern cities in the United States, of which in this connection we regard New Orleans as much the most important, not only on account of its local business, but as a mediuml of communication with Western cities on the Mississippi and its tributaries. We are therefore desirous that your articles, which contain so much valuable information respecting Ocean Steam Navigation, and especially applicable to Steam communication with the South, should be published in pamphlet form, for general circulation, in order that this subject may be brought more directly to the special notice of those who have an intelligent and comprehensive appreciation of the necessity of persevering and associated efforts to promote the commercial, manufacturing, and other interests of Boston and of New England. We, are Sir, very respectfully yours, GEO. BATY BLAKE, ANDREW T. HALL, T. W. PEIRCE, WILLIAM AMORY, E. S. TOBEY, J. W. PAIGE, WILLIAM DWIGHT, C. 0. WHITMORE, ELIJAH C. EMERSON, H. K. HORTON, JOSEPH WHITNEY, ALPHEUS HARDY, TYLER BATCHELLER, WVILIAM T. GLIDDEN, SAMUEL LAWRENCE, LEWIS WV. TAPPAN; GARDNER BREWER,'J. D. BRIGHAM, JAMES LAWVRENCE, PETER BUTLER, JR. J. A. BURNHAM, CHARLES H. MILLS. E. R. MUDGE. Trertont House, Boston, Jan. 2, 1857. GENTLEMEN,-Your communication of yesterday desiring the publication of the articles on Ocean Steam Navigation, in pamphlet form, is at hand. The subject of Steam communication with Europe, and with our Southern ports, has occupied my attention for some time, and at the request of the editors of the BOSTON POST, some months since, I set about preparing the articles. I am happy to learn that the facts and arguments brought together on the subject have attracted the attention of gentlemen of intelligence and capital, and will, with pleasure revise the matter, and send it to you for )publication, at ani early day. Very respectfulll, Your obt serv't, PLINY MILES. MESSRS. GEo. BATY BLAKE, Ti. W. PEIRCE, E. S.'IOBEY, and others. INTRODUCTORY. THE following chapters were written to demonstrate the necessity and importance of Ocean Steam Navigation to the port of Boston, and to give a cursory glance at the steamship trade of the world. They have been extended beyond the length originally designed, but when the interesting nature of the vastly extended Steam commerce of the world is taken into consideration, and the bearing that steam traffic has on the prosperity of civilized, and the civilizing of barbarous nations, the reader will perhaps not consider the work too voluminous. The opinion is too prevalent that the merchant is the individual most immediately interested in facilities of transportation. This is evidently a mistake. While the planter or farmer produces the raw material, and the manufacturer combines or makes up, the merchant endeavors to effect a sale. Stop or delay the means of conveyance, and all parties suffer alike. So intimately blended are the interests of every class, that let either suffer-no matter what the cause-and all feel the pressure that bears upon one. In commerce, to-day, the great question is, what are the facilities for transportation. Towns and cities in fortunate locations are built up in a few years, while others that have flourished and prospered in days of stage coaches and sailing vessels, are passed by and eclipsed by more fortunate and energetic rivals. Trade, correspondence, and travel go in the same channel. One order, one traveller, or one customer is the pioneer of many others. Vill INTRODUCTORY. A carriage made in a New England village was seen by a gentleman from Mississippi: he was pleased with it, purchased it, and had it sent to his home. On its arrival, the price and quality became known, and orders from dealers and private parties were at once sent on for seventy more of the same description. This was the natural result. Were a line of steamers started from Boston to New Orleans, every package, every letter and every sample of goods conveyed, would be but the forerunners and heralds of many cargoes. But the merchants of Boston, the cotton spinners of Lowell, the shoe manufacturers of Lynn, and the carriage makers of Worcester, are not the only parties who are interested in a line of steamers from Boston to our Southern ports. Cotton, hemp, and other products as low down as Memphis have found an inland, lake, river and rail transportation to Boston. On the other hand, pork and flour have been sent from Chicago by way of the Illinois Central Railroad, Cairo and the Mississippi river to New Orleans, there to be shipped to a Northern market. The traffic in these two directions has just commenced. The latter is suggestive; the former a warning. Bend the twig and there grows the tree. Let New Orleans strive now for an active steam traffic with all the waters of the Mississippi valley on the one hand, and the great cities of the Atlantic sea-board on the other, and some day, it will be as essential to the trade of the interior of all North America with its five hundred millions of people, as Venice, Constantinople, Alexandria and Bagdad were once essential to the traffic of the East, or as Canton, London, Liverpool, and New York, are to-day essential to the commerce of the world. Two bales of cotton sent from Charleston to Liverpool, sixtyfive years ago, commenced a trade that is now reckoned by millions of bales every year. With the same inevitable result' will the single package of domestic goods, the single piece of inachinery, or the single carriage, sent by steamship to-day, react and multiply twenty, fifty, and a hundred fold, build up manufacturing towlis, spread the snowy canvas, and send the fleet steamer INTRODUCTORY. iX over every sea, and convert Southern cities into great commercial marts. In shipping goods, or in going on a journey, the, merchant and the traveller desire to see their way through. from the start, lest there be a delay on the passage. There are steamship lines direct from Liverpool to Gibraltar, Marseilles, Naples, Messina, Malta, Smyrna, Constantinople and Alexandria. and there are also steamers running regularly from Liverpool to Boston. Now the traveller at St. Louis, Rock Island, Chicago, or Milwaukee, who wishes to visit any part of the Mediterranean or the East, knows his route through direct. He can check his luggage, and take a passage ticket on the railroad by way of Niagara Falls to Boston, and know within a few hours the time that he will arrive. Here he embarks on a steamer and one more change at Liverpool will take him to his destination, six or seven thousand miles from the Mississippi valley. These are but illustrations of the great principle of successful traffic. Show the convenience, or make it necessary for one man or one bale of goods to go a certain route between two great cities, and a trade is established, that nothing but lack of energy, or a successfill route can break down. With a view to the establishment of a line of steamers to run from here to New Orleans, a most influential committee of merchants in Boston has taken the matter in hand, and the subject has also engaged the attention of leading merchants in New Orleans and St. Louis. The following act of incorporation of the Boston and New Orleans Steamship Company is in every respect a most favorable one. It provides for association without personal liability, and gives the most ample range for commercial action, allowing the company to send steamers to our Southern ports and the West Indies, and to enter into contracts "to run steamships between any such port or ports, and any other port or ports whatsoever." X INTRODUCTORY. COMMONWvEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. In the year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty-Six. AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE BOSTON AND NEW ORLEANS STEAMSHIP COMPANY. Be it enacted by the Senate and IHouse of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by th/e authority of the same, as follows:SECTION 1. James M. Beebe, William Dwight, George B. Blake, William Thomas, Andrew T. Hall, Lewis NV. Tappan, their associates and successors, are hereby made a corporation by the name of the BOSTON AND NEW ORLEANS STEAMSHIP COMPANY, for the purpose of navigating the ocean by steam, with all the powers and privileges, and subject to all the duties, restrictions, and liabilities set forth in the forty-fourth chapter of the Revised Statutes. SECT. 2. rThe said company are hereby authorized to build, purchase, hold and convey one or more steamships, and may therewith navigate the ocean, between Boston and the Southern ports of the United States and Cuba, and any islands, possessions, or provinces of European powers in the West Indies, and may enter into such contracts with other persons as they may deem expedient, to run steamships between any such port or ports, and any other port or ports whatsoever. SECT. 3. The said company may hold real estate, not exceeding in value two hundred thousand dollars, and personal property to an amount not exceeding one million of dollars. SECT. 4. l'he number of shares into which the capital stock of said company shall be divided, and the amount of each share, shall be fixed by the by-laws, and the said company shall have power to assess from time to time, upon such shares, such sums of money as may be deemed necessary to accomplish the objects of said company; but no share shall be assessed for a greater sum or sums in the whole, than the amount of such shares, so determined and fixed as aforesaid. SECT. 5. The said corporation shall continue for the term of thirty years, but if the said corporation shall not, within two years from the passing of this act, have been organized, and have laid an assessment or assessments to the amount of ten per cent. upon the capital stock, and shall not within three years from the passage of this act, have built and equipped at least two steamships for the purposes of said company, and shall not use the same for the purposes in this act expressed, then this act shall become null and void. SECT. 6. No shares in the capital stock of said corporation shall be issued for a less sum or amount than the par value of the shares first issued. SECT. 7. This act shall take effect from and after its passage. HOUSE OF RIEPRESENTATIVES, May 29, 1856. Passed to be enacted. CHARLES A. PHELPS, Speaker. IN SENATE, Mlay 30, 1856. Passed to be enacted. ELIHU C. BAKER, President. May 31, 1S56. Approved. HENRY J. GARDNER. SECRETARY'S OFFICE, June 2, 1S856. A true copy. Attest. FRA-NCIS DE M ITT, Secretary of the Commonwealth. INTRODUCTORY. Xi While the most prominent and immediate purpose of this publication is, as expressed in the foregoing correspondence, to show the advantages and urgent necessity of a line of steamships between Boston and the Gulf of Mexico, the day may be presumed to be near at hand when an increase of the steam commerce between this port and Europe must inevitably take place. Is it not reasonable to suppose that every industrial interest in New England would receive a stimulus and reap extended profits from such additional steam communication? Is it not evident that by enlarging the market for foreign goods, the steam and other commerce with our Southern ports will necessarily increase? Would not both the commerce and manufactures of New England bear a tax, and reap a profit from additional steam communication across the Atlantic, as well as to the South, even though several years passed before a dividend was declared? Some day there will be a line of steamers from Boston to Ireland, and whether that day is near at hand, or some years in the future, it is confidently predicted that much of the reasoning in the following pages as applied to the wants of to-day can not be overthrown, and will at some period be demonstrated. And may we not hope, with the extension of commerce and civilization, and the progress of free trade principles, that that relic of a barbarous age, and blot on the escutcheons of Great Britain and the United States, an odious postal monopoly, and an enormous trans-Atlantic postage tax, will be consigned to the records of the past, and moulder in the volumes of repealed statutes? The writer of these pages is under special obligations to the iton. Alexander H. Rice, Mayor of Boston, Hon. Charles H. Peaslee, collector of the port, J. M. Beebe, Esq., President of the. Board of Trade, Isaac C. Bates, Esq., the Secretary, Mr. O'Brien, editor of the Boston Shipping List; to Thomas W. Peirce, and E. S. Tobey, Esqrs., and especially to his excellent friend, Col. Charles G. Greene, senior editor of the BOSTON POST, for valuable facts and suggestions, to all of whom he begs to return his sincere thanks. He has derived much advantage and assist Xii INTRODUCTORY. ance from these gentlemen, and while he has used lhis best endeavors to have every statement and figure authentic and reliable, he wishes it distinctly understood that, for ally fallacious reasoning or erroneous statements, no one is responsible but himself. P. M. Boston, Jan. 8, 1857. OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. CHAPTER I. BOSTON TRADE COMPARED WITH NEW YORK-NATIONAL STATISTICS -LINES OF STEAMSHIPS CONNECTING THE VARIOUS AMERICAN PORTS WITH EUROPE. ~ 1. While the merchants of Boston take a laudable pride in seeing their city occupy the second position among the commercial places of America, they know that that position is, to a great extent, the result of their labor, enterprise, and capital. Scarcely twenty years have elapsed since steam has revolutionized the traffic of the world. If our merchants and capitalists, during that time, had been sleeping on their oars, careless of the future, we should, ere this, have seen grass growing in the streets. For European, and East and West India trade, Boston has the advantage of an unrivalled locality, but that alone does not make a commercial city. Boston owns ten per cent. of the shipping, transports nearly eight per cent. of the exports, and more than fifteen per cent. of the imports of the entire country. The tonnage owned in Boston is about two-thirds as much as that in all the states south of Pennsylvania; and exceeds by nearly 100,000 tons the entire amount of shipping owned in Baltimore, Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans. 2. In 1854, the receipts from customs in the United States, amounted to $65,147,456; and of this sum, $60,010,489 was collected in the Northern States, and $5,136,967 at the south. The port of New York contributed $41,752,207, Boston $8,356,945, and Philadelphia $5,082,497. In amount of banking capital, in internal trade, 1 2 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. railroad traffic, postal communication, and in the number of travellers passing through the place, Boston will compare favorably with New York or any other city. This is the flattering side of the picture. In every species of commercial enterprise we have not kept pace with the times. Except coasting vessels, we do not own a single steamship. One foreign line of steamers has a station here, but with this we seem to be content, and are, comparatively, far behind New York. In the absence of frequent arrivals and departures of European steamers, we lose many of the advantages attending a direct trade. With a position that admits of the shortest voyages to and from the old world, there is less travel, and less immigration through, and to this port than there should be, and comparatively less than any other species of traffic. 3. The following tables show the comparative amount of business of Boston and New York, in the traffic of the country. The population in each case is according to the census of 18.50, the postal statistics for the year 1854, the banking capital for the commencement of 1856, the tonnage and steamships for 1856, and the exports and imports, the customs duties and immigration, an average of the last five years. The per centage-or proportion of the business of the nation'done in Boston and New York respectively-is expressed in whole numbers and decimals. All of the statistics may be considered as official. The trans-Atlantic steamship tonnage is the amount trading between this country and Europe, though much of it is owned abroad. Besides those mentioned, New York has several lines trading to New Orleans, Havana, Aspinwall and other places. NATIONAL STATISTICS. Amount Amount. per 1000 persons. Population of the United States.......23,191,876 Postal Revenue..................... $6,683,537 $270 Number of Letters sent by mail......119,634,418 5158 Banking Capital.................. $347,558,246 $15,000 Tonnage (mercantile marine).......... 5,212,00 1 224 Exports (average per year).........$248,508,108 $10,711 Imports (average per year)......... $261,717,357 $11,2855 Exports and Imports..............$510,225,465 $22,000 Receipts from Customs (average).....$52,580,498 $2,267 Immigration (average per year).......... 379,620 16 Trans-Atlantic steamships (tonnage)......109, 6 s 4 COMMERCIAL STATISTICS. 3 COMMERCIAL STATISTICS OF BOSTON AND NEW YORK. BOSTON. NEW YORK. Amount. pPer 1000 Per Amount. Per 1000 Per Persons. cent. Persons. cent. Population................ 136,881 -.58 515,547 -- 2 Personal Capital........... $248,721,100 $1,815,482 - $517,889,200 $1,004,634 - Postal Revenue............ $194,943 $1,423 2.9 $619,143 $1,200 9 Number of Letters......... 5,592,888 40,824 4.7 15,396,955 29,897 13 Banking Capital........... $31,960,000 $233,455 9.1 $49,453,660 $95,933 14 Tonnage.................. 546,268 4,000 10.5 1,288,234 2,500 25 Exports................... $19,469,193 $142,111 7.8 $91,109,790 $176,740 36 Imports............. $40,125,982 $293,177 15.3 $164,209,888 $318,545 63 Exports and Imports....... $59,595,175 $435,000, 11. $255,319,678 $495,285 50 Customs.................. $6,801,880 $49,685 13. $32,658,344 $63,353 62 Immigration............... 23613 12. 276,376 538 72 Steamship Tonnage........ 8,100 60. 8. 84662 160 84 We see by these figures that the highest per centage of business which is done in Boston is that of importing. The individual wealth, and the money invested in banking, per capita, in Boston, is nearly double that of New York. Reckoned according to the population, New York only exceeds Boston, in exports, imports, customs receipts, immigration and steamships. Of the European steamers, running to Boston, not one single ton is owned in the United States. 4. The number of trans-Atlantic steamers, the lines running to different ports, and the tonnage, are as follows:STEAMSIIIP LINES RUNNING TO NEW YORK. No. of Aggregate Lines. vessels. Tonnage. Collins Line, Liverpool, (paddle-wheel) American.. 4 13,200 Cunard Line, Liverpool, " " British.... 4 10,360 Scotch Line, Glasgow, (screw) ".... 3 6,612 Irish Line, Cork, " ".... 2 2, 600 Cunard Line, Havre, "".... 5 11,800 French Line, Havre, " French.... 3 4,500 Old Havre Iine, Havre, (paddle-wheel) American.. 3 7,200 Vanderbilt Line, Havre, "'.... 3 7,600 Independent Line, Havre, " ".. 1 1,800 4 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. Pelgian Line, Antwerp, (screw) Belgian... 5 12,590 Bremen Line, Bremen, (paddle-wheel) American... 2 4,000 Hamburg Line, Hamburg, (screw) German... 2 2,400 Total, running to New York; 12 lines........~ 37 84,662 LIVERPOOL AND BOSTON STEAMERS. Cunard Line, Liverpool, (paddle-wheel) British......4 8,100 LIVERPOOL AND PHILADELPHIA STEAMERS. Philadelphia Line, Liverpool, (screw) British..... 3 6,856 LIVERPOOL AND PORTLAND STEAMERS. Portland Line, Liverpool, (screw) British......... 2 3,000 Total, besides New York; 3 lines............. 9 17,956 Grand Total; 15lines...................... 46 102,618 Here we have an aggregate of 15 steamship lines, comprising 46 steamers of 102,618 tons burden. Of these lines seven are British, five American, one German, one French, and one Belgian. Eight lines (23 steamers) are screw propellers; and seven (23 steamers) are paddle-wheel. The money article of the London Times of June 21st says, "The Liverpool, Newfoundland and Halifax Steam Company has just been organized, and the first of their monthly line of screw steamers will leave Liverpool on the 20th of August." It is also announced that on the completion of the railway between Halifax and Windsor, passengers and freight will be conveyed in a few hours from Halifax to St. John, New Brunswick, and, by a system of through tickets, over the Grand Trunk Railway, to Canada. Here are steamship lines running on every side of Boston, while not a single trans-Atlantic steamer trading at this port is owned here, nor has there been any increase in the foreign steamers here for more than ten years. As an entrepot for goods and passengers for all parts of Canada, Boston has large advantages over every other port on the Atlantic. We intend to present the leading facts and statistics, showing the steamship trade of the world. This trade, to a great extent, is an absolute creation, often opening a traffic where little or none existed before. WV'e are satisfied that there is more than one European port where a large and profitable trade can be opened with Boston. TONNAGE AND CUSTOMS DUTIES. 5 CHAPTER II. TONNAGE AND CUSTOMS DUTIES IN DIFFERENT PORTS - INCREASE OF TRADE AT SINGAPORE SINCE THE ADVENT OF STEAMSHIPS -LIST OF STEAMSHIPS OWNED BY THE PENINSULAR AND ORIENTAL STEAMSHIP COMPANY. ~ 5. TWe cannot judge of the comparative prosperity of a place by any one branch of business. An unusual depression or expansion in the money market, a state of war or peace between powerful nations, or other unforseen causes, may make a vast difference in the amount of foreign trade, either with a single port or the entire country. We cannot, consequently, take any one or two years as a standard of prosperity. The following table exhibits the amount of tonnage owned, and the receipts from customs in different sections of the Union, and in different cities, and also the increase or decrease in four years: - AMOUNT OF TONNAGE OWNED, AND TIE CUSTOM DUTIES COLLECTED IN DIFFERENT LOCALITIES. TONNAGE.. CUSTOMS DUTIES. i 1851. 1855. 1850. 1854. 0 Northern States.................. 3,015,010 4,345,469 43 $36,307,523 $60,010,489 65 Southern States.................. 757,429 866,532 13 4,121,935 5,136,967 24 Total, United States.............. 3,772,439 5,212,001. 38 40,429,458 65,147,456 61 New York....................... 931,193 1,288,234 38 24,696,268 41,752,207 69 Boston........................... 342,936 546,268 59 6,053,850 8,356,945 38 Philadelphia.............. 222,428 294,806 32 3,221,579 5,082,497 58 Baltimore....................... 160,511 183,108 14 996,101 908,003 nil. Charleston...................... 31,910 56,419 76 478,620 431,849 nil. Savannah..................... 22,265 27,595 24 182,634 143,485 nil. New Orleans.................... 251,900 200,836 nil 1924698 2,581,293 34 San Francisco................... 58,063 87,842 51 998,7191 2,256,579 126 6 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. This is a fair resume, showing the proportionate amount of tonnage owned, and the amount of imports, as exhibited in the receipts from customs. We see that throughout the United States, in the four years from 1851 to 1855, the increase of tonnage was 38 per cent.; in the Northern States 43 per cent.; and at the south 13. In the four years from 1850 to 1854, the customs duties in the entire country increased 61 per cent.; 65 per cent. at the north, and 24 per cent. at the south. One of the vast advantages possessed by the northern states over the southern, for European trade, is the shorter and quicker voyages. In this particular Boston has the advantage of New York. We see, though, that while the tonnage of Boston increased 59 per cent., and that of New York 38 per cent., the customs duties at the latter port during a similiar period was 69 per cent., and in Boston 38. Boston is a large shipbuilding place, and many vessels that are owned here, are engaged in trade at other places. While there was a positive falling off of 25 per cent. in four years in the tonnage at New Orleans, the imports, as shown by the customs, increased 34 per cent. during a similar period. The customs receipts at San Francisco increased 126 per cent., while the tonnage owned in the port only exhibits an increase of 51 per cent. A considerable proportion of the increased tonnage of Boston, it is reasonable to suppose, went into the New Orleans and the California trade. 6. To what single cause are we to attribute the vast increase of foreign trade at New York so much as to ocean steamers l We have seen the great preponderance of European steamship trade at that port, (~ 3-4). Philadelphia has a profitable line of steamers, owned by Richardson Brothers, of Belfast and Philadelphia. These steamers have generally been loaded with goods and passengers. The writer of these chapters once crossed the ocean in one of these steamers, and, from a knowledge of the freight and passenger list, is enabled to speak confidently as to the profit of the single voyage, which was not less than twenty thousand dollars. The direct profit to the owners is of course only a minor consideration. The power, activity and punctuality of steam communication, all, have a tendency to draw and concentrate every other STEAMSHIP TRADE. 7 species of traffic. And where would this steam commerce go were it not for this line of steamers, having a terminus at Philadelphia? Most certainly to New York. The freight was for Philadelphia, and places further west, and many of the passengers also, though quite a number of the latter were for New York. These steamers are not noted for speed, the tonnage being out of proportion to the steam power. The voyage referred to was unusually longtwenty days. The fares are lower than in the New York paddle-wheel steamers, and many passengers travel by this line in consequence of its carrying them nearer their own destination. 7. In both freight and passenger traffic, by land as well as by water, one fact is often lost sight of; and that is, that each line has principally to depend on its own locality for support. In many instances, where there is a ruinous competition between two railroads for a " through" traffic, each road would have made a good profit by devoting every energy to develop the local trade, without paying any attention to the business of the other. The most profitable traffic on the great New York and Erie Railroad is the local business along the line. The Great Northern Railway from London to Edinburgh, through York and Newcastle, runs a fast train every day, at a positive loss, in order to draw off the through travel from the London and Northwestern. The train is an expensive one, run at a high rate of speed-forty miles an hour —with high fares, and carries only a few passengers. Were the European steamers withdrawn that run to Philadelphia and Boston, nine-tenths of the passengers, and a large share of the freight would at once be transferred to the New York steamers. And this would not only carry the steamship trade to New York, but a large amount of trade by sailing vessels would go with it. 8. Every fact goes to show that, to a great extent the steam traffic of the world is almost entirely a creation of new business. More horses are employed in these days of railroads than before any were built; and since the introduction of steam ships, sailing vessels have increased faster than before. There is scarcely a port in the entire range 8 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. of steam navigation that does not demonstrate the fact that the trade by steamers is so much added to the ordinary traffic by sailing vessels, and often is the means of increasing the latter to a vast extent. One or two instances will be cited. Since 1850, there has been a large steam traffic between England, Bombay, Calcutta, Singapore, and other ports in China and the East Indies. A letter from Singapore to the New York Herald, gives the following as the EXPORTS AND IMPORTS AT SINGAPORE IN THREE YEARS. EXPORTS. IMPORTS. TOTAL. 1852............$1 1,963,880 $11,715,747 $239,679,627 18553....... 14,892,839 12,309,688 27,202,527 1854.......... 1S,789,552 17,172,396 35,961,948 9. To give a just idea of the Mediterranean, India and China steam traffic, and the sizes and classes of the vessels used, we copy from a report in the London Times, the entire FLEET OF THE PENINSULAR AND ORIENTAL STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY, WITH PARTICULARS OF TIIEIR EMPL(YMENT. HORSE KIND OF WHERE POWER. VESSEL. EMPLOYED. Ava.......................... 1620 320 Screw. Southampton and Pera.......................... 2126 450 " Alexandria serIndus........... 1700 450 Paddle-wheel. vice. Euxine................. 1165 400 Vectis........................ 900 400 Malta andMarseilles Valetta....................... 900 400 cc" 44 service. valetta.900 400 " Ad service. Tagus........................ 900 280 "' 1 Alhambra. 720 140 Screw. Madrid...................... 500 160 Paddle-wheel. Sultan........................ 1090 200 Screw. Bentinck.........1800 520 Paddle-wheel. Hindostan.................... 1800 520 " is Oriental.1600 500.. "I Suez and Calcutta Bengal....................... 2300 500 Screw. service. Nubia........................ 2200 450.1 Bombay...................... 1200 280 " s Singapore................... 1300 500 Paddle wheel. Ganges....................... 1300 500 l Erin,850 250 " " Norna..............1035 230 Screw. Bombay and Aden Madrid....................... 1200and Bombay and Cadiz........850 220 China service. Pottinger.................... 1300 450 Paddle-wheel. Malta........................ 1250 50 Formosa...................... 800 220 Screw. Chusan................. 750 100 I4 Shanghai........ 700 100 Calcutta and China Precursor..................... 1600 500 Paddle-wheel. service. Pekin......................... 1200 430 Lady Mary Wood.............. 650 260;i LCadyto Mary0 Wood650 20 China local service. Canton....................... 400 150 Alma......................... 2200 450 Screw. -Proceeding to India. AUSTRALIAN MAIL SERVICE. 9 IN THE TRANSPORT SERVICE. Simla......................... 2600 600 Screw. Candia....................... 2200 450 " Coob.1800 450 I In the MediterraC olom bo....................... 18 00 450 h Ripon......................... 1600 450 Paddle-wheel. nean Rajah........................ 600 80 Screw. Sea. Manilla....................... 646 60 J NEW SHIPS. Delta...................... 985 210 Screw. Fitting out at Southampton. Delhi......................... 2400 450 " Build'g at Glasgow. RECAPITULATION. SCREW. PADDLE-WHEEL. TOTAL. Number........................ 21 19 40 Tonnage.................... 30,022 22,715 52,737 The company own, besides these, seven sailing vessels of an aggregate tonnage of 8,500 tons, making a total of 61,237 tons; and 13,840 horse power. This Company, with its immense fleet of vessels, possesses many advantages over smaller concerns.'Beyond Suez, on the highway to India, nearly all the steam traffic is in their hands. 10. In June last a contract was to be made for a monthly steam mail service from England to Australia, between the ports of Southampton and Melbourne. The tender that was considered most advantageous was made by a Glasgow company, and to them was awarded the contract, to commence in January, 1857, go by way of Alexandria and Suez, and receive for the monthly service ~185,00() ($925,000) a year. A failure to make the time proposed-no matter what the cause-to meet with a large deduction for each day's delay; and each day short of the time agreed on the company is to receive ~30 extra. The colony of Australia furnishes one half of the entire sum paid for the service. Letters are to go at a postage of sixpence sterling, and papers for one penny. It is anticipated that only ~40,000 a year-less than a quarter of the contract price-will at first be returned in postage. The above figures will give some idea of the vast importance of the steamship navigation that has been set on foot by British capitalists. By looking at the comparative increase of tonnage and customs duties at New York, Boston and other localities, (~ 5) it will be seen that we have something to do in steamship trade to hold our own and have our share in the steam traffic of the world. 2 10 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. CHAPTER III. FLUCTUATIONS OF TRADE — TRADE DEPARTING FROM SLIGHT CAUSES — EXAMPLES OF BRISTOL AND LIVERPOOL -GREENOCK AND GLASGOW - HULL, SOUTHAMPTON, PORTSMOUTH - LIVrERPOOL TRADE COMPARED WITHI LONDON- HOLLAND AND VENA'ICE. ~ 11. If any doubt is entertained that a fortunate locality will not alone command trade, or that a trade once secured will not remain without constant vigilance, a reference to a few facts will dispel the illusion. We have seen the vast increase of the traffic of Singapore since the advent of steam navigation (~ 8); we have seen the unparalleled amount of steamship commerce created in the Mediterranean and the East by a single company (~ 9), and that unquestionably without any diminution of the trade by sailing vessels. A reference to twb or three ports in Great Britain will show that trade not only follows enterprise, but departs in cases of neglect; and in the latter instances, too often never to return. Fifty years ago the trade of Bristol was much larger than that of Liverpool. The dock accommodation was sufficient for the traffic, but the corporation of Bristol, by a mistaken policy, established a series of exorbitant charges, against which the merchants and ship owners remonstrated in vain. An examination of the Mersey, and of the natural resources of Liverpool and Birkenhead, at once took place; "the corporation and the mayor" were consulted, extensive docks were planned, a transfer of capital and trade was made, Liverpool rose to the position of a first class city, and Bristol went down, and the great bulk of its trade departed never to return. The history of Greenock and Glasgow shows a similar result. A few years since all large vessels stopped at Greenock, the river not being deep enough to take them to Glasgow. Charges ENGLISH SEAPORTS. 11 were high, an illiberal spirit was shown by the corporation; the Glasgow merchants looked at the expense and advantages of deepening the river, they resolved to act at once, the Clyde was made navigable for ocean vessels, and now the foreign trade of Scotland is concentrated at Glasgow, and ships of the largest size anchor at the Broomielaw. Greenock is now a mere stopping place for vessels that depart from Glasgow, daily, for Liverpool, for Ireland, for the continent of America, and the East and West Indies. Hull, on the eastern coast of England, some twenty miles from the mouth of the Humber, has, by its position, secured a large share of the trade between Great Britain and the Baltic. A neglect to provide sufficient dock accommodations has been the principal cause of the building of that magnificent work, the Great Grimsby Docks, at the mouth of the river on the south side; the convenience of trading with London without crossing the river, added to the interest of certain railroad companies, have all been thrown into the scale, and Hull seems likely to lose a portion of the trade which formerly crowded her docks and filled her warehouses. Southampton is another instance of a small place rising to great importance in a short time by the energy of merchants taking advantage of a fortunate locality. 12. The following figures, giving the number of inhabitants in the principal ports on the English channel, show that a long established commerce, concentrated capital and large population cannot compete with the advantages of an eligible locality, aided by a spirit of enterprise: Seaports. Population. Portsmouth........72,096 Plymouth.....................................52,221 Falmouth....................................... 8,151 Total....... 132,468 Southampton............................. 35,305 A few years ago each of the first three mentioned places had a larger trade than Southampton. Seventy years ago 12 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. Falmouth was probably more noted as a point of arrival and departure for vessels trading with America, than any other port in the south or west of England. At this day Portsmouth, Plymouth and Falmouth, have about four times the population of Southampton, and yet the latter has a steamship trade six times as great as all of them put together. Did this traffic naturally fall into the lap of Southampton, or was it concentrated there by the activity and combined exertions of merchants, ship owners and railroad and steamship companies? Unquestionably the latter. Independent of the trade and profits of the companies that have made the investment, can we not see the vast advantages of this traffic to the entire trade of Southampton? The fleet of steamships that arrive and depart at Southampton trading at Bremen, Havre, Gibraltar, the Mediterranean, Africa, New York, South America, Ireland and the West Indies, probably equals the number that trade at New York. The business of victualling and coaling the steamers, and supplying the hotel accommodations and other wants of out-going and in-coming passengers, gives direct employment and profits to several thousand persons, and adds immensely to the money circulation among all classes. 13. Very few will believe, without seeing the figures, the proportion of the foreign trade of Great Britain that goes through the port of Liverpool. The exports and imports of the kingdom annually, amount respectively, to ~100,000,000, and ~150,000,000, or both together to $1,250,000,000; being more than double the foreign trade of the United States; the latter averaging $510,000,000. Liverpool fifty years ago, was an insignificant borough- formerly a pestiferous swamp, and a favorite home for a long-legged, frog-eating bird of the crane species, and known as the liver. This bird gleaning its living in a stagnant pool and grassy marsh, has given the name of Liver-pool to the third commercial city of the world, now a rival of New York and London. Every one knows the immense East and West India and China trade of London. The West India Docks of London cover nearly FOREIGN TRADE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 13 one hundred acres, and afford accommodations for shipping and freight to the amount of twenty millions sterling — $100,000,000. Does it then appear credible that Liverpool has about one gross half of the export trade of the kingdom? Look at the following figures. FOREIGN TRADE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 1854. 1855. Total. Exports..........~99,000,000 ~97,000,000 ~196,000,000 Imports... 152,500,000 144,000,000 296,500,000 Total..........251,500,000 ~241,000,000 ~492,500,000 FOREIGN TRADE OF LIVERPOOL DURING THE FIRST SIX MONTHS OF 1856. EXPORTS. IMPORTS. ~25,941,706 ~24,806,185 The exports of Liverpool and London in 1850 were as follows:LONDON. LIVERPOOL. ~14,127,527 ~34,891,847 This was for the entire year. All of these figures except the last item (which was copied from the British Almanac) are from the London Times of August 5th, 1856, the date of the publication of the returns of trade and navigation for the first half of the year. But for its favorable locality for trade with every part of the world, and particularly with America, and the energy and spirit of her merchants and capitalists, would Liverpool occupy the position she now does? MWe see that her export trade —the goods traffic, not the money exchange -far exceeds that of London. In round numbers Liverpool has about two-fifths of the export and import trade of the United Kingdom; London has about two-fifths, and the remaining fifth is distributed among the minor ports. 14. However prominent and prosperous a place may be, it is in vain to predict its position at any future period. Two hundred years ago, Holland did the traffic, the exchange, and the carrying trade of the world. 14 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. Not long previous to this period, the wonderful city at the head of the Adriatic was the greatest commercial mart in Christendom. "In youth she was all glory - a new Tyre: And monarchs gazed and envied in the hour When VENICE was a queen with an unequalled dower." What a contrast to the Venice of to-day, "a marvel and a show," where "sc ~ — Tasso's echoes are no more, And silent rows the songless gondolier — Her palaces all crumbling to the shore." This is the language of poetry, but nevertheless true. It is a historical record that may at some future day apply to any other place, however prosperous and powerful. TRADE WITH AFRICA. 15 CHAPTER IV. INCREASE OF TRADE WITH THE ZOLLVEREIN SINCE STEAMERS HAVE RUN TO BREMEN-TRADE WITH AFRICA-FREQUENT TRIPS NECESSARY-STATISTICS OF EMIGRATION, AND THE NUMBER OF AMERICANS TRAVELING ABROAD FOR THIRTY-SIX YEARS. ~ 15. If we wanted more instances than we have given, illustrating the fluctuations of trade, they could be readily cited. The American traffic with the port of Bremen and the states of the Zollverein, has doubled within a few years. The imports from the Zollverein in 1852, amounted to $15,456,540, and in 1855 to $20,949,566. The indirect trade (imports) from Switzerland to America, through the German states, in 1853, was $5,592,984, and in 1855two years later-it was $7,778,132, showing an increase ot nearly twenty per cent.; or over a million dollars a year. 16. A striking instance of the creation of a vast traffic from small beginnings, is seen in the trade between Great Britain and the west coast of Africa. A very few years ago-probably less than fifteen-palm oil, in the west ot Africa, was worth a dollar a gallon, and a late account from that region says not one thousand gallons left the country in a year. Now the traffic in that article with Great Britain alone, amounts to 700,000 gallons a year, at an average of thirty-three cents a gallon. For lubricating machinery, particularly in steam factories and on railroads, in Great Britain, this oil is used more than any or all other articles, being both cheaper and better. There is now a monthly line of steamers from Southampton to the west coast of Africa, the Madeira, and Canary Isles; Bristol has fifty-four ships in the trade with that coast, Liverpool thirty-five, and the entire number from Great Britainboth steamers and sailing vessels-is not less than one hundred. Some of these are ships of one thousand tons 16 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. burden. President Roberts, of Liberia, says twenty shiploads of palm oil go from Monrovia every year. The African trade with Great Britain is very large, and largely increasing; with us it is quite inconsiderable. Nearly every article of imported goods in that country-including large quantities of the coarser cotton fabrics-are furnished Liberia by Great Britain; and yet the United States contributes the population-the emigration —and has, on every account, the heaviest interest in the trade and prosperity of the colony. 17. No commercial fact is better linown than that a large trade will often flourish where a small traffic will not. If a British cutler wished to engage in the manufacture of knives and other edged tools, he would undoubtedly consult his interest by establishing himself in Sheffield. This is the great mart for that trade, and there all purchasers go. Were he at Hull, or Newcastle, or Manchester, he would be comparatively out of the market. In travel and the carrying trade, between different places, a frequent traffic will often be found profitable where a less frequent conveyance will not pay expenses. When there were four deliveries of letters in London in a day, the amount of mail matter was inconsiderable, and the profits very small; now there is a delivery every hour, and the number of letters is about a hundred millions annually, with a clear profit of nearly one million dollars. If there was a very large amount of travel and of goods traffic between the Mississippi valley and Great Britain, and that traffic all passed over the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, through Baltimore and Philadelphia, to and from New York, would the Baltimoreans be able to intercept and secure that traffic by establishing a line to Liverpool or Southampton, to sail once in one or two months. Certainly not. As well might we expect that a line of omnibuses in Broadway, New York, or in Washington Street, Boston, would secure the entire travel by departing once in two hours. As well might we expect that an air-line railroad from Boston to New York would compete successfully with the Fall River and Stonington steamers by having the trains leave only once a week. FAVORABLE POSITION OF BOSTON. 17 18. No. A steamship traffic to compete for the trade and travel of a nation, or any considerable portion of it, must have regular and frequent departures and make rapid journeys. Boston cannot carry off the trade of New York. It can, however, by a wise policy, secure its own legitimate share of traffic. For the foreign trade and travel of New England, northern New York, Michigan, and all of Canada, Boston has decided advantages over New York. Does a Bostonian, or a man from Maine, think of going to New York to take a steamer for Europe? On the contrary, aside from the shorter trip, the fares being twentyfive dollars less from Boston to England than from New York; and the same difference on a return voyage, while the cost of travel between this city and New York is only five dollars, there are substantial reasons why travellers, not only from New York, but from localities south or west of that place, should and do come to Boston as a point of embarkation, rather than embark at New York. The instances that we have quoted of trade leaving certain places, are not given to prove that Boston is going the same road. On the contrary, the unmistakable evidences of prosperity that we have shown by contrasting its trade with that of other places, exhibits the commerce of Boston in an enviable position. But we think it must be evident that we have not made the most of our position. The trade of a place may be good, very good, and may by little and little fall away, till, like a patient in the last hours of a lingering illness, the strength has gone never to return. "A thousand years scarce serve to form a state; An hour may lay it in the dust." And this is true in other respects as well as in nations. WVe are yet in the infancy of our ocean steam navigation. Once let the largest share of the travel, the mail traffic, the specie and the valuable parcels, flow into one great thoroughfare, and we may as well hope to see the Mississippi empty its waters into Massachusetts Bay, as to see it change. We have now a moderate amount of the foreign travel, and postal intercourse passing through Boston, but not enough. 18 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. 19. The amount of immigration, the arrivals at different ports, and the number of Americans going abroad each year, with the great increase during the last few years, show the stimulus that is given to travel by steam communication with foreign countries. The following figures giving the statistics of emigration since 1819, are from a compilation of emigration statistics, made by William J. Bromwell, Esq., of the State Department, at Washington. NUMBER OF PERSONS ARRIVING IN THE UNITED STATES, FROM ALL COUNTRIES, FROM 1820 TO 1855 INCLUISIVE. DATE. NO. OF PERSONS. DATE. NO. OF PERSONS. DATE. NO. OF PERSONS. 1820.......10,311 1832.......61,654 1844.......84,764 1821......11,644 1833.......59,925 1845......119,896 1822....... 8,549 1834......67,948 1846......158,649 1823....... 8,265 1835.......48,716 1847......239,482 1824....... 9,627 1836.......80,972 1848......229,483 1825.......12,858 1837...84,959 1849.....t365,253 1826......13,908 1.838.....45,159 1850......315,334 1827.....21,777 1839.......74,666 1851......408,828 1828...... 30,184 1840......92,207 1852......397,343 1829.......24,513 1841...... 87,805 1853......400,982 1830.......24,837 1842.....110.980 1854......460,474 1831.......23,880 1843......*56,529 1855......230,476 Total number of arrivals in 36 years...................4,482,837 IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES SINCE THE YEAR 1800. TOTAL AVERAGE NUMBER. ANNUALLY. From 1800 to 1809; 10 years......70,801 7,080 From 1810 to 1819; 10 years...................114,006 11,400 From 1820 to 1829; 10 years.........15....... 1,636 15,164 From 1830 to 1839; 10 years..................572;716 37,272 From 1840 to 1849; 10 years.....1,545,048 154,505 From 1850 to 1855; 6 years.....2,213,437 368,906 Total immigration from 1800 to 1855; 55 years....4,667,644 * Three Quarters. t Five Quarters. STATISTICS OF EMIGRATION. 19 20. Emigration from different countries to the United States, since 1819. ARRIVALS FROM DIFFERENT COUNTRIES IN 36 YEARS. COUNTRY. EMIGRANTS. COUNTRY. EMIGRANTS. Ireland.............. 747,930 Spain.......... 11,251 England............. 207,492 Italy............ 7,185 Scotland. 34,559 Belgium... 6,991 Wales............... 4,782 South America.......... 5,440 Great Britain.........1,348,682 Denmark... 3,059 British America....... 91,699 Portugal.. 2,049 Germany............ 1,206,087 Poland.. 1,318 United States......... 270,213 Azores. 1,288 France... 188,725 Russia................ 938 Prussia.............. 35,995 Sardinia.. 706 West Indies.......... 25,317 Central America.. 40 Switzerland.......... 31,071 Not stated...157,537 Norway and Sweden.... 29,441 All other countries...... 2,176 Holland........... 17,583 China........... 16,714 Total...4,482,837 Mexico.............. 15,969 ARRIVALS AT DIFFERENT PORTS DURING FIVE YEARS. 1851. 1852. 1853. 1854. 1855. Total. New York.................. 294,445 303,153 294,818 327,976 161,490 1,381,882 New Orleans................ 52,011 32,302 43,028 51,169 20,388 198,898 Boston..................... 25,187 21,831 25,832 27,483 17,735 118,068 Philadelphia................ 18,556 17,959 19,211 15,032 7,581 78,339 Baltimore.................. 8,589 14,148 11,368 13,154 6,830 54,089 United States............... 408,828 397,343 400,982 460,474 230,476 1,898,103 It will be seen that 72 per cent. of the emigration came through the port of New York, 10 per cent. to New Orleans, 6 per cent. to Boston, 4 per cent. to Philadelphia, and 3 per cent. to Baltimore. 21. Of the immigrants or passengers that arrived in the country since the year 1819, 2,435,144 were natives of Great Britain, and the British dominions; 270,213 natives of the United States; and 1,777,480 natives of all other countries. The natives of the United States that have arrived from foreign countries —those who have been abroad, at different periods — number as follows: 20 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. AMERICAN TRAVELLERS RETURNING FROM ABROAD. Total Average Number. Number. From 1820 to 1830; 11 years............. 24,649 2,241 From 1831 to 1840; 10 years............. 40,961 4,096 From 1841 to 1851; 10 years............. 54,924 5,492 During the year 1851.................... 29,362 29,362 During the year 1852............. 25,740 25,740 During the year 1853............... 32,337 32,337 During the year 1854................. 32,641 32,641 During the year 1855.................... 29,599 29,599 During the year 1856.....................39,319 39,319 Total from 1820 to 1856, inclusive.........309,532 8,366 The years in the emigration tables end the 30th of September. The number of Americans that arrived from abroad during the year ending the 30th of September, 1850, was 5,330, and during the quarter from Sept. 30th, to Dec. 31st, 1850, 5,594. In no previous year did the number exceed 7,500. The Collins line of steamers was started in 1850, and the very next year the number of American travellers crossing the Atlantic was 29,362. The American travellers that have been abroad since the Collins line of steamers started in 1850, (6 years,) number 188,998, being 33 per cent. more than the entire number (120,534,) during the previous thirty-one years. It will be but a very few years before the number of Americans going abroad annually will number a hundred thousand. It is but a a common-place truism to say that goods traffic goes, to a great extent, in the same channels with travel and postal intercourse. To say that five hundred or eight hundred thousand dollars paid annually to a New York steamship company for carrying the mail to Europe, is not a direct aid to the commerce of New York, is saying what few will believe. It is useless to attempt to create a trade in unnatural channels. No one will contend that the most direct highway for mails, passengers, and parcels between Europe and the United States is through New Orleans, Charleston, Baltimore or Philadelphia; but is New York the only channel, or the most direct one? We shall endeavor to show that Boston has some advantages that New York never had, and never can possess.'r'This number is the arrivals at New York only, and is not included in the 270,213; the total number from 1820 to 1855, inclusive. TRANS-ATLANTIC STEAMERS. 21 CHAPTER V. DISTANCES ACROSS THE ATLANTIC BY THE VARIOUS ROUTESADVANTAGES OF BOSTON — STEAMSHIP TRADE OF GREAT BRITAIN-BUSINESS OF THE GENERAL STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY —-BONDED TRADE THROUGH BOSTON TO CANADA. ~ 22. What are the principal requisites sought in a voyage across the ocean? Comfort, cheapness, speed and safety. That is to say, the greatest economy of strength, money and time. If passengers, as a general rule, could go by'steamer from here to Great Britain in eight days, or seven, they would certainly prefer that to a life on the ocean of ten, twelve or fourteen days. Every day saved is so much time to the wayfarer in the busy world, and it is thousands of dollars to the steamship proprietors. The average daily expense of an ocean steamship is from two to four thousand dollars. The lines of steamers from New York to Southampton and Bremen, from Philadelphia to Liverpool, and from New York to Glasgow, have each, probably, about as many passengers per trip as the lines of Cunard and Collins. Though the voyages have almost invariably been longer, the fares have been lower, and the places of arrival and departure have suited the convenience of many who wished to cross the Atlantic. To most persons the landing at and departing from Boston or New York may be reduced to a very simple problem. Given, two routes across the ocean, each equally convenient in the places of arrival and departure, and one of them the shortest and cheapest, and which will receive the most patronage? Now there are many persons, particularly those living in New York, who would prefer-other things being equal-to embark or land at that port, but this consideration would not always weigh, in comparison to a fare materially cheaper, and a voyage shorter by one or two days. Boston can have these advantages over New York. 22 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. 2:3. We made application to Lieut. Maury, Slperintendent of the National Observatory at Washington, for the correct distances across the Atlantic by the various routes, (circle sailing) and the following are the results furnished us: Geographical Miles. Philadelphia (via. Delaware Capes) to Liverpool......... 3090 New York to Southampton.......................... 2980 New York to Liverpool............................ 2880 New York to Glasgow........................ 2800 Boston to Liverpool................................ 2720 Boston to Belfast............................ 2620 Boston to Galway............................ 2520 Cape Race (Newfoundland) to Galway................. 1730 The distance then from Boston to Liverpool is shorter than from Miles. Philadelphia to Liverpool, by........................ 370 New York to Southampton, by....................... 260 New York to Liverpool, by........................... 160 The distance from Boston to Galway is shorter than from Miles. Philadelphia to Liverpool, by.............5. 570 New York to Southampton, by. 460 New York to Liverpool, by. 360 New York to Glasgow, by. 280 Boston to Liverpool, by. 200 Boston to Belfast, by................................ 100 From this we see that the difference in distance between New York and Liverpool, and Boston and Liverpool, is 160 miles; and if we take the Galway route the advantage over the route from New York to Liverpool is 360 miles; over the Southampton route 460 miles, and over the Philadelphia and Liverpool route 570 miles. Looked at in any form, the ocean can be crossed, fromn Boston to Ireland, in from one to two days less time than by any other route. Now are not these advantages that can be turned to account. It is not so much our purpose to "make out a case" for any particular locality, as to show that Boston has advantages both for foreign and coasting trade over any other GENERAL STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY. 23 American, port, to show that in traffic by ocean steamers we have not kept pace with the times; and then to present the leading facts and arguments in favor of several prominent, and, to a certain extent, unoccupied routes. We must bear in mind that steamship traffic is, to a great extent, as we have said before, a creation: that instances are numerous where seaports that formerly did very little business, have through a commerce by steamships, become the localities of an extensive trade. 24. We have given a list of forty steam vessels, all owned by the " Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company," (~ 9) and all engaged on one great route. The "General Steam Navigation Company," (London) owns a larger number of steamships than the Peninsular and Oriental, and instead of being confined to one locality, this Company sends steamers to all parts of the world. They trade in every part of the British Isles; to Ireland, the Hebrides, the Shetland and Orkney Islands, to the various ports in the German Ocean, to Ostend, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Christiansand, Bergen, Norway, to Riga and St. Petersburg, and to the Arctic Ocean as far north as Hammerfest in Lapland. This Company has been particularly fortunate. After running several years, and owning a fleet of over fifty steamers, they had not, up to 1852, lost but one vessel, and every year, regularly, for many years past, have paid dividends of ten per cent. per annum out of profits earned. When steamers first commenced running from Aberdeen to Kirkwall and Lerwick, the two principal ports in the Orkney and Shetland Isles, the trade and travel were both inconsiderable and unremunerative; now the business is large, the route is a favorite one with tourists, and the steamers have created a large trade where very little existed before. There are many advantages attending large companies, in a business like that of ocean steam navigation. They can be their own underwriters. They can have steamers of various styles and sizes, and in case of loss or failure on any particular route, can have a spare steamer to put on to supply the deficiency. With stockholders in different places there is a wide local interest, and greater exertions 24~ OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. are made to create and keep up trade than where the risk is all held in one place and by one firm. They are in the field ready to take advantage of any immediate want, and by having vessels of different sizes are prepared for every description of service. 25. We cannot, in all respects, make a direct comparison between ocean steam navigation in Great Britain and in this country, but in many particulars they are quite parallel. Their coasting trade is larger in proportion to the extent of coast than ours, their population more dense, and their commerce necessarily more concentrated; but in that country, as in this, scarce an instance is known of a steam traffic commencing, no matter how small the trade at first, that did not in time grow to great magnitude. The Cunard line, which may be called the pioneer in ocean steam navigation, is an example. The line commenced operations alone in 1840, and after sixteen years we find fifteen lines of steamships trading between Europe and the United States, and all except three run into the port of New York. (~ 4.) Philadelphia has one line, and Boston with its single Cunard line stands now just where it did ten years ago. Besides all these, a line has been started from Liverpool to Quebec, and one from Liverpool to Portland. One of the ships of the last mentioned line will probably be the "GREAT EASTERN," now building, a steamer of 20,000 tons burden, and three or four times as large as the largest craft ever built. 26. We have heretofore done a large and greatly increasing trade in merchandise and produce, in bond, to and firom Canada. The Second Annual Report of the Boston Board of Trade (January, 1856) gives the following as the value of merchandise transported in bond to Canada, and the produce in bond from Canada, through the district of Boston and Charlestown, during six years:MIERCHANDISE PRODUCE TO CANADA. FROMI CANADA. 1850..$ 151,817 $ 63,811 1851. 594,709 119,551 1852.......................... 1,966,172 365,149 1853..... 4,947,484 604,035 1854.... 5,178,911 768,328 18,55......................... 4,970,408 357,754 TRADE WITH CANADA. 25 The falling off in the amount of produce last year, was owing to the reciprocity treaty, goods coming in free now which formerly came in bond. With steamers running from England to Quebec, and with the various railroads north of us, both in the United States and the British dominions, can it be expected that, with one line of semi-monthly steamers we shall continue to do this amount of trade in bonded goods and produce, to and from Canada? Without increasing our facilities, most certainly we shall not. It now remains to be seen what localities there are in Great Britain that offer the greatest inducements for a direct trade with Boston. 20 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. CHAPTER VI. OPPOSITION OF ~IVERPOOL TO A PACKET STATION IN IRELAND-ADMIRALTY COMMISSIONERS' REPORT - LIMERICK, FOYNES, VALENCIA, GALWAY ANID BELFAST —TIME OF CROSSING THE ENGLISH CHANNEL — SHORT VOYAGES PREFERRED BY TRAVELLERS. ~ 27. That there should be a certain degree of jealousy between localities that are competing for the same or a similar trade, is as natural as jealousy between individuals. That jealousy is in most cases founded on a fictitious basis. The instances are rare where any locality has, by government or individual favoritism, and without some manifest advantage, rose up to greatness and eclipsed a competing rival. Much interest has been felt, and several attempts have been made to have a steam packet station in Ireland for a line of steamers to America. That project has been met by an opposition in England, and particularly in Liverpool, that was both uncalled for and unjust. The feeling exhibited on the part of the press, or some portion of it, in Liverpool, could not have been greater had the proposition been to transfer the entire trade of Liverpool to Southampton, Dublin. or Havre. The idea of a line of steamers from this country to Ireland making any perceptible difference in the trade of Liverpool, is as absurd as the competition between old Bradford's printing press in Philadelphia, in 1725, when Ben. Franklin worked there, and the printing establishment of the "Newsletter" in Boston. "W;hat! two printing presses in Philadelphia!" asked the workmen of young Franklin; "why, they'll ruin us here in Boston." " O, no," said the young philosopher, " the advertising in Philadelphia, of a few stray pigs and lost children, will no more ruin you printers here in Boston, than the catfish in Delaware Bay, by picking up a few soft crabs, will starve your catfish in Boston harbor!" PACKET STATION IN IRELAND. 27 28. Four or five years ago, the writer of this spent several months in Ireland, visiting every large city and prominent town; Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Londonderry, and other places. We took special pains to observe the resources of Ireland, and the commercial advantages of the most prominent ports, looking at the various inducements offered for a steam packet station. Feeling no local interest or prejudice in favor of or against any particular locality, what we have to say of Galway, Belfast, or any other place, will certainly be disinterested. Two or three years since a government commission (British) visited the west of Ireland to examine localities and make a recommendation of some port for a packet station. Whether that commission made a faithful and disinterested report, or not, is too much for us to pronounce, but the facts will be given, and every one can draw his own inferences. The places that came more particularly under observation were Galway, Limerick, Foynes and Valencia. Limerick has a population of 53,448; is some sixty or seventy miles up a tidal river, with a depth of water at low tide of from two to nine feet. Valencia is on an island of the same name, and is the most western of the harbors of Great Britain. How the place could ever be made available for a packet station, to accommodate the people of Great Britain and Ireland, is not easily seen. The harbor is deep and secure, but the town is a mere nothing, having less than 2500 inhabitants, and the number is constantly diminishing. The island is a precipitous crag, with the sea roaring between that and the main land, across a strait a mile and a half wide. To be reached by railroad it must be by means of a bridge, to which the great Menai structure, 1800 feet long, and costing $3,000,000 is scarcely a circumstance. Foynes is on the south side of the river Shannon, twenty or thirty miles below Limerick, and is so inconsiderable a place that it is not mentioned in any Gazetteer. The place is almost entirely the property of Lord Monteagle. We had the pleasure of his lordship's company in a very pleasant steamboat trip down the Shannon from Limerick in 185 1, and he took especial pains to point out to us on the way the interesting localities, the charms of the scenery, and the 28 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. peculiar advantages possessed by Foynes for a packet station. The harbor certainly looked very small, but perhaps we were thinking of the big lakes and broad prairies of America. On arriving nearer to it, it looked smaller still, and we were informed, and that by several eye-witnesses, that when the British ship of the line " Madagascar " visited the place, laden with corn, during the famine year, she could not turn round in the harbor, but was obliged to back out! Notwithstanding the diminutive characteristics of Foynes, the royal commission reported in favor of that place as a packet station, in preference to any other in the west of Ireland. How far the eloquence of my Lord Monteagle conduced to that result, or whether good dinners and sparkling champagne, or more weighty arguments were thrown into the scale, it would be presumptuous in us to say. At any rate, the packet station was never established. 29. Galway lies directly on the west coast of Ireland, has a fine harbor, with a sufficient depth of water at all times; and is a place of a very considerable business, possessing one of the finest water powers in the world. It is at the western terminus of the Midland Great ~Western Railway, which runs in a straight line across the island, due east, to Dublin, 126 miles. It is by far the nearest to Dublin, and consequently to England, by the great route, via Kingstown, and Holyhead, of any port in the west or south of Ireland. Cork is at least 130 miles farther from Boston than Galway, and at the same time is 165 miles from Dublin, being 39 miles farther than Galway is. The writer of this once had occasion to send some freight over the railroad between Dublin and Cork, and the charge was sixty shillings-in our currency, fifteen dollars-a ton! The full rate charged by steamer from New York to Liverpool! For the same kind of freight over the railway between Dublin and Galway the price we paid was twentyfive shillings-(six dollars and a quarter) —a ton. Now what are the advantages to travellers going to Europe, in the route from Boston to Galway, over the route from New York or Boston to Liverpool? We will see. Allowing that the traveller is to start from New York, let us see how it will be on the score of expense A PACKET STATION AT GALWAY. 29 The difference now charged by the Cunard Company between their Boston and New York lines is twenty-five dollars; or five pounds sterling. Allowing that the steamers from Boston to Galway would charge the same as now charged from Boston to Liverpool, and take five dollars out of the twenty-five to carry the traveller from New York to Boston, and there would then be twenty dollars left. Add to this the fare from Liverpool to London; say six dollars, and the twenty-six dollars would take the traveller at Galway and bear his expenses clear to London, and he might see the Lakes of Killarney, and pass through the cities of D)ublin, Belfast, Glasgow, and Edinburg, on the way. If he chose to go direct to London by way of Dublin and Liverpool, or Holyhead, he could save ten dollars at least, to add to his twenty, saved by his return trip, and on his return, with that money he could make the Scottish tour, and reach Galway by way of Glasgow and Belfast. In addition to this agreeable land travel, he would be one or two days less on the ocean during each voyage, crossing in seven or eight days instead of nine or ten; or, as exemplified in our Philadelphia steamer trip, twenty days. It would be perfectly feasible to start from Boston on Monday, and get to Galway on Tuesday of the following week, and that without anticipating any improvement in the speed of steamers. And there are many persons that read this who will some day cross the ocean to this same port of Galway, in one week. In a late trip of the Cunard steamer Persia, it crossed from New York to Liverpool in eight days and a few hours; and that voyage is longer than this, by 360 geographical miles; a distance greater than the Persia ever steamed in twentyfour hours. The thought of crossing the Atlantic in a week, or even eight days, robs the trip of half the dread, and we already see (~ 21) since the Collins' line of steamers started that 30,000 passengers (Americans) cross and recross the ocean every year, (32,641 went abroad and returned in 18.54) while only 5330 crossed in 1850. 30. Ihow the advantages of short voyages are illustrated in the journeys beween London and Paris! The following is about an average programme, giving the time spent in 30 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. crossing the water, and the entire expense of the journey between London and Paris; by the three principal crossings; Dover and Folkstone being considered the same route: PLACE OF CROSSING. TIME SPENT AT SEA. COST. Dover or Folkstone................. 2 hours $10 New Haven and Dieppe........... 7 hours 6 Southampton and Havre............. 13 hours 5 There are different classes of fares, and the time on the water varies a little, according to circumstances, but the above gives a fair average. The writer of this has crossed several times at each of these places, and he avers that the only tangible difference is the longer or shorter agony at sea, and the greater or less expense. Economical as vast numbers are of their money, and as slight as the difference might be supposed to be between a sea passage of two and a half and one of seven or thirteen hours, there are five times as many travellers crossing at Dover and Folkstone as at both the other places. The following is the official report of the passengers by the different routes. DOVER. FOLKSTONE. TOTAL. Passengers........4,687 98,954 163,641 DIEPPE. IIAVRE. TOTAL. Passengers......1..8,613 16,176 34,789 So popular is the travel by Dover, and over the Great Northern of France Railway to Paris, that the railway stock, by the immense business done, has increased in value fiom eighteen pounds a share (though but sixteen pounds was called in to complete the road) to 41 pounds and 41' pounds a share, as shown in late quotations. "Time is money," and in the long run those highways between great nations and great cities that offer the most inducements in rapidity of travel, will be certain to possess one prominent and lasting advantage over longer, more tiresome, and more expensive routes. RESOURCES OF IRELAND. 31 CHAPTER VII. RESOURCES, TRADE, PRODUCTIONS AND WANTS OF DIFFERENT CITIES AND DISTRICTS OF IRELAND-CORN TRADE OF GREAT BRITAINIRISH LINEN MANUFACTURE. ~ 31. If a line of American steamers is to run to Ireland, there are but two ports that can contend for preference; and these are Galway and Belfast. We will repeat the distances given in a former chapter (~ 23.) From Geographical miles. Philadelphia (via Delaware Capes) to Liverpool....... 3090 New York to Southampton..................9.....980 New York to Liverpool......2880....................2 New York to Glasgow........................... 0 Boston to Liverpool............................ 2720 Boston to Belfast.............................2620 Boston to Galway...................2...........5220 The journey, then from Boston to Belfast is 260 geographical miles shorter than from New York to Liverpool, and from Boston to Galway 360 miles shorter than the great route between New York and England. At ordinary speed the journey would be made in a shorter time by 30 to 36 hours. In looking at a steamship trade with Ireland, Dublin has not been taken into consideration, partly from the fact that it is near Liverpool, does much of its business through Liverpool; and would not possess those advantages of proximity to our coast, that are possessed by both Galway and Belfast; and partly from the consideration that a line of steamers trading to Galway would afford a direct communication with Dublin, and would carry trade to, and bring trade from, that place nearly to the same extent that a line of vessels would going directly into the Liffey. 32. An enumeration of the population, resources and trade of the different localities will show the cities and the 3 2 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. branches of trade which will go to support a line of steamers. The population of the four provinces of Ireland, according to the census of 1851, is as followes: Ulster (the northern province)....................2,011,786 Leinster (the eastern)..........................1,672,174 Munster (the southern).........................1,857,244 Connaught (the western)........................ 9 11,917 The following is the population of the principal cities: Dublin...254, S50 Belfast.......................................100,300 Galway........................................ 24,697 The resources in traffic and travel for a line of steamers to Galway, as we shall show, will be drawn from central, southern, eastern and western Ireland, and some from Belfast, the capital of Ulster, independent of the through travel to and from England and the continent of Europe. The trade to Ireland will be principally cabin passengers, mails and heavy freight. The return trip from Galway to Boston, would be first and second cabin passengers, mails and light freight. It would be for the direct interest'of railroad companies to encourage such a line of steamers, even if they took all the freight that the line demanded at prices that paid little or no profit. We will suppose that there is to be a line of steamers going twice a month, alternating to Galway and Belfast, giving a monthly line to each place. The Galway line would carry the most passengers, and the Belfast line the most freight coming this way, but the other way, the Belfast line probably would not. Now what are the mercantile and manufacturing resources of Ireland? What do the people want that we either do or can furnish? A late statistical account of Ireland that is before us says, there are consumed of foreign productions in Ireland the following among other articles: 4,621,141 pounds of tobacco, and 48,770,500 pounds of sugar annually. 33. From the " Journal of Agriculture and Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society " of Scotland, we learn that for the last seven years the average import of breadstuffs, grain, flour and meal annually to Great Britain is 8,952,157 quarters, or in our measurement about RESOURCES OF IREL&AND. 33 80,000,000 bushels. This importation of breadstuffs for the kingdom of Great Britain, the same authority informs us, employs 1,000,000 (one million) tons of shipping. The same authority says, 1,500,000 quarters, or between thirteen and fourteen million bushels of grain, flour and meal are imported to Ireland each year. This quantity of Indian corn alone went to Ireland from the United States in the year 1854, a year that we exported over 20,000,000 bushels of grain, and nearly all to Europe. In a New York commercial paper (the Courier and Enquirer) it is stated that the United States produced in 1855, 175,000,000 bushels of wheat, and that the excess, not wanted for home consumption, was 64,000,000 bushels. In provisions, Ireland has in excess, some beef, considerable pork, and more or less butter and cheese; and these articles are shipped in considerable quantities to England. The grain and meal exported from the United States (to all countries) in 1847 (the famine year) was 11,912,864 quarters, (over 100,000,000 bushels,) and in 1854, 7,900,544 quarters (about 70,000 bushels.) The value of breadstuffs (from a report on exports and imports, by a Congressional Committee) that were exported from the United States in 1847, was $68,701,921; in 1850, $26,051,373, and in 1854, $65,901,240.'1The proportion of wheat and rice was much larger, and of Indian corn much' less in 1854 than in 1847, the year of the famine in Ireland. Now that the Irish people have got in the way of using our native product, the Indian corn, and there is a way of preparing it for shipment so that it will not damage, it is to be anticipated that there will be a constantly increasing demand for it in Ireland. 34. And what does Ireland produce. By some aid from Lippincott and M'Culloch, this question is very easily answered. The value of woollen stuffs (we still put everything in dollars instead of pounds sterling) manufactured in Ireland annually is put at $1,500,000. But the great staple of Ireland is linen; and the province mostly producing it is Ulster. Ireland had in 1849, 60,314 acres in flax; in 1850, 91,040 acres; and in 1851, 158,619 acres. The linen manufactures of Ireland at this time amount to 5 34 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. $30,000,000 annually, and of this $7,000,000 is embroideries. The number of hands employed in the linen manufacture in Ulster is 170,000. In Dubhn, also, many of the finer linen fabrics, poplins, &c., are manufactured to a considerable extent. The size, the trade, and business of Belfast may be seen from a few statistics. Population, in 1851, 100,300; number of vessels owned, 493, (of which 25 are steamers) and the tonnage, 83,128. Is it to be believed that a place like this, a city of 100,000 inhabitants, and the centre of the largest linen manufacture in the world, is not going to do something to support a line of steamers to America? The firm of Richardson Brothers, who own the line of screw steamers that trades between Philadelphia and Liverpool, live in Belfast, and made their money there. The commercial correspondent of the London Times, from Belfast, under date of June 6, 1856, thus writes in his trade report-(at this period it will be remembered there was " a speck of war" in the horizon):"LINEN.-In the midst of excitement relative to our political relations with the people beyond the Atlantic, the provincial staple continues to show signs of great activity. America is a large consumer of Irish linen, and the best customer we have for linen thread. At the present time the orders in hands of bleachers and thread manufacturers are much above those held for many years past. The American merchants were hardly ever before so well able to do a large business with us, whether in this or any other portion of national exchange; any interruption, therefore, of general business would fall with great severity on the linen trade. * * * * The thread trade is very active, and all hands fully employed in the manufacture." Another extract from the Times, about the same period, gives the following:Exports of different articles, from the United Kingdom, during the month of April, in the years 1854, 1855, and 1856: MANUFACTURES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 35 1854. 1855. 1856. Linen manufactures.................301,280 ~295,824 ~373,742 Linen yarns........... 82,758 132,986 109,703 Woollen and worsted manufactures. 637,982 465,371 723,127 -Woollen and worsted yarn............ 75,204: 186,337 212,254 Machinery and mill work.161,611 184,690 201,746 Wool............................. 24,460 79,693 84,9S4 Here we see the importance of the British linen trade, and according to these figures it amounts to about one half as much as the woollen and worsted manufactures, and yarns. April may have a trade above the average of the rest of the year. The exports of linen manufactures, yarns included, in dollars, was $2,417,225, and this, in twelve months, at the same rate, would be $29,006,700. This agrees very well with the statement that the province of Ulster alone has linen manufactures of the annual value of $30,000,000. Now is it reasonable to suppose that a people producing this amount of an article that, sooner or later, directly or indirectly, must come to the United States in large quantities, and that from them —that this people are not ready to open a very large direct trade with us, and that by steamer, and without the intervention of middle men? Would not this same community, under the advantages of a direct trade with us, consume more and more of the very articles that we are exporting? With a line of steamers to Belfast, or Galway, an order could go from Boston direct to the manufacturer at Belfast, and bring the article in from twenty to twenty-five days; and after the telegraph is extended from Cape Race to Galway, under the Atlantic, an order can be answered, and the goods delivered in twelve days. Is it for the advantage of either party that this large trade should all be carried on through Liverpool? 36 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. CHAPTER VIII. STEAMSHIPS COMPETING WITH SAILING VESSELS-FRUIT TRADEOCEAN TELEGRAPI —ADVANTAGES OF STEAMERS TO EMIGRANTSPROSPERITY OF IRELAND-SALE OF ENCUMBERED ESTATESDECREASE OF PAUPERISM-ElMIGRATION. ~ 35. How far steamships can be made to compete with sailing vessels in the transportation of heavy freight, like provisions, grain and flour, can only be determined by experience. Fruit, and other perishable articles will pay for rapid transportation. Pine apples, always a luxury in London, and formerly rarely seen, except grown in the kingdom, under glass, and sold from one to two guineas apiece, are now transported by steamer direct from the WIest Indies, and sold in London for half a guinea each. If four out of five decay, the fifth one brings more than the value of the five. Is it too much to hope that apples, and even peaches, can be carried from Boston to Ireland in eight or nine days, and sold at a profit? Carrying freight by steamer is not always, ex necessitate, more expensive than transportation by sailing vessels. If steamers running regularly, and carrying mails and passengers between Boston and Ireland, found the pricipal profit and business to be in mails and passengers outward, and in mails, passengers and freight inwards, would it not be more profitable to fill up with freight in going out, at a, mere nominal price, rather than go with a large space unoccupied? The cost of freight, like everything else, is regulated by supply and demand. But leaving out of consideration the question of freight outwards, let us see the business that might confidently be relied on to support a line of steamers running twice a month from this port; every other one to Galway, and every other one to Belfast. It must not be supposed, because Belfast is far the most of a business place, that that would necessarily be the most profitable SHORTEST VOYAGE ACROSS THE OCEAN. 37 port of the two for a line of steamers. 7We are a people who save time. Steamers going only to Belfast might be looked on in something the same light as the line from New York to Glasgow, being farther north than necessary for travellers wishing to go direct to England. True, it is 180 miles shorter than the voyage from New York to Glasgow, and one hundred shorter than from Boston to Liverpool; but it does not show that very direct advantage to the traveller that a voyage across the Atlantic would, in the very narrowest part practicable for commercial purposes. How agreeable, too, with the magic wires on the " telegraphic plateau" under the ocean, from Cape Race to Galway; for the merchant or pleasure traveller, in taking his last cup of coffee with his family in Boston, on Saturday morning, before embarking, to be able to say, "My dear wife, expect a despatch from me a week from to-morrow! " Sunday noon-eight days —arrived at Galway; away goes the traveller to the telegraphic office; click, click, goes the magnetic machine; "Mrs. Smith, Beacon Street, Boston. Safe across; all well. Send my bundle of papers that I left by mistake, to Brown, Shipley & Co., Liverpool, by Cunard steamer of Wednesday. Your affectionate husband, John Smith." The eclat of "the shortest trip on record," and that of constant occurrence, would so add to the popularity of the line, that thousands of travellers from all parts of the country, and the world, who never cross the ocean but once, or once and return, would go by Boston for the sake of saying they had crossed the ocean in eight days. Great numbers of American travellers are very desirous, on a visit to Europe, of visiting Ireland, and many do already, but many that now never see that country, would take it in their way, with the additional inducement of the shortest, the cheapest, and the most comfortable passage across the ocean. How often we see it exemplified, day after day, that travellers, by land and water, go a journey by one route and return by another, just for the variety! The vast business, and the influence of Dublin, and of the Midland Great Western Railway, would be given at once to a line of steamers running direct to Galway, only 1 26 miles 38 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. from the Irish metropolis. The population of Ireland, of all classes, have for years expressed the strongest wish for a direct steam communication with America. There is not a merchant, not a hotel keeper, not a large proprietor, nor a small farmer; not the owner of a garden plot, from Tralee to the Giant's Causeway, that would not be benefitted by such a line of steamers. There is not a spinner, weaver or bleacher of linen in Belfast, not a manufacturer of poplin in Dublin, not a man of wealth who lives upon his income, in any part of Ireland, that would not experience a direct pecuniary and social benefit by such a steam communication. Were it in the line of probabilities-and very few would make such a prediction —that a steamship company in this trade would continue business five years without dividing a dollar of profits, can there be a doubt that the benefits both to Boston and to Ireland, would be immense, and that final success and profit would be certain. 36. One class of custom, and one that would be necessarily large, has only been alluded to. That is, travellers and emigrants from Ireland. The number of persons leaving Ireland to make a home in the United States for the last five years, has averaged more than 95,000 a year. The number of emigrants that have landed at Boston since 1850, has averaged 23,613 each year (~ 20.) The fare paid in sailing vessels fiom Dublin or Liverpool for a steerage passage to New York or Boston varies from three to five pounds-say from fifteen to twenty-five dollars. The voyages are usually from forty to sixty days. It is known that the proprietors of emigrant ships make large profits. It can scarcely be appreciated what kind of fare can be furnished to people when they are provisioned for six, seven, eight or nine weeks, for fifteen dollars, and then have a profit made out of the passage. Still it is done. The emigrants that have arrived at New York for years past have brought with them an average of $43,25, each person. A later account gives $96, each person, as the average. All accounts agree that a better class of emigrants are leaving Europe, and particularly Ireland, now, than formerly. Poverty is not so universal, vast sums of money are remitted MORTALITY ON EMIIGRANT SHIPS. 39 from America, and comforts are obtained now that great numbers of the poor formerly could not command. The Philadelphia screw steamers, that are usually from fourteen to sixteen days on the passage, carry first and second cabin passengers for $100 and $65 respectively, and c"a limited number in the steerage" for $35 each. A great saving in the item of board is made in the short passages on fast steamers, and it is here that steamships can compete with sailing vessels. Now what a comparison between a poor man or a family in the interior or west of Ireland going for a few shillings by rail to Galway, and embarking quietly on a fast steamer for America, and paying five or six pounds for an adult, and a proportionate sum for children, and getting across in comfort in eight or nine days; and the same party going to Liverpool at a material expense, and there running the gauntlet of runners, touters, boarding house plunderers, and at last getting on board a sailing vessel and paying four pounds, or even three, and coming into New York with the usual record-" Ship Alligator, Capt. Crawfish, 59 days from Liverpool, 540 passengers, and 37 deaths from ship fever and cholera!" This is not an overdrawn picture. ]For six pounds, or even five, on a steamer properly constructed, from three to six hundred passengers could be taken in comfort and cleanliness, and all well fed and cared for, and families could have privacy and decency in their quarters, and steamship owners would be well remunerated, and the suffering, demoralization, sickness and mortality now so common, on emigrant ships, would in these vessels be unknown. 37. A few quotations from late English and Irish papers will show the improved condition of Ireland and the Irish people at home. The vast number of estates badly encumbered with debt have nearly all changed hands, and are now remunerative properties. This has been brought about by the late act of Parliament for selling encumbered estates. " By the last official returns of the Irish encumbered estates court, it appears that the total produce of sales from the 21st day of February, 1850, (the first sale day,) to the 24th of June, 1856, both days inclusive, was ~17,893,124 13s. 6d."-in our currency $89:465 40 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. 623. Here are estates worth nearly one hundred million dollars that have changed hands in a little over six years. Every account says that the value of real estate in Ireland is constantly on the rise. At the earliest sales, by the encumbered estates court, it was considered a good price if an estate sold for the total amouint of seven years rent; now they often bring thirteen, fourteen and fifteen years rent. The number of inmates of union workhouses in Ireland five years ago was over 200,000; on the 31st of March, 1855, the number was only 90,107, and on the 22d of September, 1855, only 56,518. Another account says " there is a reduction of nearly 50 per cent. in the number of paupers this year (1856) in the Galway workhouse, as compared with 1855." The London Times of June 7, 1856, says —" 16,361 emigrants quitted Liverpool during the last month "; and of this number " 13,252 went to the United States." Of the entire number, the account states, " 9,453 were Irish, 717 Scotch, and 724 natives of foreign countries." A Kerry journal says-" A greater tide of emigration is flowing from our shores this season than for two years past. Three ships have already sailed, carrying away nearly 800 persons, and two others are announced to sail before the middle of the month," (May, 1856). " The emigrants now going are principally young, healthful adults, the flower of the rural laboring population, whose passages have been paid for by remittances from friends." Are emigrants from the old world going to continue the habit of travelling on sailing vessels, and are they going to continue in that way to suffer and die? Experience on those routes where steamships run shows that the poorest classes are as ready to take steam conveyance as the more wealthy. It has been decided by a decree of nature that the largest share of commerce between North America and the commercial nations of the north of Europe shall be north of latitude 40~, and it is simply a question of activity, of capital, and enterprise, whether Boston and Montreal get their share of the steamship trade, or whether it shall be nearly all concentrated at New York. Boston possesses every advantage for a large and constantly growing commerce; a port accessible at all seasons, and it is the great commercial port nearest the shores of Europe. STEAMSHIPS TO GLASGOW. 41 Besides this, the population of Boston, taking the aggregate and the average, is the richest city population in the world (~ 3.) In proximity Ireland answers from the other side, and stands with outstretched arms, saying " here I am, two hundred miles nearer to you than the great port of the west of England." The steamships that sail between New York and Bremen have always done a very large passenger business. The monthly steamer between New York and Glasgow has, from the very first trip, been loaded both with freight and passengers; and often for weeks before sailing not a berth, or stowage for a single package can be obtained. Will not this, at no distant day, be true of the shortest route between Europe and America, the route from Boston to Ireland? 42 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. CHAPTER IX. SKETCH OF OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION-THE FIRST STEAMER CROSSING THE OCEAN —THE CUNARD LINE —COMPARATIVE SPEED OF SCREW AND PADDLE-WHEEL STEAMERS —SAUNDERSON'S PROPELLER-IF IRELAND IS TO HAVE STEAMSHIPS, IRISHMEN MUST ACT. ~ 38. The kind of steamer most profitable and advantageous for ocean voyages —the screw or the paddle-wheelis a question that admits of debate. A glance at the first steam voyages across the Atlantic, the kind of vessels used at different periods, and the speed attained by each, will show the progress made, and the past and present state of ocean steam navigation. The first steamer that ever crossed the Atlantic was the " Savannah," Capt. Moses Rogers, a vessel that was built in New York, in 1818, by Fitchet & Crocket. The engine was built by Stephen Vail and Daniel Dod of New Jersey. It was a paddle-wheel steamer, of 350 tons burden and 90 horse power, and sailed from New York, March 29, 1819, to Savannah, Georgia, where she was owned. She next went to Charleston to take the President, James Monroe, to Savannah, and from there, on the 25th of May, 1819, started for Liverpool, where she arrived safely in 22 days. She was a full rigged ship, and a fast sailer; had steam up fourteen days of the voyage; and by steam alone could make eight knots an hour. Steamboats coming into general use on rivers, lakes, and coasting voyages soon after, it seems a little singular that no further attempts were made for nineteen years, to cross the ocean by steam. The mere fact of this successful voyage seems to have been overlooked; the great philosopher, Dionysius Lardner, having proved-to his own satisfaction, at least-that steam vessels never could cross the Atlantic! He seems to have forgotten the well established maxim in logic, that we cannot prove FIRST TRANS-ATLANTIC STEAMERS. 43 a negative, except in cases like an alibi, where the existence of one positive proves that another and opposing one cannot be co-exis1tent. 39. Finally, in Bristol, England-the very port that sent out John and Sebastian Cabot to make the first actual discovery of this continent-a line of steamers was projected, and the first vessel, the "Sirius," arrived in New York on the 23d of April, 1838. The New York Herald of that (late says, " Myriads of persons crowded the Battery to have a glimpse of the first steam vessel which had crossed the Atlantic from the British Isles, and arrived safely in port." The London Times had spoken of the project doubtfully. " There is really no mistake," said the Times, " in this long talked of project of navigating the Atlantic ocean by steam. There is no doubt of an intention to make the attempt, and to give the experiment, as such, a fair trial. The Sirius is absolutely getting under weigh for America." Yes, it did get under way, and steamers have been getting under weigh ever since. Now, after a lapse of 18 years, there are fifteen lines of steamers, numbering 46 ships, trading between this country and Europe; and 37 of these steamers run out of New York (~ 4.) The earliest vessels, the Sirius, the Great Western, Royal William, City of Liverpool, British Queen, and the President, were none of them long in the trade. The line established by the enterprising Samuel Cunard, and to this day bearing his name, was started in 1840, and was the first permanently successful line of trans-Atlantic steamers ever set afloat. These steamers commenced running to the port of Boston, and we must repeat the remark that they are the only steamships that ever connected our city with the old world. 40. Of the trans-Atlantic steamers, eight have been lost. The President, the City of Glasgow, and the Pacific, sailed, and, with all on board, " were never heard of more." The Arctic was sunk in a collision with the French steamer Vesta, on the banks of Newfoundland, and but few lives were saved. The Columbia, the Humboldt, the Franklin, and the City of Philadelphia were all wrecked, but no lives were lost. Since the Sirius sailed from England to New York, in 1838, not far from 300,000 persons have crossed 44 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. the Atlantic by steam - reckoning both passengers and crews, and the voyages both ways. — and of this number about 1,200 have been lost.'This, in the doctrine of chances, is about one-third of one per cent, or one voyage in three hundred. With greater care, with the lessons of experience, and the aid of practical science, the per centage of loss will in future undoubtedly be far less. 41. In comparing the screw with paddle-wheel steamers, the latter have always been considered the swiftest vessels, and have generally made the best time. Screw steamers have many advantages over those with paddlewheels. As war vessels, they are more secure, the propelling power, as well as the most of the machinery, being below the water line, and out of the reach of shot. The engine and machinery are less expensive, take less fuel, occupy far less space, and consequently afford more room for passengers and freight. They are not usually as rapid, nor are they as great favorites with the travelling public as paddle-wheel steamers. The motion of screw steamers is more unpleasant than those with paddle-wheels; there being nothing on the sides to balance and " trim" them, they have a lurching, rolling motion. Charles Saunderson, Esq., (Stanmore Lodge, Kilburn,) London, has a new invention, a propeller, that is said to obviate some of the disadvantages of the screw, and give a vessel greater speed, with a more regular motion. Whether it will come into general use or not, remains to be determined. The ordinary time made by the Cunard and Collins paddle-wheel steamers between Liverpool and New York, has been from 9 to 12 days. The monster steamer Himalaya -a British screw steamer of over five thousand tons burden -was sent under steam from Halifax to Southampton in about 9 days. Three other screw vessels — the Emeu, Lebanon and Alps — steamed from Havre to New York, respectively, in 11 days 17 hours, 13 days 21 hours, and 13 days 12 hours. These passages are not far behind the usual speed of paddle-wheel steamers. The following is the record of the various lines of transAtlantic steamers, and the average time of passage going both east and west, during the year 1856. It cannot be SCREW AND PADDLE-WHEEL STEAMERS. 45 taken as positive proof of the comparative speed of the different lines, for sometimes one or two unfortunate trips will greatly increase the general average. The Boston branch of the Cunard line, had longer voyages than the New York line, in consequence of the delay occasioned by putting into Halifax:Eastern Western Passages. Passages. Days. Itours. Days. fIours. Collins...P...........addle-wheel, 12 03 12 16 Cunard, New York,... " 11 03 11 22 Cunard, Boston,........ " 11 12 13 07 Bremen,........... " 14 12 15 00 Old Havre,........... " 13 16 14 18 Havre (Vanderbilt).... " i 13 00 13 00 Havre (French)....... Screw, 15 00 17 00 Glasgow............. " 13 08 15 12 Hamburg........... " 16 00 15 12 It might be a matter of policy in running steamers between Boston and Ireland, to have some screw steamers and some paddle-wheels. The screw vessels being less expensive to build and run, and affording more room, would be more profitable, and fares could be afforded at a lower rate, if run to such a port in Ireland as afforded the most passengers for America. But screw steamers not being as great favorites with the largest share of first class passengers, if all the vessels in a Galway or Belfast line were of this class, the line would not have that eclat, and make as successful a competition with the splendid vessels of the Collins and Cunard lines, as would paddle-wheel steamers. These are some of the prominent characteristics of the two classes of steamships now in use. Perhaps further improvements in the screw, or in Saunderson's, or some other propeller, may settle the question beyond all doubt, and drive the paddlewheels from the ocean. 42. But whatever kind or size of steamers may be run between Boston and Ireland, one thing is certain; and that is, that there must be a combined interest in their success, on both sides of the water. Let such a line of steamers be started, with all the stock owned in America, and there would be comparatively little stimulus and interest in Ireland to support and sustain them. Not but that the Irish people 46 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. would be very glad to see such a line running, and would do something to support them; but without some stockholders in that country, the interest there would be slight. In Ireland there is a great deal of wealth; scattered over the land is a vast amount of capital; and whether that capital is invested in agricultural lands, in manufactures, in commerce, in hotels, in railroad stock, or in any other property or business, it would increase in value and productiveness, at once, by the establishment of a permanent line of steamers to one or more Irish ports. "Whoever would be free, themselves must strike the blow." It is a very fashionable thing in England to charge the people of Ireland with a lack of enterprise, a lack of ambition, a lack of stability, and all because they will not help themselves. It may or may not be true; the best way to disprove it is for them to put their shoulders to the wheel, and cooperate with all who are disposed to help regenerate the country, whether the workers in the cause are Britons or Americans; whether they are patriots trying to do the country a service; or merchants and capitalists in pursuit of gain. " Heaven helps those who help themselves." It would be a sad verdict to pronounce on the condition and state of Ireland, and the helplessness, and non-reliable, non-substantial character of Irishmen, if a country that has a population numbering more than one-third as much as that of the United States; an island remarkable for its fertility and beauty, and populated by a race that has unquestionably produced more men of genius, more great warriors, great statesmen, great writers, great orators, and more men of note than an equal number of people in any other country in the world —if this land, always so noted, and now so prosperous, would not have ambition and energy and capital sufficient to take an equal share in a line of steamships to run regularly to one or two of the prominent ports. The day that such a line of steamers would commence running would be a red letter day in the history of Ireland. But it would be a piece of folly for any American or other foreign company of capitalists to furnish all the funds, build the ships, and take all the responsibility of STEAMSHIPS TO IRELAND. 47 sending steamers to a country that would do nothing towards working out her own salvation. The mere fact-if such were the fact —that Ireland was unable, or unwilling to furnish a portion of the capital necessary for such an enterprise, would prove both that she was not deserving of such an effort, and not able to help sustain and carry it out successfully. The very way for Ireland to check or stop the vast emigration now going on, and that has for years been depopulating the country, is to find remunerative employment for both capital and labor in the country. If it was an understood thing that a condition on which such a line of steamers should be started, would be that one half of the stock should be taken in that country, and the shares were put as low as ten pounds, there would scarcely be a small farmer, or a tradesman in the interior, the west, the east, or northeast of Ireland that would not take stock.'The mercantile and manufacturing classes in Galway, Dublin and Belfast, would feel a large interest in the enterprise. A line comprising three steamers would require a paid up capital of from $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. Connected by railroad, as every part of Ireland now is with the great cities, the influence of such a line of traffic, correspondence and travel, would be felt in every corner of the land. The city of Limerick, but a few hours ride from Galway by rail, would feel a new impetus in its trade from such a line of steamers. Many gentlemen of means and leisure in Ireland, who otherwise would never cross the Atlantic, would take the opportunity of an Irish line of steamships to make a personal acquaintance with Niagara Falls, East and West Canada, the Hudson Highlands, Boston, New York, and Saratoga Springs. Yankee tourists would scatter gold and talk politics among the hotel keepers and curiosity venders of Killarney, Galway, Dublin and Belfast; and their shouts would waken the echoes in the Gap of Dunloe, and among the cliffs of Connemara, Bantry Bay, and the Giant's Causeway. These are not mere idle words, but sober facts, and Ireland and Irishmen will bless the day when deeds shall take the place of words, and capital, courage and enterprise start a line of steamships from Boston to the " Green Isle of the Ocean." 48 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. CHAPTER X. OCEAN MAIL SERVICE-STATISTICS OF LETTER CORRESPONDENCE AND NEWSPAPERS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPECORRESPONDENCE RESTRICTED BY HIGH OCEAN POSTAGE-BAD POLICY OF HIGH RATES. ~ 43. One of the most important services of our transAtlantic steamships, both to mercantile communities and the nation at large, is the conveyance of the mails. Twenty years ago the number of letters passing between the United States and Europe was not over seven or eight hundred thousand; now it is over five millions. The importance of the ocean mail service can only be appreciated by looking at the statistical results. The following tabular statement shows at one view the money paid in postages, and the number of letters and papers transported during the last four years, by the British (Cunard) and the three American lines of contract packets. GROSS REVENUE FROM POSTAGES BY OCEAN STEAMERS. LINES. 1852. 1853. 1854. 1855. TOTAL. Cunard......................... $565,573 $598,717 $701,409 $516,828 $2,382,527 Collins......................... 228,868 310,362 307,917 504,694 1,351,841 Bremen..................... 77,220 100,370 138,037 130,653 446,280 Havre......................... 80,804 100,170 94,778 96,329 372,081 Total........................ $952,465 $1,109,619 $1,242.141 $1,248,504 $4,552,729 NUMBER OF LETTERS SENT AND RECEIVED BY OCEAN STEAMERS. LINES. 1852. 1853. 1854. 1855. TOTAL. Cunard....................... 2,758,096 2,774,423 3,107,508 2,161,232 10,801,259 Collins......................... 963,692 1,018,345 1,210,326 1,744,315 4,936,678 Bremen......................... 354,470 412,117 812,0671 840,218 2,418,872 Havre.......................... 345,289 406,126 371,0551 436,562 1,559,032 Total........................ 4,421,5471 4,611,011 5,500,956i 5,182,3271 19,715,841 NEWSPAPERS SENT AND RECEIVED BY OCEAN STEAMERS. LINES. 1852. 1853. 1854. 1855. TOTAL. Cunard............ 942,950 1,034,163 1,596,324 1,395,425 4,968,862 Collins......................... 280,974 305,045 639,720 1,286,540 2,512,279 Bremen......................... 36,768 144,493 268,623 449,884 Havre................................ 4,987 156,011 268,142 429,140 Total........................ 1.223924 1,380,963 2,536,548 3.218,730 8,360,165 CORRESPONDENCE WITH EUROPE. 49 LETTERS SENT EACH WAY IN 1854 AND 1855. 1854. 1854. 1855. I 1855. Total TO OR FROM1 Sent. Received. Sent. Received. in 2 years. Great Britain................... 2,137,611 2,199,093 1,937,572' 1,904,656 8,178,932 Prussia......................... 524,006 188,288 612,026 366,416 1,690 736 Bremen........................ 178,622 273,336 154,061 207,5961 813615 Total........................ 2,840,239 2,660,717 2,703,659 2,478,668 10,683,283 NEWSPrArPERS SENT EACH WAY IN 1854 AND 1855. 1854. 1854. 1855. 1855. Total TO Olt FROM Sent. F Received. Sent. Received. in 2 years. Great Britain.................. 1,512,671 960,105 1,975,2881 1,179,312 5,627,376 Prussia........................ 42,116 7,940 35,334 12,400 97,790 Bremen........................ 7,550 6,166 7,718 8,678 30,112 Total........1,562337 974,2111 2,018,3401 1,200,390 5,755,278 Sent. Received. J Total. Letters in 1854 and 1855.............................. 5,543,898 5,139,385 10,683,283 Newspapers in 1854 and 1855......................... 3,580,677 2,174,601! 5,755,278 Total letters and papers in 1854 and 1855............. 9,124,5751 7,313,986: 16,438,561 Letters sent and received, in 1852 and 1853.................................... 9,032,558 Newspapers sent and received, in 1852 and 1853............................... 2,604,887 Total letters, in 1852, 1853, 1854 and 1855.............................. 19,715,841 Total newspapers, in 1852, 1853, 1854 and 1855................................ 8,360,165 Grand total-letters and papers, in 1852, 1853, 1854 and 1855................... 28,076,006 These results may look large, but they are not. The amount of correspondence, and the postal restrictions in the mail operations between Great Britain and the United States, are, in every respect, unworthy of the two nations. 44. The foreign commerce-the exports and importsof the United States during the last four years, as we have seen, (~ 3) has averaged 2510,225,465 a year, and considerably more than one half of this has been with Great Britain. The number of immigrants that have arrived in the United States from foreign countries in thirty-six years is 4,482,837 (~ 19). The number of foreigners now living in this country, including their children, cannot be less than four millions, and nearly all of them have relatives in Europe, with whom they wish to communicate, and to whom they send letters, newspapers, or money. Our sales of public lands amount to from six to eleven millions annually, ($8,470,798 in 1854, and $11,497,049 in 1855,) and more than one-fourth of this is sold to foreign-born residents and citizens. Wisconsin, Iowa, California and Minnesota have a population of 50 OCEAN STEAM NATIGATION. 751,504, and of these 155,225 are natives of foreign countries. The strength of a nation is in the individuals of which it is composed. If it is an object to have our wild lands and our mines purchased, improved, cultivated, and made productive, then our immigration is a source and a means of national wealth and strength. Over 30,000 of our own citizens —natives of the United Statesgo abroad and have the luxu'y of foreign travel every year, and this travel is largely on the increase. These travellers cannot spend annually (say $1,000 to a person, on the average,) much less than thirty million dollars. T[he number of immigrants arriving in the country annually (averaging the last five years) is 379,620 (~ 20,) and of these 186,132 come from Great Britain, and 125,564 fiom Germany. Here we have a foreign conmmerce of 9510,000,000 (~ 3,) a year; an annual immigration of 380,000 (~ 20); wild lands sold by the government to the foreign population, to the amount of two or three million dollars every year; and our own citizens, for trade, health, pleasure, and information, spend annually from twenty-five to thirty millions in foreign travel. The foreign population that arrive in the country each year, bring —averaging $50 to a person (~ 36,)-an aggregate of $19,000,000. TIhe population of California by the last census was 114,399, and of this number 21,802 were natives of foreign countries. That state produces in gold, and adds to our circulation of coin at least sixty million dollars a year. Without calculating for the large immigration from China and other countries, since 1850 —and the immigration has far exceeded in proportion the arrivals from the Atlantic states- at least ten millions a year of this is produced by foreigners. Every item here, every business and social interest in the catalogue is dependant on, and cherished by our postal intercourse with foreign countries. Of what consequence, then, as a measure of' economy and good business policy, is a few hundred thousand dollars expended by the nation, to facilitate our postal intercourse with foreign countries? Weere it true that high rates of postage produced a larger postal revenue than a moderate scale of charges, is it not every way bad economy and bad policy? But so far from high charges producing a larger revenue, it is undoubtedly the reverse. CORRESPONDENCE WITH CALIFORNIA. 51 45. A very good comparison can be made between the results of our postal intercourse with Europe and with California. The cases are nearly parallel, and in the financial results we can read a profitable lesson. The correspondence between this country and Europe springs from the commerce between the two continents, the travel, and the number of Europeans residing in our nation. Just so with California and the Pacific coast. The letters and papers passing to and fro come from the traffic between the two sections, and the number of people who have gone to that region and left friends behind. In each case-the Californians who have left the Atlantic states, and the Europeans residing in America-have left friends at their former homes to whom they are attached by common ties of language, relationship, and business intercourse.'We can base the correspondence, or the desire of correspondence, on the numbers that have respectively gone from one country to the other; for the commerce between this country and Europe exceeds the commerce with the Pacific coast, to just about the same extent that the emigration in the one case exceeds that of the other. The export and import trade between the United States and Europe is nearly $500,000,00000 a year, while, independent of the shipments of gold, the trade betwee~i the Atlantic and Pacific coasts is probably not twenty millions; and including gold shipments, does not exceed eighty millions. The entire population in California and Oregon who have any business or social relations with the Atlantic states, will probably number two hundred thousand. The foreign population alone in the United States, who have friends in Europe, cannot be less than four millions. In basing the amount of correspondence on these numbers we do not take into consideration the vast business intercourse between our merchants and the merchants of the old world. The cases of the California and the European correspondence may not be exactly parallel; probably they are not; but, other things equal, and the rates of postage the same, the proportion of correspondence ought to be as four millions to two hundred thousand; or twenty times as much between this country and Europe, as between 52 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. the Atlantic states and California. Admitting that the correspondence between our side of the Union and the Pacific is principally carried on by 200,000 people here, and an equal number on that side; and between this country and Europe, by four millions here, and the same number on that side, the number of persons will be, in the one case, four hundred thousand, and in the other eight millions; or as one to twenty. Our figures that follow, giving the number of letters, are correct, as they are taken from official reports. WVe give the average annual correspondence and revenue, through four years, friom June 30, 1851, to June 30, 1855. 8,000,000 people, corresponding between Europe and America, write............................. 4,928,960 letters. Each 1000 people, corresponding between Europe and America, write............................... (;1G letters. These 8,000,000 pay in postage,............$1,13,182 Each 1000 people, corresponding between Europe and America, pay in postage, $1 42 In the annual intercourse with the Pacific coast 400,000 people, corresponding between California and the Atlantic states, write........................... 2,587,529 letters. Each 1000 people, corresponding between California and the Atlantic states, write....................... 6,428 letters. These 400,000 people pay in postage,........ $283,854 Each 1000 people pay in postage,................... 709 If the 8,000,000 people corresponding between Europe and America wrote as many letters, in proportion to the number, as those corresponding between the Atlantic states and California do, the number of letters crossing the Atlantic Ocean annually would be 51,424,000, instead of 4,928,960. If the money paid in postages was in proportion to that between this country and California, the amount, in place of the $1,138,182, would be $5,672,000! And why is this vast difference in the amount of correspondence, and the postal revenue? The distance between correspondents in the Atlantic states and those on the Pacific coast, going the mail route by Panama, is from six to seven thousand miles, and from persons residing in the United States to SUCCESS OF PENNY POSTAGE. 53 their friends in Europe not over three or four thousand The longer the distance, the less would be the correspondence, and the greater the expense of transporting it. But during the four years under consideration the postage to and from Calif'ornia was six cents prepaid, and ten cents if not prepaid; while to Europe it was from fifteen to thirty cents, the largest share of it tiwenty-four cents; just four times the prepaid rate to California. If it be contended that the American people are better educated, and more inclined to write letters than the people of Great Britain, a very direct answer to that can be given. The British people write over 440,000,000 letters in a year; or fifteen to a person of the gross population, while the people of the United States only write about 120,()00,000 letters in a year; or less than four to a person. These gigantic results in Great Britain are the fruits of low and uniform postage, so successfully introduced by Mr. Rowland Hill, in 1840. Here we have a calculation based as far as possible on reliable data, showing that under low postages between the Atlantic states and Califbrnia, 6,428 letters were written in a year by each thousand persons interested, and $709 contributed in postal revenue, while on the European route, only about half the distance, but with postage charges four times as high, the number of letters written by each thousand persons was only 616 in a year, and the postal revenue but $142. Why, except for the low postages, were there more than ten times as many letters written, and about five times as much revenue contributed, in proportion to the population interested, as in the other case? 46. It is an old story, but in place of being told a hundred times, it should be repeated a hundred thousand times, that twenty-seven million people in Great Britain (in 1854) accustomed to a low postage, wrote, and sent through the mails in a year, 443,649,'301 letters, while our twenty-four millions, during the same period, wrote but 119,634,418. Previous to the penny postage, in Great Britain, in Il 39 — when postage averaged about six and a half pence sterling a letter — the number of letters in that country, was but 82,470,596 in a year, and the annual revenue was nearly two million dollars less than it is now. 54 OCEAN STEAM-1 NAVIGATION. And once see the vast number of letters written now by the population of Great Britain, at home, as compared to the number circulating between kindred and friends who are separated by an ocean, and yet more by an unjust, an arbitrary and exorbitant postal charge.'We have seen that the four million people of foreign birth -including their children born in this country-and an equal number of their friends and relatives in Europe- in all eight million people —only write 4,928,960 letters in a year; which is an average of but little more than half a letter annually to each person, or 616 letters to each thousand individuals. The same number of persons - eight millions - residing in Great Britain, where postage is only one penny a letter, write in a )-ear 127,512,000 letters, or over twenty-six times as many, per capita! That same number of peopleeight millions — residing in the United States, correspond with one another to the amount of 41,264,000 letters in a year. The people in America, separated by six or seven thousand miles of travel- fiom the Atlantic to the Pacific coast —write at the rate of 51,424,000 letters for each eight million persons. Where is the reason, where is the justice, of such a tax on letters? It cannot be profit, for the very amount of the tax abridges correspondence ana revenue too. The price charged cannot be the legitimate cost; for if it were, there would be no need of enacting prohibitory laws to prevent private persons from carrying letters. By what moral right do governments, established by the people for the protection and benefit of the governed — by what right do they lay an exorbitant, a prohibitory tax on the affections, the social wants, and the moral well-being of innocent persons, whom fate has separated, and to whom is denied all intercourse except epistolary correspondence? Why is this done, when no profit, but an actual loss, is the result? D)oes it not seem a refinement of cruelty, without any adequate object or compensation? Formerly a poor person had the right to send a letter across the ocean by private ship at a trifling charge; -one or two pence-now the United States denies the right altogether (witness the prosecution of Mr. Vanderbilt, and seizure of his parcels because he offered to carry letters to Havre); and the governmeiit of Great Britain, on finding such letters surrepti THE ENGLISH POSTAL SYSTEM. 55 tiously-or as Mr. Justice Shallow would say, burglariously —coming into the kingdom, immediately seizes them and puts a charge of sixteen cents on each unfortunate missive, for presuming to enter the kingdom otherwise than by the B. & N. A. RI. M. S. P. Co's steamships! The following table will give an idea of the measure of success that has attended the penny postage system in Great Britain. STATISTICS OF THE BRITISH POST OFFICE. REVENUE, EXPENSES, NUMBER OF LETTERS, AND NUMBER AND AMOUNT OF MONEY ORDERS, FROM 1839 TO 1854, INCLUSIVE. GROSS PNET I'NUMJBEIR OEF NUMBER OF AMOUNT OF DATE. EXPEISES. MIONEY MIONEY E. RECEIPTS. EXPENSES. REVEN UE. LETTERS. ORDERS. ORDERS. 1839 $11,953,818 $3,784,997 $8,168,8211 82,470,596 188,921 $1,565,623 1840 6,797,332 4,293,385 2,503,9471 168,768,344 587,797 4,804,878 1841 7,497,093 4,690,845 2,806,248 196,500,191 1,552,845 15,637,538 1842 7,890,729 4,887,522 3,003,207 208,434,451 2,111,980 21,685,889 1843 8,104,338 4,903,252 3,201,086 220,450,306 2,501,523 25,564,204 1844 8,525,339 4,925,553 3,599,786 242,091,684 2,806,803 28,476,977 1845 9,437,883 5,627,971 3,809,912 271,410,789 3,176,126 32,066,805 1846 9,819,287 5,693,726 4,125,561 299,586,762 3,515,079 35,355,284 1847 10,905,084 5,982,600 4,922,484 322,146,243 4,031,185 39,515,886 1848 10,718,400 7,016,253 3,702,147 328,830,184 4,203,651 40,756,475 1849 10,826,749 6,622,814 4,203,935 337,399,199 4,248,891 40,763,219 1850 11,323,421 7,303,928 4,019,493: 347,069,071 4,439,713 42,472,493 1851 12,110,841 6,520,818 5,590,023 360,647,187 4,661,025 44,402,104 1852 12,171,634 6,719,536 5,452,098 379,501,499 4,947,825 47,191,389 1853 12,872,039 7,003,399 5,868,6401 410,817,489 5,215,290 49,580,976 1854 13,509,313 7,532,781 5,976,532 443,649,301 5,466,244 52,312,059 1855 13,582,100 8,256,820 5,325,280 456,216,176 5,807,412 55,046,398 Total $178,045,400 $101,766,200 $76,279,200 5,075,989,472 59,462,3101 $577,198,197 From this we learn that more letters have passed through the British Post Office in four years, (1,690,184,465), than through ours since we have been a nation, (1,393,930,814, up to 1855), now nearly three quarters of a century. WTe shall endeavor to show that trans-Atlantic postage, at not more than one fourth the sums now charged —or six cents for each letter, and two cents for each paper-will be more productive than the rates now levied, and not incompatible with a self-sustaining service. 56 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. CHAPTER XI. ORIGIN OF THE POST OFFICE-ENORMOUS SUBSIDIES PAID TO TWVO STEAMSIIIP COMPANIES — FALSE ECONOMY AND INJUSTICE OF THE PRESENT EXORBITANT RATES OF TRANS-ATLANTIC POSTAGE. ~ 47. The first modern mail service and postal establishment originated in a despotism. The Post Office was founded about three hundred and fifty years ago, under the Emperor Maximilian, of Germany, who did it to acconmplish two things. He wished to control all the intercourse between different parts of his empire, and thereby establish a police espionage over his subjects; and he also wished to make money. These objects have been pursued and carried out by every monarchical government since that time. In this country the law recognizes no " right of search" or examination of letters, and the government certainly makes no money out of the mail service. In Great Britain the right to open letters is merely nominal, and never acted on except in criminal cases or bankruptcies. The British government does make money out of the postal business, but not in the ocean service. 48. If a member of congress from Missouri were to contend that an appropriation from the national treasury should not be made, to transport the mail from New York to Europe, unless an equal sum were paid for carrying the foreign mails between St. Louis and England via New Orleans, the absurdity of the proposition would be palpable to every school-boy. Thle rivers and seaports-the great channels of commerce —like the heart and arteries of a living creature, are fixed by laws stronger than legislative enactments. Boston is more favorably located for correspondence with Europe than New York or any other port, and we are un COST OF OCEAN MAIL SERVICE. 57 just to ourselves if we do not have our share of the world's commerce. Situated as Boston is, if a steam communication is commenced between this and any foreign port, as favorable a contract should be made as with the steamship companies of New York or any other place. There is no doubt that the great obstacle which has stood in the way of new steamship enterprises between this country and Great Britain has been the enormous subsidies paid by the governments of both countries to the two great steam lines of' Cunard and Collins for carrying the mail. The Cunard line receives from the British government for the mail service $861,200 (;~172,840), and the Collins line from the United States government $858,000, making a total of $1,722,200 annually. This in five years amounts to the very respectable sum of $8,611,000! By an act of the last congress the "' notice " provided for in the original contract is to be given to the Collins company, and the compensation reduced to $357,500 per annum. That will leave the mail compensation for the two lines $1,221,700 per annum, which, during the next three years, will amount to $3,665,100. With the first seven years at the larger compensation ($1,722,200 annually), and the last three years at the less ($1,221,700), the money paid to the two lines by both governments for trans-Atlantic mail service for ten years-1850 to 1859 inclusive —will be no less than $15,720,500. Here is a sum of money sufficient to build a small navy, and all paid during ten years to two companies residing in New York and Liverpool. True, a large sum has been spent in running the steamers; and very likely for several years the traffic may have been carried on at a loss. True, these companies were pioneers, had the courage, the enterprise, and the capital to run the risk, and open the ocean to a regular steam traffic. We would not detract one jot or tittle from the merit of these capitalists. But now their contracts are approaching a close, we may well ask if it is best for the two governments to renew them. Is it policy, is it justice? Is it just towards Southampton, Dublin, Cork, Belfast or Galway —towards Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk and Charleston, to 8 58 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. throw all or nearly all of the government mail patronage into New York and Liverpool? Were these the only ports through which the mail could be carried; were the mail service one gross bill of expense that must be defiayed by governments; and were there no other considerations except those of a rapid and punctual mail conveyance, the position would be very different fronom what it is. It is true that the money paid for the service is appropriated in the expenditures for naval,purposes, and it is understood that a large share of it is laid out to enable a company to build vessels to perform a service that was not demanded by, and would not be remunerated from the commerce of the country. By the original contract. the vessels are to be given up to the government at a just valuation, provided they are wanted for service in time of war. From the circumstances of the case the investment is not expected to be remunerative to the government, considered merely as mail steamers. But the circumstances under which these contracts were made, do not at this time exist. Instead of a single line of steamers, sustained by a large subsidy from the British government, there are now fifteen steamship lines running between this country and Europe (~ 4,) many of which do a large and remunerative traffic without any mail service or mail compensation whatever. The day of these large contracts with compensation at the rate of nearly a million a year, is gone by. The mail service between the United States and Europe must soon stand on the same footing with other traffic. W~ith the. near approach of the time when the telegraphic wires will span the ocean, the necessity of rapid and frequent mail service will be less and less urgent. War ships, for the nation, in any emergency, can be supplied at once, from the mercantile marine, or by building, and where now can there be any pretext for spending vast sums to keep up lines of steamers that, after all, promise to be only partially adapted to war purposes? 49. If kings had not found it convenient and agreeable to themselves to establish an espionage over the intercourse of their subjects, by written correspondence, we should to-day have had a free trade in letters as in everything else. EXORBITANT OCEAN POSTAGE. 59 A ship anchors off our coast, or loads in a harbor for a foreign port, and if once a b:og of letters is put on board, an agent of the government postal establishment seizes it, and declares that the ship owner has offended against the majesty of the law. And yet we have no export duty, and government does not pretend to exercise any control over any other traffic, or over any travellers that may leave the country. If government performed the service at as low a rate as private parties would, or at a reasonable rate, corresponding to a certain extent with the price of transporting other articles, there would not be as much reason to complain. But what is the fact. The letters that are taken across the water are packed in boxes, and by actual count and measurement, 36,062 letters go to a ton. This, at 24 cents a letter, the price of postage to Great Britain, is $8,654 a ton. Bales of goods on the same steamers are taken for $15 a ton. At this rate, the cost of carrying letters would be four-tenths of a mill each, or twenty-four letters for one cent. This differs materially from 21 cents a letter. Government not only makes a monopoly of letter-carrying, but while carrying it on, manages to lag entirely behind private enterprise. The high rate of postage is actually a serious detriment to the business and social intercourse between this country and Europe. In any business operations; in speed, safety and punctuality, how far behind the express companies is the government post! Every single farthing that is added to six cents for taking a letter from any part of the United States to any part of Great Britain, or vice versa, is nothing but government robbery, and deserves no milder name; for, without any government posts, private parties would to-day be carrying them for that sum. There is a constantly growing opinion that to all intents and purposes, correspondence would be on better footing if there were no Post Office, and letter carrying stood on the same footing of all other transportation. When steamers first commenced running on the Mississippi river, a high price was paid for carrying the mails. For many years, since numerous steamers have been running, a common practice has been to send a mail like a package of freight, paying five dollars for carrying it from New Orleans to St. Louis. 60 OCEAN STEAMI NAVIGATION. Now there are numerous steam lines across the Atlantic, and new ones starting every year, why not make an innovation at once, and have every suitable steamer carry a mail that will do so at a reasonable rate. Why should the full postage on letters between this country and England, France or Germany, be over six cents? That sum could be divided equally between the two countries and the person or company performing the ocean service. The number of letters passing annually between this country and Great Britain is a little over 4,000,000, and the newspapers about 2,600,000 (~ 43), the first at twentyfour cents, and the latter at four cents each. If letters were carried at one fourth the present postage and papers fbr one half- six cents for letters and two cents for papers - the number would unquestionably double at once. With that number, and mails twice a week, the average number of letters each single trip would be 80,000, and 50,000 newspapers. With one third of the postage paid for transportation, each steamer would get for the single voyage across the ocean $1600 for letter postage, and $500 for newspapers; being $4200 for the round trip; just for the postal service. Steamers making semi-monthly trips — twenty-six voyages a year —would receive for the postal service $109,200 a year. How much better that would be than our present exorbitant rates of postage, with one or two lines of steamers receiving four, five, or eight hundred thousand dollars a year, and others none at all! How much better than for two or three steamship companies to receive such heavy subsidies from two wealthy nations as to hold a virtual monopoly of the "ocean ferry"! It is both bad policy and injustice for all or the largest share of government patronage to be concentrated at one seaport like New York, so long as there are other ports equally well situated for foreign trade and foreign postal service. With a magnetic telegraph spanning the ocean, which we shall soon have, is it of great consequence, is it worth half a million or a million a year, to have letters carried across in steamers of enormous size and cost, and in nine or ten days rather than in twelve or fourteen? If we answer in the affirmative, then there should be a line opened INJUSTICE OF HIGH POSTAGE. 61 from Boston to Galway at once. If one or two days make but little difference, then why should governments pay a large sum for the increased cost of great speed and large steamers? Viewed in any light; except from the stand point of a New York or Liverpool contractor or steamship owner, there is not one single reason why each steamer and each line of steamers that crosses the ocean should not have an equal chance, looking at the amount of service done. Mr. C. Vanderbilt, who has made a proposition to government to carry the mail across the Atlantic, only asks that all parties be treated alike. He wishes no grant or condition extended to him that is not open to every one. A fair field, and no special favors, are the correct mottoes. Boston and New York are both accused of putting in special pleadings for the two ports. The facts and arguments here advanced must be considered equitable and reasonable, by the capitalist, the merchant or ship owner of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore or other locality; and by every one, except such as are now enjoying a profitable contract or special privilege. If circumstances are such that a Philadelphia steamer can receive for Europe one ton of mail matter, New York two, and Boston four tons at a trip, then the compensation should be one, two and four respectively. Every description of traffic across the ocean at this time, is such, that the day for special privileges to one company or one seaport, is or ought to be reckoned with the past. If the public have the option to decide by what particular steamer or seaport a letter shall go, so long as the postage is low and uniform, there is no reason why a steamer from New Orleans, Charleston, Baltimore, or Philadelphia, should not have as much mail service as it can obtain, and be paid in proportion to the amount of service done.'The government of his majesty Ferdinand II., King of the Two Sicilies, charges thirty-six cents postage on every foreign newspaper that arrives in the kingdom. Unquestionably that is no more a usurpation of power, and, except in amount, no more arbitrary or unjust than for the United States and Great Britain to charge as much for carrying two ounces of letters across the ocean as it would cost to 62 OCEAN STEA.M NAVIGATION. convey a barrel of pork or a barrel of beef over the same journey. And why should it cost twenty-four cents to carry a letter across the Atlantic, 3000 miles, when a letter of equal weight is sent by steam from England to Australia, half the circumference of the globe, for sixpence sterling? The fact is, it is a waste of words; a throwing away of logic, reason, and good temper, on a self-evident proposition, to go to work and argue and prove that it is all bad policy, false economy, injustice, and outrageous tyranny; a crime without a reward, a gross piece of government robbery, usurpation, cruelty, folly and wrong, to lay such an exorbitant tax on the business interests, the affections, and social wants of innocent and unoffending people. So far as Great Britain is concerned the matter is in our own hands. If that government is not willing to come to some arrangement for a cheap international postage, a retaliatory measure in the shape of a heavy duty on certain articles of English manufacture - and'which a large class in this country is already in favor of-would act as a gentle "persuader," and bring about a more accommodating spirit. THE COASTING TRADE. 63 CHAPTER XII. THlE COASTING TRADE-EXPORTS AND IMPORTS FOR TEN YEARSMANUFACTURES OF BOSTON-RECEIPTS OF PRODUCE COASTWISE-DOMESTIC TRADE -WITH CUBA-EUROPEAN STEAMSHIP LINES TO THE VWEST INDIES AND SOUTHI AMERICA. ~ 50. The same general facts and arguments that we have brought forward to illustrate the necessity of transAtlantic steam navigation, will apply with equal force to the coasting trade. There is at this time no steam communication between Boston and any port south of Baltimore. Once open a traffic by steam with our southern ports, and it will have a most important bearing on all our commerce with the West Indies and South America. When we sustain the one, we necessarily increase the other. The coasting trade of the American continent commences at Newfoundland or Labrador, passes the United States coast, the West Indies, Central America, Brazil, and Buenos Ayres, doubles Cape Horn, and terminates with the Russian possessions on the Northwest Coast. In this widely-extended commerce, the seaports on the Atlantic having the largest number of steamships will inevitably do the most business with sailing vessels. It is like carrying the mail on land, where a contractor sometimes finds it for his interest to transport the mail over a main route for nothing, or a mere nominal sum. Having the mail to transport, there will be little or no competition, and of course the contracting party receives all the passenger traffic and much other business. A merchant at New Orleans, Havana, or San Francisco receives a small shipment, or a few samples, by steamer, from New York, and of 64 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. course he orders more by mail or telegraph from the same place, and has them come by the conveyance that answers his purpose best. A merchant in California receives a sample of goods from New York by steamer, and wanting more, he never writes to Boston to duplicate or quadruplicate his order. He orders his large shipment by steamer or sailing vessel from the same port that produced his original sample. 51. The condition and prospects of the trade of Boston, and its relative importance in the commerce of the Union, can be seen by a few tabular statements. The following figures give the EXPORTS AND IMPORTS, OF BOSTON, AND OF TIlE UNITED STATES, FOR TEN YEARS. BOSTON. UNITED STATES. Year. Exports. Imports. Exports. Imports. 1847 $10,132,217'; $40,522,407;::' $158,648,622 $146,545,638 1848 10,001,829 23,888,475 154,032,131 154,998,928 1849 8,843,974 2, 117,175 145,755,820 147,857,439 1850 9,342,336 29,589,013 151,898,720 178,138,318 1851 13,479,590 31,850,558 218,388,0111 216,224,932 1852 14,973,918 33,987,144 209,642,325/ 212,945,442 1853 20,773,173 43,317,379 230,452,250 267,978,647 1854 19,656,917 46,480,441 278,241,064 304,562,381 1855 32,125,246 41,984,013 27.5,156,846 261,468,520 18561 19,172,532t 31,S45,275t 326,964.908 314,639,942 One year with another, Boston has about eight per cent. of the exports and fifteen per cent. of the imports of the entire country (~ 3). It is impossible to represent in tabular form, within a convenient space, a full statement of the manufacturers, and the foreign and domestic trade of Boston. On the following pages are statements of all the leading articles; the annual value of the manufactures, the quantities of produce and raw material received coastwise, and by rail, and the quantities of the leading staples, both exports and imports, that have passed through the port of Boston during each of the last ten years. * 13 months. t Three quarters of the year. TRADE OF BOSTON COASTWISE. 65 52. The following figures represent the annual value of the MANUFACTURES OF BOSTON AND VICINITY. Value. Manufactures of Cotton,...............................$47,000,000 Boots and Shoes,................................... 37,500,000 Woollen Goods........ 22,000,000 Clothing,........................................... 12,000,000 Leather,............................ 9,000,000 Books,............................................. 5,500,000 Furniture.....................4,500,000 Ship Building,..................................... 4,000,000 Agricultural Tools,.................................. 2,500,000 Total,................................$144,000,000 53. It is impossible to give an exact view of the amount of our coasting trade, as much of the produce received comes by railroad. The following table, made up from the columns of the Boston Shipping List, is a statement of the ARTICLES RECEIVED AT BOSTON, COASTWISE AND BY RAILROAD, FOR TEN YEARS. FLOUR, WHEAT, CORN, OATS, COTTON, WOOLYear. Barrels. Bushels. Bushels. Bushels. Bales. Bales. 1847 1,027,719 171,128 2,584,528 521,735 198,932 19,618 1848 935,578 336,247 2,338 293 384,308 239,958 17,698 1849 1,026,309 510,671 2,789,318 449,324 270,693 23,808 1850 761,148 531,047 2,116,744 339,801 195,076 26,247 1851 773,412 405,044 21175,367 496,911 204,234 28,535 1852 896,454 762,939 2,118,338 849,173 281,166 30,336 1853 935,962 407,891 2,352,056 708,781 266,364 22,770 1854 767,090 323,404 2,056,594 705,871 277,490 19,690 1855 1,012,929 204,431 2,084,476 549,784 286,400 39,620 1856 1,009,450 242,691 2,608,553 866,280 327,554 33,711 The following figures give the amount of COTTON RECEIVED AT BOSTON IN TWO YEARS. 1855. 1856. From New Orleans, bales,.................1....... 137,106 149,645 Mobile.................................... 33,072 66,352 " Savannah,............................... 59,462 39,301 " Apalachicola...............................19,680 29,560 " Galveston,.... 19,992 25,548 " Charleston,.13,014 13,714 " Other places............................... 4,074 3,434 Total, bales,.................286,400 327,554 54. In the two following pages are given, from the columns of the Boston Shipping List, the.leading exports and imports for the last ten years. 9 IMPORTS OF THE PORT OF BOSTON, FOR TEN YEARS. 1847. 1848. 1849. 1850. 1851. 1852. 1853. 1854. 1855. 1856. Coal, chaldrons,..... 51,344 47,098 46,5931 38,737 38,817 50,107 51,310 56,115 60,421 44,933 Cocoa, bags,.5,741 6,479 6,038 6,034 4,131 7,222 6,558 5,847 2,645 2,218 Coffee, bags,..............145,716 125,881 162,368 177,305 123,277 150,961 145,490 130,742 ~ Fish, Mackerel, bbls., 59,098 33,265 41,856 37,920 43,329 48,570 27,723 50,620 66,776 44,459 Gunny Bags, pkg's.,. 16,055 34,412 23,237 25,695 15,234 35,902 18,873 33,405 24,563 37,924 Hemp, bales,........ 53,258 61,861 49,010 38,601 57,120 73,006 75,408 105,426 97,407 121,597 Hides, number,...... 472,962 459,507 572,076 592,137 616,563 479,288 416,586, 430,234 284,709 527,098 H Lead, pigs........ 157,767 164,304 180,365 188,891 247,088 135,868 148,022 160,439 144,569 135,920 > Linseed, bags,..... 46,721 90,277 82,349 102,727 171,984 185,694 218,797 263,522 351,566 397,243 Molasses, packages, 85,762 89,274 79,549 83,114 80,564 79,384 76,499 97,323 94,988 69,299 Rice, casks,....... 9,772 11,477 15,453 14,917 7,192 6,339 12,539 7,308 7,542 11,781 Salt, bushels,....... 1,370,966 1,566,584 1,376,224 950,110 1,405,529 1,969,390 1,532,568 2,488,567 1,973,02111,747,329 Saltpetre, bags,..... 62,582 63,225 69,748 76,784 58,760 105,058 83,346 117,900 106,039 89,834 Q Sperm Oil, bbls...... 120,753 107,876 100,944 92,892 99,591 78,872 103,077 716,096 72,649 78,552 Spirits, gallons,... 299,419 434,073 526,190 450,645 540,678 482,991 636,486 438,721 592,976 542,836 z Sugar, packages,... 164,550 147,309 163,740 192,464 210,430 271,162 189,832 240,855 301,326 Sumac, bags,....... 19,070 34,524 30,050 29,624 25,636 35,015 42,526 42,525 28,611 30,692 Tobacco, packages, 45,534 38,669 37,530 42,286 48,148 58,565 70,628 42,149 42,701 47,791'Whalebone, lbs.,..... 3,311,680 2,003,000 2,281,101 2,809,20013,616,500 1,2259,900 5,652,300 3,445,200 2,797,500 2,387,400 Whale Oil, bbls.,..... 313,150 280,756 218,492 200,608 328,483 84,211 260,114 319,837 181,045 195,671 Wine, gallons,...... 273,468 349,337 22,168 255,831 210,422 94,498 190,551 156,392, 123,803 162,629 Wool, packages...... 31,389 29,132 20,815 29,805 44,5121 31,755 43,825 34,746 24,6701 32,233 EXPORTS FROM THE PORT OF BOSTON, FOR TEN YEARS. 1847. 1848. 1849. 1850. 1851. 1852. 1853. 1854. 1855. 1856. Bootsand Shoes, cases, 72,424 79,118 101,371 147,769 153,912 195,120 220,138 196,411 204,602 224,322 Coffee, bags,........ 141,811 104,256 105,782 80,110 86,469 106,147 96,165 77,263 102,615 59,863 Cotton, bales,..... 6,477 7,766 3,308 1,885 2,217 3,146 4,389 4,948 3,917 11,776 Domestics, packages,....... 0,952 33,309 34,307 47,007 62,669 52,680 35,112 3473 39,740 Flour, bbls.,........ 186,728 129,678 153,933 115,316 177,346 269,771 382,305 188,353 159,084 198,081 Corn Meal, bbls.,.... 44,903 42,849 32,788 19,327 10,917 20,605 31,311 25,943 35,967 36,693 0 Corn, bushels,....... 508,025 518,856 325,768 160,944 94,161 74,180 141,382 166,639 33,142 45,383 H Hops, bales,........ 455 605 391 359 189 144 263 413 803 1,643 o Ice, tons,.... 54,625 57,507 66,308 69,623 99,578 96,482 82,792 115,315 98,080 125,814 0 l8,978 13,677 1,774 6,330 6,519 14,992 8,068 9,455 13,642 16,997 Lumber, thousand ft... 8,373 9,619 26,011 24,225 12,771 ]6,593 24,121 14,236 11,444 13,858 Molasses, packages,.. 33,539 14,829 17,341 15,560 14,359 10,033 11,848 7,485 6,670 8,389, Nails, casks,........ 46,321 39,423 72,077 86,460 64,860 2,720 80,018 67,805 111,981 79,411 Rice, packages,...... 4,227 5,03 5,937 7,934 10,862 13,249 17,625 12,318 9,568 17,142 Spirits, gallons,..... 400,796 479,802 641,176 393,259 568,487 644,406 713,033 1,394,940 2,103,939 1,002,013 Sugar, packages, 9,373 11,513 13,041 15,313 7,115 11,432 39,194 36,194 31,003 12,565 Tallow, bbls....... 4,338 3,244 2,072 2,1441 0 3,881 1,819 2,485 2,485 1,814 2,658 Tobacco, packages,. 16,842 13,261 15,077 12,573 22,817 26,479 27,944 27,944 20,994 20,691 10 8./ 13,40/ 17625[ 2,318,568/17,14 68 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. 55. There are no data from which to tell the amount of cotton manufactures that are sold in Boston, to go west and south, either coastwise, or by railroad. The shipments to foreign countries, from the custom-house returns for the last two years, are as follows: EXPORTS OF DOMESTICS FROM BOSTON, FOR TWO YEARS. 1855. 1856. WHERE SENT. PACKAGES. VALUE. PACKAGES. VALUE. Chili................. 16,394 $834,509 85 $665,466 Callao................. 1,513 74,936 6 450 Truxillo...................... 246 17,360 Peru................... 128 7,149 120 6,280 Buenos Ayres.......... 326 15,174 603 33,445 River Plate.30 1,413.... Rio Janeiro............. 466 29,464 643 30,068 Rio Grande............. 110 6,222 60 3,018 Para.................. 73 3,718 61 3,519 Pernambuco............ 26 1,525.... Caldera................ 20 826.... Brazil................. 75 785 145 10,263 Surinam................ 23 1,141... South America........... 150 9,750 73 2,890 Honduras............ 363 21,604.... Central America.......... 800 33,000.... Hayti.................. 1,286 95,772 1,458 117,674 Cuba.................. 1.. 5 387 Porto Rico............ 19 1,301 10 840 St. Thomas............. 2 92 2 117 Bahamas............... 3 277.... Africa.244 13,830 38 2,716 Madeira................ 9 830 5 291 Cape Verde Isles................ 28 2,103 Fayal, and a market...... 10 160 92 5,153 Smyrna and Malta....... 2,683 158,154 1,509 103,037 Beyrout............... 158 8,273.... Constantinople.......... 128 8,879.. Marseilles...... 15 1,004 Gibraltar, and a market.... 88 4,726 188 12,948 East Indies............. 6,110 322,147 17,067 876,864 Cape of Good Hope........... 79 6,970 Liverpool............... 30 1,400.... British Provinces......... 1,717 90,862 3,429 208,095 Australia.............. 764 41,158 1,170 71,861 Sandwich Islands........ 525 67,744 316 25,635 Society Islands...... 87 11,215 Total................ 34,273 $1,856,821 39,740 $2,219,669 FOREIGN TRADE OF BOSTON. 69 RECAPITULATION. 1855. 1856. WIHERE SENT. PACKAGES. VALUE. PACKAGES. VALUE. South America, W. coast... 18,035 $916,594 1.2,657 $689,556 South America, E. coast... 1,149 60,268 1,512 80,313 South America, (not noted,) 150 9,750 73 2,890 Total, South America... 19,334 986,612 14,242 772,759 Central America......... 1,163 54,604.. West Indies............. 1,310 97,442 1,475 119,018 Africa and Islands....... 263 14,820 163 10,263 Mediterranean........... 3,057 180,032 1,712 116,989 East Indies............. 6,110 322,147 17,067 876,864 British Dominions...... 1,747 92,262 3,508 215,065 Australia............... 764 41,158 1,170 71,861 Pacific Islands........... 525 67,744 403 36,850 Total...............,273 $1,856,821 39,740 $2,219,669 56. In the foregoing statistics we have a general view of the trade of Boston. The amount of exports and imports (~ 54) are irregular, sometimes increasing and sometimes decreasing. In exports, coffee, cotton, domestics, corn, flour, lumber, sugar, molasses, and tallow have generally decreased, while there has been an increase in boots and shoes, hops, ice, lead, nails, rice, spirits, and tobacco. Where there is a decrease in exports to foreign countries there should be an increase in the coasting and interior trade, or there is an inevitable decline in our manufactures. In imports, there has been a general decline in the quantity of cocoa, coffee, lead, rice, sperm and whale oil, and wine, while there has been an increase in the importation of gunny bags, hemp, linseed, salt, saltpetre, spirits and sugar. The importation of the following articles has remained about stationary; coal, fish, molasses, sumac, tobacco, and wool. This is not altogether a flattering picture. The largest branch of manufactures that we have is cotton fabrics (~ 52) which we produce annually to the amount of about $50,000,000. Of these we send to foreign countries, not far from two millions, or about four per cent. More than one third of these last year went to the East Indies, and almost another third to the west coast of 70 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. South America. We have only enumerated the leading manufactures that are carried on in and near Boston. The manufactures that find a market in Boston cannot be of less value than $150,000,000 annually, and of this the value added to the raw material by labor is estimated at $70,000,000. Of the shipments into Boston, coastwise, for ten years (~ 53) there can not be said to be a general increase in any leading articles except in cotton, wool and oats. The receipts of corn, flour and wheat have rather declined. 57. The following, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1856, is a statement of the TRADE BETWEEN BOSTON AND CUBA, FOR ONE YEAR. IMPORTS. EXPORTS. QUANTITY. VALUE. VALUE. Brown Sugar, lbs...53,015,497 $2,499,028 Furniture, &c., $249,724 White Sugar, lbs.......307,824 16,995 Lumber, &c.....226,303 Molasses, galls.......4,885,664 871,835 Fish,........9...0,520 Cigars, M............... 7,038 116,624 Iron Manufr's....65,606 Tobacco, num. lbs......413,635 81,076 Whale Oil.......43,82 1 Honey, galls..........102,804 S,635 Ice,............32,468 Spirits, galls............85,385 28,919 Glass.....27,555 Mahogany, &c........... 2.3,776 Stone........... 26,902 Coffee, lbs.............. 1,516 170 Potatoes........17,981 Preserved fruits......... 603 Gunpowder......16,000 Oranges............... 34 Hams..........15,249 Other articles........... 5,555 Candles......... 13,203 Cotton Manu'f'rs... 3,832 Total.. $3,683,250 Other articles.. 215,195 Total.....$1,044,395 The above enumeration of exports comprise all of the American merchandise sent in American vessels. The entire exports of the year from this port to Cuba stood as follows:Value. American merchandise in American vessels............... -$1,044,359 American merchandise in foreign vessels.. 25,110 Foreign merchandise.. 76,676 $1,146,145 The white population of Cuba numbers about 565,000, and the number of estates is not far from 14,000,-divided as follows: SOUTH AMERICAN TRADE. 71 Coffee plantations.......................................1,682 Sugar plantations..........................................1,442 Tobacco plantations........................... 912 Grazing and fruits.....................................9,930 The annual products are valued at $60,000,000, of which some of the principal are the following:Sugar..$18,699,924 Fruits............................................ 14,839,050 Coffee............................................. 6,000,000 Molasses................. ],402,728 Cigars............................................ 4,267,496 Leaf tobacco...................5..................... 00,000 The imports of the island are about $30,000,000 annually, and the exports about $28,000,000. Cuba sends exports to England annually, to the amount of about $1,500,000, and to the United States about seven millions. In sugars Boston has a large trade with Cuba, but in coffee and fruits, according to the returns for 1856, not one thousand dollars' worth a year. From Cuba we purchased, in 1856, to the amount of $3.683,250, and only returned in exports $1,044,359. From Hayti, in 1855, we received 71,466 bags of coffee, and returned, among other articles, 1286 packages of domestics, valued at $95,772. 58. There is no part of the world where we should have a larger or more flourishing commerce than with the West Indies and South America; and, on that very ground, Great Britain and other nations are driving us out of the field. The agent, too, with which they are accomplishing this, is steam. The annual trade between the United States and Brazil is estimated at $24,000,000. Up to the year 1850 —when our magnificent clipper ships afforded the most rapid means of conveyance —there were no foreign steamers running to Brazil, and during thirteen years-following 1837-our trade with Brazil doubled, while from 1840 to 1850 the trade of Great Britain stood still. In 1850 the English Royal Mail line of steamers was started from Southampton to Rio; and in five years the British trade with that country was doubled. During the same five years our trade with that country stood still. A semimonthly Royal Mail line was also started from Southamp 72 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. ton to St. Thomas. Another line was started from Halifax to Bermuda and St. Thomas, and from there lines diverged in nearly every direction; to Kingston, Jamaica, to Havana, and to Aspinwall, there to connect with a line running from Panama to Callao and Valparaiso. These British steamers on the west coast of South America are always timed so as to break connection with the United States steamers running between New York and Aspinwall. There are now seven lines of steamers between Europe and Brazil, as follows: the Liverpool, Brazil and La Plate, (English,) the " Royal Mail" line, (English,) from Southampton, the Havre, (French,) the Marseilles, (French,) the Antwerp, (Belgian,) the Luso-Brazileria, (Portugal and Brazil,) and the Sardinian line, from Genoa. These lines touch at Bahia and Pernambuco on their way to Rio. Para, a city of 20,000 inhabitants, at the mouth of the Amazon, just south of the Equator, is the terminus of seven steam lines that navigate the Amazon, Rio Negro, Madeira, Tocantins and other rivers, through interior Brazil, New Granada, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. A Brazilian line of steamers runs from Para to the river Plate, and an English line from Rio to the La Plata and Buenos Ayres. There are also three other companies, (Brazilian) that run steamers on this coast. Without one single steamer to South America, south of Aspinwall, from any part of the United States, is it any wonder that the record shows (~ 55) that we sent domestic cottons to Surinam, Caldera, Pernambuco, and river Plate, in 1855, and not one single package to either place in 1856. Can we wonder that British trade with that coast doubles in five years, while ours stands still? We also see. that there were over $50,000 worth of cotton fabrics sent to Honduras and Central America in 1855, (~ 55) and not a dollar's worth in 1856. The United States, the second commercial nation in the world, has no direct steam communication with the southern half of this continent —except the single line from New York to Aspinwall-while petite nations like Portugal, Belgium and Sardinia, are sending steamers to that coast across an ocean, nearly four thousand miles. Our exports of cotton goods to the West Indies, Central America, and the east coast of South America, TIlE BOSTON ICE TRADE. 73 in 1855, amounted to $212,314, only, and, in 1856, to $199,331, while from Cuba alone our imports amount to nearly $4,000,000 a year (~ 57.) Our mercantile operations with the East and West Indies, and other hot countries, is much enhanced by the ice trade, a traffic now of great magnitude, and for which the merchants of Boston, and the inhabitants of warm climates, are mainly indebted to Mr. Frederick Tudor, who shipped the first cargo of ice that ever left Boston, in the year 1806, to the Island of Martinique. The traffic for many years unsuccessful, and carried on at a loss, but which has since yielded a fortune to the enterprising pioneer, as well as to others - foots up at different periods, as follows:YEAR. CARGOES. TONS. 1806 1 130 1816 6 1,200 1826 15 4,000 1836 45 12,000 1S46 175 56,000 1856 363 146,000 The freights on ice last year, averaging two dollars a ton, amounted to $290,000. New Orleans receives 50,000 tons a year. It requires no intricate statistical calculations to show that, without ocean steamers our trade is going into other hands, and departing to other shores. With a line of steamers to the W~est Indies, to connect with lines running to South America, we should have a share of the traffic. The race is to the swift, and the battle to the strong. W Ve must meet our competitors with their own weapons. Entering sailing vessels with modern steamships, and expecting to carry off the prizes won by active commerce, is like sending a Dutch lugger, of the seventeenth century, armed with six-pounders, into battle with a British screw seventyfour, bristling with long Paixhans. The commerce of twenty years ago is not the commerce of to-day, and the sooner we carry our knowledge of that fact into practical effect, the better it will be for us. 10 7 4 OCEAN STEAMI NAVIGAT'I;N. CHAPTE R XIII. RAILROADS IN THE UNITED STATES, AND THROUGHOUT TILE WVORLDWEALTH, POPULATION, AND TONNAGE OF THE UNITED STATESCOST OF FREIGHT TO THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. ~ 59. We shall be better prepared to appreciate the true position of Boston and the State of Massachusetts, and the ability of this city to conduct its legitimate portion of the carrying trade of the Union, by looking at some statistical statements. The following figures give the LENGTH OF RAILROADS IN THE UNITED STATES, AT THE COMiMENCEMENT OF EACH YEAR. YEARS. MILES. YRS. MILES. YES. MILES. 1828......... 3 1838......... 1,843 1S48........ 5,682 1829......... 28 1839......... 1,920 1849........ 6,350 1830......... 41 1840......... 2,167 1850........ 7,355 1831......... 54 1841......... 3,319 1551........ 9,090 1832......... 131 1842........ 3,877 1852....... 11,631 1833......... 576 1843......... 4,174 1853........ 13,379 1834......... 762 1844........ 4,311 1854........ 16,038 1835......... 918 1845......... 4,511 1855. 18,764 1836......... 1,102 1S46......... 4,870 1856........ 21,069 1837......... 1,412 1847......... 5,336 1857. 24,476 In contrast to the above, see the RAILROADS OF THE WORLD, JAN. 1, 1857. EUROPE. MILES. AMERICA. MILES. Great Britain.............8,576 Canada..................1,418 German States.....4,234 Cuba.................... 397 France................ 3,712 Chili..................... 86 Prussia... 2,309 Brazil.........5........2. 52 Austria and Hungary......1,697 New Granada... 49 Belgium.1,119 New Brunswick.. 24 Italian States............. 812 Nova Scotia....... 23 Russia and Poland......... 637 Peru.. 22 Holland.................. 422 Jamaica......... 10 Spain................... 263 Denmark................ 188 Total.....2,081 Switzerland.......... 167 Africa; Egypt.... 132 Norway and Sweden....... 67 Asia; British India.. 311 -_- _ Australia......... 39 Total........24,203 Europe..24,203 Total, in all countries, except the United States.26,766 Railroads in the United States..............................24,476 Grand total; railroads in the world....................51,242 POPULATION AND WEALT1H. 75 60. The following table gives the population, wealth, and miles of railroad in each state, and the average wealth of each individual, reckoning the gross population. POPULATION AND WEALTHE OF THE UNITED STATES. l Rail-. Roads, 1. Aver- Jan. 1, AverSTATE. Popula- Value of age for 1857. Popula- Value of age for tion. Property. pers'n. miles. tion. Property. pers'n. Alabama,.......... 771,623 $241,334,423 313 484 835,192 $270,233,027 324 Arkansas,.......... 209,8971 35,428 6755 121 U00 253,117 64,240,726 254 California,......... 92,597i 21,923,173 236 22 335,000 165,000,000 493 Connecticut,....... 370,792 119,088,672 311 601 401,292 203,759,831 508 Delaware,.......... 91,5321 15,896,870 173 120 97,295 30,466,924 314 Florida,.......... 87,445 23,198,734 267 36 110,725 497461,461 445 Georgia,........... 906,185 335,110,225 370 1,062 935,090 500,000,000 535 Illinois,............ 851,470 114,782,645 135 2,525 1,242,917 333,237,474 268 Indiana............. 988,416 15 2,70 399 155 1,807 1,149,606 301,858,474 262 Iowa,.............. 192,214 21,690,642 113 253 325,013 110,000,000 338 Kentucky......... 982.405 291,387,554 297 307 1,086,587 411,000,198 378 Louisiana........ 517,762 226,456,118 438 263 600,387 270,425,000 450 ]Maine,. 583,169 96,799,553 166 442 623,862 131,128,186 210 MIaryland......... 583,034 208,563,566 358 378 639,580 261,243,660 408 Mlassachusetts,..... 994.514 551,106,824 554 1,286 1,133,123 597,936,995 528 ichi(gan........ 397,654 30,877,223 78 600 509,374 116)593,580 229 Mlississippi.. 606,526 208,422,167 344 410 671,649 251,525,000 374 Missouri,......... 682,044 97,595,463 143 190 831,215 223,948,731 269 New Hampshire,... 317,976 95,251,396 290 645 324,701 103,804,326 319 New Jersey,........ 489,555 1537151,619 313 472 569,499 179,750,000 316 New York.......... 3,097,394 715,369,028 231 2,701 3,470,059 1,364,154,625 393 North Carolina....., 869,039 212,071,413 244 612 921,852 239,603.372 260 Ohio,. 1,980,329 433,872,632 219 2,870 2,215,750 860,877.354 389 Pennsylvania...... 2,311,786 500,275,851 216 2,407 2,542,960 1,031,731,304 406 Rhode Island,... 147,545 77,758,974 520 85 166,927 91,699,850' 549 South Carolina,..... 668,507 283,867,709 424 706 705,661 303,434,240 430 Tennessee,......... 1,002,717 175,281,358 175 509 1 092,470 321,771,810 295 Texas,............. 212,592 53,563,671 251 571 500,000 240,000,000 480 Vermont........... 314,120 72,980,483 232 516 325,2061 91,165,680 281 Virginia,............ 1,421,661 382,304,253i 269 17480 1,512,5931 530,994,897 351 Wisconsin,......... 305,391 26,715,825 87 630 552,109' 87,500,000 159 District of Columbia,1 51,687 16,183,755 311 00[ 59,000/ 25,568,703 433 Minnesota.......... 6,077 262,088 44 00 65,0001 20,000,000 308 New Mlexico,....... 61,547 5,174,471 83 00! 83,500 7,550,000 91 Oregon............ 13,294! 5,063,474 313 00~ 36,000 7,775,000 216 Washington.................... 00 5500 1650000 330 Utah,.............., 11,380 986,083 90 000 39,000 4,250,000 109 Kansas,............................. 00 11,0001 2,350,000 214 Nebraska,................... 00 / 4,500 1,235,6444 309 Total...... 237191876$6024666909 259 24,4761 26,964,312 $9,817,61170721 327 61. In the two following pages will be seen the number of tons of shipping owned in each principal seaport in the United States, for five consecutive years, and in each state of the Union, for three years. They are taken from the Government Trade and Navigation returns, and are unquestionably correct. 7f; OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. TONNAGE OF THIE UNITED STATES. 1851. 1852. 1853. 1854. 1855. New York.........931,193 1,016,599 1,149I,133 1,262,798 1,288.235 Boston..342,936 381,088 450,492 495,880 546,269 Philadelphia.......222,428 229,443 252,451 268,746 294,807 New Orleans...... 251,900 266,013 153,184 183,818 200,837 Baltimore......... 160,511 159,404 158,478 170,835 183,109 Bath, Me..........103,795 111, 241 129,466 154,501 175,259 New Bedford...... 131,409 149,207 155,630 ]65,910 169,986 Waldoborough..... 103,593 112,767 103,423 122,735 148,896 Portland.......... 97,571 105,978 104,350 123,672 137,317 Pittsburgh........ 53,734 64,156 79,361 84,870 93,692 San Francisco...... 58,063 97,699 97,699 93.520 87,842 Barnstable........ 72,997 76,394 78,748 81.957 80,615 Buffalo.......... 43,603 49,G614 65,184 82,678 76,953 Belfast, Me........ 44,835 52,044 56.422 55,899 70,762 Detroit........... 40,319 43,925 43,759 52,456 65,058 St. Louis......... 34,065 37,861 45,441 48,575 60,592 Charleston........ 31,910 42,142 42,653 38,10). 56,419 Penobscot......... 40,809 43,868 45,724 44,991 53,966 Cuyahoga, Ohio,.. 36,070 38,238 43,491 45,483 51,07S Chicago, Ill....... 23,103 25,209 27,015 31,041 50(),972 Frenehman'sBay,'Me. 34.899 38,419 39,426 41,869' 47,977 New London, Ct... 40,407 42,110 43,392 42,419 44,995 Passamaquoddy.... 25,349 31,422 29,532 30,683 44,505 Oswego, N. Y...... 26,323 26,107 30,213 24,365 42,461 Newburyport...... 26,706 29,403 31,768 37,810 40,827 Bangor, Me........ 27,571 32,230 34,226 39,439 40,298 Mobile............ 27,320 28,533 28.533 33,600 36,274 Norfolk,.......... 23,661 22,164 27,129 29,440 35,051 Georgetown, D. C.. 22,903 26,197 32,393 35,982 34,530 Gloucester........ 23,436 26,081 30,917 32,570 34,237 Machias........... 22,876 26,152 37,181 27,685 34,216 Perth Amboy...... 22,765 21,651 23,785 20,229 30,605 Portsmouth, N. H.. 25,427 24,891 26,645 28,838 30,330 Salem, Mass....... 30,498 30,465 30,461 30,528 30,236 Cincinnati......... 14,187 11,781 10,191 23,842 28,714 Savannah.......... 22,265 23,961 20,595 24,942 27,596 Wiscasset......... 19,718 20,720 20,882 19,692 26,930 Vienna, Md..... 14,469 16,802 17,957 24,697 26,618 Stonington,........ 20,302 23,162 24,341 24,081 26,110 Fairfield, Conn..... 24,403 25,265 26,123 26,310 25,066 New Haven....... 18,308 20,118 22,603 20,346 24,713 Nantucket......... 26,752 27,231 26,240 24,710 23,135 Louisville......... 12,937 11,818 12,166 20,122 22,6t80 Providence......... 15,552 16,422 16,361 19,405 21,229 Fall River......... 12,070 15,184 15,302 1 7,357 20,534 Wilmington, N. C.. 12,387 15,479 20,298 19,955 20,163 Bridgetown, N. J.. 14,835 14,930 15,546 18,622 20,084 Great Egg Harbor.. 16,421 17,173 18,599 17,541 19,232 Camden, N. J...... 15,663 17,448 9,558 17,975 18,417 Kennebunk........ 11,204 14,479 15,078 18,100 17,420 Bristol, R. I....... 12,177 13,626 12,847 14,603 16,494 Middletown, Ct..... 12,757 14,431 15,679 16,161 16,296 Milwaukee........ 2,946 6,931 10,009 14,217 15,624 WVilmington, Del... 6,816 7,010 9,241 14,274 15,169 TONNAGE OF THE UNITED STATES. " 7 TONNAGE OW~NED IN EACII OF THE STATES. NORTHERN STATES. 1851. 1854. 1855. New York.......................1,041,014 1,415,031 1,464,221 M lassachusetts.................... G94,402 916,074 979,21t) Maine.......................... 536,315 686,100 06,605 Pennsylvania....................:284,373 361.827 397,767 Connecticut...................... 116,179 129,318 137,180 New Jersey...................... 88,895 105,947 121,019 California....................... 58.435 102,257 92,26 ()hio............................ 58,352 80,859 91,606 AMichig(an........................ 41,774 56,849 69,489 Illinois.......................... 23,103 31,684 53,796 Rhode Island...................3.. 38 050 45,911 51,039 New HIampshire.................. 25,427 28,838 30,329 Wisconsin........................ 2,946 14,217 15,623 Vermont........................ 3,932 7,374 6,915 Indiana.............................. 2,952 3,698 Oregon Territory................. 1,063 1,192 1,192 Total..........................3,014,260 3,986,430 4,342,969 SOUTItERN STATES. 1851. 1854. 1855. TMaryland......................... 204,544 220,208 234,805 Louisiana.........................252,284 187,073 204,148 Virginia.......................... 68,799 84,840 91,788 South Carolina..................... 35,187 42,115 60,935 Missouri.......................... 34,065 48,575 60,592 North Carolina..................... 43,782 57,800 60,077 Alabama.......................... 27,327 33,599 36,274 District of Columbia................ 22,903 35,982 34,530 Georgia........................... 24,185 27,321 29,505 Kentuckv.......................... 12 937 20,122 22,680 Delaware.......................... 11,880 18,554 19,186 Florida........................... 9,374 14,393 14,833 Texas............................. 4,912 9,698 8,801 Tennessee.......................... 3,587 7,62 8,403 Mlississippi.......................... 1,404 1,363 2,475 Total,.......................... 57,170 809,264 869,032 Grand total; United States.........3,771,430 4,795,694 5,212,001 INCREASE OR DECREASE OF TONNAGE, FROlM 1851 TO 1855. NORTHERN STATES. Per cent. SOUTIIERN STATES. Per cent. Wisconsin......... 430 gain. Tennessee................. 131 gain. Illinois.. 132 gain. Missouri.. 77 gain. Vermont..... 78 gain. South Carolina.... 73 gain. Michigan..... GG gain. North Carolina.... 37 gain. California................. 55 gain. Florida..... 58 gain. Ohio..................... 57 gain. Kentucky................. 75 gain, Maine.................... 50 gain. Georgia.................. 22 gain. Massachusetts........ 41 gain. Alabama................. 32 gain. New York................ 40 gain. Louisiana. 2 loss. Pennsylvania. 40 gain. Virginia.33 gain. New Jersey. 36 gain. Maryland................. 14 gain. Rhode Island........ 34 gain. Delaware.62 gain. $$8 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. 62. There are many points that are worthy of observation in the foregoing tables. The amount of wealth in each State is not supposed to be exact, but it is probably an approximation to the truth.* In tonnage Massachusetts ranks next to the first. In amount of wealth per capita, there are but two States before Massachusetts, and were the exact truth known, it is to be doubted if there is one. We have seen (~ 3) that the wealth per person in New York City averages $1,004, and in Boston, $1,815, so that the City of Boston, in proportion to its population, is the wealthiest section of the country of which we have any account; and it is probably the wealthiest city in the world of its size. The miles of railroad owned in the United States, (~ 59) are nearly equal to all in the world besides. It is supposed that VVe do not consider the figures giving the wealth of each State (in 1856)taken from a Report of the Secretary of the Treasury-as correct an estimate as could be made upon the basis of the last census report. In fact, we know, and could prove, if this were the place, that the statements are fallacious and unreliable in a number of instances; but they are the only ones we have, and we take them for what they are worth. The spirit and intent of the " estimate," or rather the statement, can be appreciated from one fact. To a former estimate of the wealth of the States, made in a previous year, the Secretary has added $296,250,818 to the wealth of the slaveholding States, while not a single million has been added to the wealth of the Northern States, except $108,017,680 to California! It would take a higher authority, an abler statistician, and a more adroit tactician, than Mr. Secretary Gutfhrie, to make any sensible person believe, that during any period of time, long or short, the slaveholding states have added about,$300,000,000 to their actual wealth, while all of the non-slaveholding States, except California, have added nothing to theirs. We fancy, too, it would be quite as absurd to imagine that former estimates of this nature have been erroneous in one particular only; that of stating the wealth of the Northern States too high. The former estimate that we refer to-made for 1855-is a most reliable and consistent one; and, on comparing it to the one put forth with all the authority of the Treasury, we find some formidable liberties taken with it. To the wealth of Georgia $145,000,000 are added, to Texas $90,000,000 are added, to Maryland $17,000,000. While from New York $38,000,000 are deducted, from Ohio $9,000,000, from Rhode Island $19,000,000, and from, Minnesota Territory $3,000,000. We communicate to the honorable Secretary a very trite, self-evident, and common-place truth, when we declare these States and this territory to be among the most flourishing in the Union; and no mortal believes, or can believe, that former statements under this head-and those, too, made by Southern men-all err by over-estimating the wealth of the North. We have taken up more space in this note than we intended; not to prove the totally unreliable character of a table that we choose to print, but to show that the Treasury estimates must be received with caution. Galileo declared that the world did move, though he was imprisoned for the " heresy," and the Pope's bull declared it did not. And we must be permitted to assert that we believe New York, Ohio, and Minnesota, to be flourishing commonwealths, the ukase of the honorable Kentuckian to the contrary notwithstanding. THE COASTING TRADE. 9 there are not far from 4,500 steamships and steamboats in the world, and of these at least one-half are owned in the United States. It will then be readily seen that no successful competition can be made for the commerce of the world, or any material portion of it, without great activity and untiring energy. 63. Boston is situated at the most favorable point of our eastern coast for a trade with England, and the nearest to the shores of the old world of any commercial city in America. A portion-not all-of. the distance gained in a voyage across the Atlantic, is lost in competing with New York for a more direct route to the Mississippi valley. The natural and inevitable consequence, then, is, if we do not avail ourselves of our favorable location for European trade, we lose on both sides. Give us the best possible trade with Europe, and if we do not find a market west and south of us, we gain but little. A great advantage that we should have to offer to the western merchant, or the southern trader, is the best market in the nation for American manufactures, a market also offering every possible variety and the best inducements as to price for every description of foreign goods. This can only be done by a steamship connection both to the old world and to the south, coastwise. A quicker communication with England and Ireland will make Boston a better market for Manchester cottons, Leeds woollens, and Irish linens, than either New York or Philadelphia, and this will do much toward compensating for the few miles greater distance to the Mississippi valley in a direct course. But the position of Boston only gives it a slight disadvantage in a direct route by land to some of the western and north-western States. By way of New Orleans —with a line of steamers direct to that port-Boston has every advantage for a trade with the great West that is possessed by New York and Philadelphia, together with the additional ones of a greater proximity to Europe, and far more extensive local manufactures. But what are all these advantages without the best facilities of transportation. In no one particular does this age of the world surpass all former periods more than in facilities of transit, and means of communication. A city full of goods, offering the best market in the world, but with S() OCEAN STEAM \NAVIGATION. out adequate means of transportation, is like Robinson Crusoe on an island with a boat that he is unable to launch, or a man crammed with a vast amount of learning, and without the power of language or ability to communicate his knowledge to others. That the trade and manufactures of Boston have increased, and largely, within the last ten or fifteen years, is most true, but let us ask ourselves if we have secured our share of the vast commerce that has been opened throughout the mighty West, in California, the West Indies, and Central and South America. It is evident we have not. The market in New England, and in those southern ports with which we keep up an intercourse by sailing vessels, will and do prove sufficient for that expansion of trade necessary for a healthful progress. Foreign goods while in Europe, and that are destined to a market on the shores of Lake Michigan, or Lake Superior, or in the valley of the upper Mississippi, are offered a choice of routes. They can go from Liverpool to Quebec or Montreal, and then be shipped by way of the river and lakes, or sent quicker, and at a greater cost by the Grand Trunk Railway. If landed at Boston, they can go by rail to Ogdensburg, to Oswego, or Buffalo, and then by water to Chicago, or by rail all the way to Chicago, Mlilwaukee, Dubuque, Rock Island, or St. Louis. By way of New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore, there is a choice of routes, either by rail, or by rail and the Ohio river. 64: An examination of the different routes gives-without attempting to be exact-something like the following result, as the rates of charge per ton for different classes of freight: — RATES OF FREIGIIT TO ST. LOUIS. From 1st class. 2d. 3d. 4th. average. Philadelphia via. Ohio river...... $32 $27 $24 $21 $26 Boston via. Philadelphia,........ 36 32 28 25 30 Boston via. Baltimore,.......... 36 32 28 25 30 Boston via. Oswego,............ 37 32 29 - 33 Boston via. Oswego to Chicago,... 27 21 24 These figures are only supposed to give a general idea of the comparative rates of freight from different points on the Atlantic to St. Louis or the Mississippi valley. When the TRADE TO TIlE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 81 rates of freight by land are burdensome, a water route is sought, though it may be longer and less expeditious. From New York to New Orleans by steamer, the usual charge is about thirty cents a foot, or twelve dollars a ton. From New Orleans up the river by steam, flour and other heavy freight costs two and a half mills per ton a mile. This to St. Louis-1200 miles-would be three dollars a ton. We may then say that freight from New York to New Orleans by steamship, and then up the river to St. Louis, will cost fifteen to seventeen dollars a ton. By steamship from Boston to New Orleans, the rate and the time would be about the same; perhaps sixteen hours difference in the passage. By sailing vessel from New York or Boston to New Orleans, freight is usually six or eight cents a foot-or from two and a half to. three dollars a ton. By express from New York or Boston to St. Louis, the charge is from five to six dollars a hundred weight; say a hundred dollars a ton. Taking average time of transit, and the cost as detailed above, we can come to something like the following summary. Time and charge per ton for freight from different Atlantic cities, by various routes to the Mississippi valley; say at St. Louis:Time Rate per ton. Diys Days. From New York or Boston by express,.............$100 to $110 4 "; Boston by railroad,..0................ )6 to 45 13 " New York by railroad...................... 32 to 42 12 " Philadelphia by railroad,.................. 28 to 38 11' Boston by way of Oswego,.................. 30 to 37 16 " New York by steam via. New Orleans,........ 15 to 17 17 " Boston by ship via. New Orleans,............ 6 to 8 28 " Boston by steam via. New Orleans,........... 15 to 17 18 These are estimates, often from incomplete and uncertain data, and as to time will approximate to an average. Though not to be looked at as exact facts, they will give an idea of the advantages and disadvantages both in time and expense, of the different routes. The time of a sailing vessel from New York or Boston to New Orleans, will average perhaps twenty days, and by steamer, eight or nine. The eleven or twelve days given as the time for freight on i1 82 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. railroads from New York and Philadelphia to St. Louis, is less than it is usual for freight to go, but perhaps not less than it will be at some future day. We see here that the difference in time between sailing vessels to New Orleans, and steamers from New York to the same port, and the difference in expense between the overland railroad route fiom Boston and the various routes from New York and Philadelphia, will deprive us of a great share of the trade of the Mississippi valley, if it does not cut us off altogether. The direct and only remedy is steam communication by sea. With the increasing activity of trade through Canada, both by water and the Grand Trunk Railroad; with the approaching opening of the Allentown Railroad, giving a direct route, on tracks of a uniform gauge, from New York to all the western states; with shorter and more direct routes from New York and Philadelphia to the entire Mississippi valley, is it not evident that Boston requires all her advantages of position, and renewed energy and activity on the part of her merchants and manufacturers. The increase in population, and the consequent home consumption of goods of every description in the New England states, cannot in future be over two if it is over one per cent. per annum, while our commerce and manufactures must increase at least ten per cent. a year to keep pace with New York and the rest of the Union. Ten per cent. is probably not sufficient, for the seaports through which our foreign and much of our domestic trade flows, do not increase in number, while the population of the entire country-all of which has to be supplied with foreign goods —is increasing at the rate of a million a year. We can form some idea what the increase of Boston trade should be, when we reflect that New York and Boston, at this time, have a foreign commerce that supplies, perhaps, fifteen millions of people, and that commerce within the next hundred years will have to supply a population of fifty or sixty millions. If Boston does not do her portion of the trade, New York and other ports will. And we must remember that when commerce once takes its departure from a city, however prosperous and wealthy it may have been, it takes its departure never to return. TRANS-ATLANTIC STEAMERS. 83 CHAPTER XIV. STEAMSHIPS BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE NEWV ENGLAND COAST. ~ 65. The project of running a line of steamers from Liverpool to Portland is of course received with great favor by the people of Maine, and extravagant anticipations are indulged in as to the great results to Portland as a maritime city. We certainly do not wish to detract from the merits, position and commercial advantages possessed by our neighbors, but like all other subjects good will result from a discussion and an examination of facts and premises. Every line of steamships that is started to the New England coast will directly or indirectly benefit Boston, and it will be for our interest to encourage rather than discourage them. It may, however, be doubted whether the time has arrived for a line of steamships between Portland and Great Britain. Great anticipations have been formed as to the success of a "through trade" to and from Canada, but many of these anticipations are doomed to disappointment. No place in the world ever flourished as a commercial mart, on the ground solely of its position as a route to some other place. A few hotels and general facilities for travel will be supported, but a commercial city must have resources of its own. The inhabitants of Dover and Folkstone have endeavored by locating custom-houses and other facilities for importing, to build up cities at these points, but the attempt has resulted in a total failure. A few hotels are supported, and that is about all. And yet these places are on the main routes between England and the continent, and they receive nearly all the travel from their position; and besides, London is far out of the way, requiring a long route for steamers, and beating round a dangerous coast; but notwithstanding this, London and Southampton get the mercantile traffic. We need not, however, go out of this country to show 84 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. that a town favorably located as a place of transit, can never compete with one that possesses commercial advantages. When the New York and Erie Railroad was projected, the points selected to connect tide water and Iake Erie was Piermnont, on the Hudson river, thirty miles above New York, and Dunkirk, about half way between Buffalo and Erie. To judge from the map, these points seemed all right; but what did experience prove. As some one remarked, the road "commenced nowhere, and went nowhere." A few years showed the folly of the position, and branches were built connecting Buffalo with New York, the very cities that should have been connected in the first place. Now Piermont and Dunkirk are " nowhere." 66. Some years since a company of speculators pitched on Michigan City as the place where " a great city must be built"-in their estimation-because it was at the head of Lake Michigan, the passing point, and nearest to Northern Indiana. But a " higher law " decided that Chicago had commercial advantages which could not be ignored. Chicago is now a vast city, and Michigan city is-a splendid X roads! Like Rugby, in England, it is a great depot, a crossing and stopping place; a position for "shunting" trains, and nothing more. How many schemes have been concocted for making Cairo "a great city," because it is a place to every other locality in the Mississippi valley! The Illinois Central Railroad terminating there may in future make it something; but heretofore it has scarcely supported a first class hotel. Nature has dictated and man has carried out the work of making Cincinnati, St. Louis and Memphis the great commercial points on the rivers. Cairo is another Michigan City, Folkstone, or Rugby. Like Interlaken, in Switzerland, it is a capital place to be at to commence a journey among the Alps; but to visit it bears no comparison to Geneva. After the Austrian government built a railway from Mantua to the Rialto-constructing a magnificent bridge on arches near two miles," where Venice sat in state, Throned on her hundred isles;" it was supposed by the Venetians that the steamship trade TRADE OF SMALL PLACES. 85) of the Adriatic must or should centre there. But the curirent of traffic had set into Trieste; Vienna was the great city of Austria; Milan was a dead-alive place, and Venice must wait. If the exigencies of commerce demanded that Venice should be a commercial city, the harbor would be made suitable for " rich argosies" and ponderous ships. 67. To give Portland the advantage of one illustrative example in her favor, we will cite Hartlepool, on the east coast of England. A few years ago it was a small and unimportant port, and now it has enormous docks and " huoge warehouses," " all echoing with the busy sounds of industry." And what is the cause Vast coal mines are near at hand, wanting only a shipping port to do an immense trade with London. Galena, in north-western Illinois, is a place of considerable trade, because it produces near 50,000,000 pounds of lead in a year from its immediate neighborhood. Portland has about 25,000 inhabitants, while within fifteen miles of Boston harbor there are 412,000. Portland is about eight miles less than 300 miles from Montreal by railroad. The warehousing facilities, and the advantages that Boston possesses for other descriptions of traffic, make it an object for steamships to run into this port with bonded goods for Canada; and these considerations overcome the little advantage that Portland possesses of a somewhat nearer proximity to Montreal. A new impetus will be given to the bonded trade through Boston, to and from west and central Canada, after the Hoosac Tunnel is finished, and the Sackett's Harbor and Saratoga Railroad is opened, giving a very direct route from Boston to Cape Vincent, opposite Kingston. liun a line of steamships from Milford Haven to Portland, and, like the Erie Railroad from Piermont to Dunkirk, it begins nowhere, and ends nowhere. Run steamers from Liverpool to Portland, and will any commercial man point out the destination and demand for a traffic at that American port sufficient to support the vessels? There are no advantages in point of time, the voyage being as long as from Liverpool to Boston. The country merchants even of Maine prefer to come to Boston to purchase, as here they find everything they want. 86 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. Railroads have done much towards abolishing space, time, and distance, in the transit of passengers and goods; and, however much it may be deplored by the residents of' small places, the small places have suffered, and will continue to suffer. There are few towns in interior New York that have not stood comparatively still, or decreased in magnitude, since railways passed through them; and the same is true of very many places in Nlew England, both on the sea-coast and in the interior. All this time New York and Boston have increased in business, wealth, and population, in an accelerated ratio. This state of things may, or may not be desirable; these are the naked, incontrovertible facts. No. The "Great Eastern," or any other steamship or line of steamships that comes fiom Liverpool to the New England coast, must run into the port of Boston, or have but a meagre support. Travellers and the United States mails will not go through Portland, and New England has but one commercial emporium. If steamships are going to run to Portland instead of Boston, because we already have a line here, it will be like a lawyer or a broker in a large city, who opens an office entirely away from the locality of other lawyers or brokers, for fear of competition! To obtain trade we must go where trade is. Portland within the next twenty years will not support a line of steamers to England. Our supposition that a line of steamers running from Boston to Galway, will be supported, is based on the knowledge of several circumstances that do not exist in the case of Portland. Galway has 25,000 inhabitants, and is not, (like the case of Portland, within 100 miles of Boston,) near enough to any other large city that has steamships to be injured or affected by competition. The projected line of steamers from Liverpool to Portland will get supported if Boston is the terminus on this side! The man who can figure out the support for a line of steamships from England to Portland will solve a problem that, we fear, is beyond the mathematical and financial ability of any American or foreign merchant. TIlE GR.,AND TRUNK RAILROAD. 7 C APTER XV. TIE GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY OF CANADA- THE TRUE POSITION OF TIIE ROAD AND THE INTEREST OF THE STOCKHOLDERS. ~ 68. The attempt to build up a large city or commercial town at a particular locality, by having a railway built to that locality and there stop, always has and always will be a failure. England and America are full of examples that go to prove this. That powerful corporation, the New York and Erie Railroad, attempted to build up two places on the Hudson River and Lake Erie, to wit: Piermont and Dunkirk, by making them the terrmini of the great trunk road that connected Lake Erie with tidewater. Th'le result was a magnificent failure at both ends of the route. Buffalo and New York claimed their own, and the fixtures and appurtenances had to be transferred accordingly. Later still, the " city of Erie," by a species of mob law, tried to concentrate trade there by compelling the railroad companies to have a break of guage. That plan also failed. The towns of Folkstone, Boulogne, Calais, and Dover, where grand trunk railroads run, where large steamers stop, and where the bulk of the through travel passes between the two great capitals of Europe, are simply hotel towns and frontier custom-houses; but as for being commercial marts, they are not nor never will be. 69. Bristol, on the west coast of England, where the Great Western Railway from London first reaches tidewater on the Atlantic, was supposed to possess the advantage of locality that would make it a great commercial city, after getting the railway there; but the commerce of the west of England had already been concentrated to a great extent at Liverpool, and from that point a thousand railways could not draw it away. 88 OCEAN STEAMI NAVIGATION. The Great Western Railway in England, in respect to location, connections, gauge, history, and line of traffic, forms a strong parallel with the Canadian Grand Trunk Railway. No two roads in the world, perhaps, have a history more nearly alike. They both connect the largest commercial cities of their respective countries -Great Britain and British America - both extend across the country from one navigable water to another; both are broad gauge roads, both labor under disadvantages of a different gauge with rival lines of travel, and both made the same mistake of attempting to create one of the termini at a wrong locality; and from the time of that mistake, the history of both roads will continue to be parallel until the mistakes of both are corrected.'The Great Western Railway in England was first opened on a broad gauge from London through Bath to Bristol, 1 20 miles. It was, ere long, extended fiom Bristol southwest to Exeter and Plymouth. In the course of time a branch was opened from Didcot through Oxford to Cheltenham, W5orcester, Birmingham, and Wolverhampton; and also due west to Cardiff, and to Swansea in South Wales. There were roads already- on a narrow gauge —running fiom Birmingham and Wolverhampton to Liverpool; but this necessitated a transhipment of all goods from the Mersey that reached London by the Great Western Railway. The capital of the Great Western Railway was over $40,000,000, (between eight and nine millions sterling); the road was the best in the world; the speed was the highest - trains daily at sixty miles an hour — and yet the business was not sufficient to give it a good support. It connected London with all the principal cities and towns of the west of England, south of Staffordshire, viz.: Worcester, Birmingham, Gloucester, Bristol, Bath, Exeter, and Plymouth, and yet it lacked one connection essential to its prosperity and usefulness. The largest traffic in England was between London and Liverpool.'The ground was already occupied by the London and North-western Railway. The legal and parliamentary expenses of the Great Western had already reached more than half a million of dollars; and the London and North-western, with a paid THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY. 89 up capital about equal to its own, and a large and profitable business, was opposing its connection with Liverpool by every species of tactics, in and out of Parliament. The London and North-western had sixty-five trains a day, in and out of London, and at its London terminus delivered daily an average of one thousand tons of freight, while the Great Western at the Paddington station (London) did not deliver one-half the amount, if it did over one-third. This was in 1852. It was now of vital importance that the Great Western should extend its track to the Mersey. An arrangement was made with the railway from Wolverhampton to Liverpool (narrow gauge); a bill was introduced into parliament and carried, and with an additional rail on each track the trains of the Great Western extended through Chester to the Mersey, and received and discharged freight at Birkenhead. An additional rail, for a narrow gauge, was laid on each track of the Great Western from WVolverhampton, Birmingham and Worcester, to London, by way of Oxford and Didcot; and by this arrangement the Great Western Railway has a double track of both broad and narrow gauge all the way from London to the Birkenhead landing, opposite Liverpool. Now trains of freight on narrow gauge that come from Chester, HIolyhead, Crewe, or Manchester, can go over the Great Western road to London, or return from London to those places, and trains on the broad gauge from the south and west of England, from Plymouth, Exeter, or Bristol, can go direct to Birmingham or Liverpool without transhipment. 70. This history of the great trunk roads of Great Britain has a direct application to the Grand Trunk Road through Canada, and any one can instantly see its bearing. The Grand Trunk Road, when finished, will be, at least, one thousand miles long, connecting the Atlantic seaboard with Lake Superior. It is a maxim in railroad traffic that the influence and business of a road, off the line, on each side and at the ends, is just in proportion to its length. A railroad fifteen miles long, connecting two towns, will call the farmer, with his produce, five, six, or eight miles on each side, while a road five hundred miles long, will at 12 90 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. once attract the traffic for a hundred miles or more on every side. The vast extent and important locality of the Canadian Grand Trunk Road at once puts it in a position to bid for a large portion of the world's commerce that goes north of latitude 420, on this continent. It will obtain its legitimate share of that commerce if it connects the important commercial cities, and not without. The mistake of locating the Atlantic terminus at Portland will be remedied by laying down an additional rail over the Eastern Road, and bringing the Grand Trunk Road with its broad gauge to Boston. It is then in the position of the Great Western Railway with a terminus at Liverpool. Boston and vicinity -within a radius of fifteen miles-has a population of 412,000, all doing their commercial business and receiving their supplies through this city. Portland and vicinity has perhaps a population of 40,000-scarcely one tenth of the population of the immediate neighborhood of Boston. Is that the place for the terminus of the Grand Trunk Road? Stopping at Portland will be like the New York and Erie Road running to Piermont, or the English Great Western stopping at Chepstow or Cardiff. At Cardiff, in South Wales, are docks built by the Marquis of Bute at a cost of over two million dollars; the coal and iron trade of the port is immense, but it is no more a fit commercial te&minus of the Great Western Railway than Portland is for the Canadian Grand Trunk. The following are the distances between Montreal and the seaboard, by different routes:3Miles. From Montreal to Portland,............................... 298 Montreal to Boston, via. Vermont Central,........................ 31 Montreal to Boston, via. Portland,.............................405 71. It is a question, then, not only for the stockholders, but for all on the line of the Grand Trunk Road, whether it shall have its terminus at Boston; the second commercial city on the American continent; the commercial centre for all New England, and the manufacturing centre of almost the entire continent; a district that contains a population of nearly half a million; or at Portland, a ninth rate town, with a population of 40,000. The relative rank COMPARATIVE IMPORTANCE OF CITIES. 91 of our commercial cities will be seen (~ 61) by tho tonnage owned at the principal ports. TONNAGE OF PRINCIPAL CITIES. 1851. 1853. 1855. New York,.........931,193 1,149,133 1,288,235a Boston,.........342,936 450,492 546,269 Philadelphia,........222,42 252,451 294,807 New Orleans,....................251,900 153, 184 200,837 Baltimore.................. 160,511 158,478 183,109 Bath,.........103,795 129,466 175,2-59 New Bedford,......................131,409 155,630 169,986 Waldoborough,..........103,593 IOS,423 148,S96 Portland,......... 97,571 104,350 137,317 Pittsburgh,......... 53,734 79,361 93,692 San Francisco...................... 58,063 97,699 87,842 Though Portland is the ninth on the list, it will be remembered that much of the shipping owned at the minor New England ports is very much of it employed abroad and not where it is owned. Portland owns one fourth as much shipping as Boston, but like all great ship building, and small commercial places, a majority of its shipping is not engaged in the commerce of the place. The population to be supplied in the immediate vicinity of Portland and Boston, is, as we have seen, as one to ten, and this just about represents the commercial importance of the two places. The comparative cost of transporting traffic between Boston and Montreal, by Portland and by the Vermont Central, is not accurately represented by the respective distances. The grades on the Portland route are easier, and the engine power required proportionably less. This is an engineering question, and we have not its exact data to show its entire bearing, but it is supposed to be equivalent to thirty-five miles in favor of the Portland route, being enough to cancel about one half of the increased distance. With the Cunard steamers running to Boston, with steamers connecting all the principal southern cities with this port, and with an additional line of steamships to Great Britain, where can the traffic come from that is to give a support to the Grand Trunk Road, with a terminus at Portland, compared to the traffic that would flow to it with the terminus at Boston. With the track of the Grand 92 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. Trunk Road coming to Boston, the Portland traffic is the same as before, with all the additional that will come from a connection with the second commercial city on the continent of America. As it is a mere question of laying down a single rail, will the stockholders of the Grand'Trunk Railway, and the commercial men of Canada and Great Britain, hesitate at all in a question that so directly affects their immediate interests. INDEX. SECTION. African Trade with Great Britain.................. 16 American Travellers Abroad......................... 21 Australian Mail Service.............................. 10 Belfast as a Packet Station................. 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 42 Boston, favorable position of............................ 18 Breadstuffs, Importations of in Great Britain............... 33 Bremen Line of Steamers.............................. 4, 37 Bristol Trade with Africa.............................. 16 Bristol Trade declining................................ 11 California Correspondence.......................... 45 Canada Bonded Trade............................. 26 Canada Line of Steamers................... 25 Coasting Trade of America.............................50 Coasting Trade of Boston.............................. 53 Collins Line of Steamers increased American Travel five fold 21 Commercial Statistics of New York and Boston........ 3 Comparative Statistics of different Cities and different Sections of the Union.................................... 3, 5, 61 Correspondence to Europe and to California.............. 43, 44, 45, 49 Cotton received at Boston............................. 53 Cuba Trade with Boston.............................. 57 Distances across the Atlantic......................... 23, 31 Distances from Montreal to Portland and Boston............ 70 94 INDEX. SECTION. Emigration from different Countries...................... 20 Emigration from Ireland by Steamships................... 36, 42 Emigration Statistics for 55 years...................... 19, 20, 21 Exports of Domestics from Boston....................... 55 Exports and Imports of Boston.......................... 51, 54 Exports and Imports of Boston, and the United States....... 51 Exports and Imports of Great Britain...................1. 3 Falmouth Trade compared to Southampton................. 12 First Steam Voyage across the Atlantic................... 38 Fluctuations of Trade; Bristol, Greenock and Hull 11 Freight from the seaboard to the Mississippi Valley......... 64 Galway as a Packet Station....... 22, 23, 29, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 42 General Steam Navigation Company... 24 Glasgow Trade and Glasgow Steamers,................... 11, 37 Government Postal Monopoly..................... 45, 46, 47, 48, 49 Grand Trunk Railways of Canada and Great Britain........ 69, 70, 71 Great Britain, exports and imports of..................... 13 Great Northern (of England) Railway.................... 7 Great Western Railway, of England................... 69 Greenock Trade going to Glasgow........................ 11 Holland two hundred years ago.......................... 14 Hull and Great Grimsby.............................. 11 Ice Trade of Boston for fifty years....................... 58 Immigration to the UTnited States since 1800............... 19 Increase and Decrease of Boston Trade................... 56 Ireland; different ports considered for a Packet Station...... 28 Ireland; Population, Resources and Position...;........ 22, 23, 31, 37 Ireland to be benefitted by a, line of trans-Atlantic steamers.. 35, 36, 42 Irish Encumbered Estates, sales of........................ 37 Large traffic will flourish where small will not............ 17 Length of passages across the Atlantic.................. 41 Letters cost a dollar for two ounces, and pork a dollar a bJarrel for carriage..................................... 49 Letters in Great Britain in a year....................... 45, 46 INDEX. 95 SECTION. Letters between the United States and Europe............. 43, 45, 49 Letters to California and to Europe................... 43, 44, 45, 49 Linen Trade of Ireland................................ 34 Liverpool Traffic since 1800.11................... 11 Liverpool Trade compared to London....................... 13 Liverpool Trade with Africa................... 16 London Trade compared to Liverpool...................... 13 Mail Service to Australia.............................. 10 Manufactures of Boston and vicinity.................... 52 Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland................ 29 Money brought to America by Immigrants................ 44 National Statistics...................3, 5, 60, 61 Newspapers and Letters crossing the ocean................ 43, 45, 49 N'ew York and Erie Railroad and its connections.......... 7, 68 Ocean Mail Service, large subsidies for................. 46, 48, 49 Ocean Mail Service......................3, 45, 46, 48, 49 Ocean Postage exorbitantly high...................... 45, 46, 48, 49 Ocean Steamers from Europe to South America............ 58 Ocean Steam Navigation, early history of................. 38 Ocean Steam Navigation in its infancy.................... 18 Opposition of Liverpool to an Irish packet station........... 27 Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company's Steamers 9 Penny Postage in England, success of..................... 45, 46 Philadelphia Steamships................. 4, 6, 34 Plymouth trade compared to Southampton............. 12 Population, Resources and Position of Ireland........... 22, 23, 31, 37 Population and wealth of the United States................ 60 Portland, its population, resources and position............. 67, 70, 71 Portsmouth compared to Southampton................... 12 Postal Statistics of Great Britain....................... 45, 46 Post Office, origin of...................47 Public Lands, sales of........................ 44 Railrords in the United States and other countries......... 59, 60 Rowland Hill's system of uniform postage................. 45, 46 96 INDEX. SECTION. Saunderson's Steam Propeller.......................... 41 Screw and paddle wheel steamers compared................ 41 Seaports in the English channel................... 12 Shortest sea passages most popular....................... 22 Shortest sea passages across the Atlantic.................. 35 Shortest sea trip from London to Paris.................... 30 Singapore, trade of since Steam traffic commenced........... 8 South American trade with Europe.................. 58 Southampton Steam trade with Africa.................... 16 Southampton trade compared to Portsmouth and Falmouth.... 12 Statistics of the British Post Office...................... 45, 46 Statistics of different cities............................ 5, 20, 61 Statistics of emigration................................ 19, 20, 21 Statistics of the Nation............................... 3, 5, 60, 61 Steamers from Liverpool to Portland...................... 65 Steamship lines between Europe and America............. 4, 41 Steamships carrying freight................... 35, 41 Steamships lost on the Atlantic........................ 40 Steam traffic a creation of new business................. 8 Switzerland trade with America.................... 15 Telegraph across the ocean............................. 49 Trade leaves a place and never returns.................... 18 Tonnage of different ports and different states........ 61, 71 Vanderbilt's proposition for Ocean Mail Service............ 49 Venice, and the decline of its trade...................... 14, 66 Wealth and Population of the United States............... 60 Zollverein, trade of the................................ 15