"£tl HI ■M KBSH BOOK 387.54.M596S c. 1 MILES # SOCIAL POLITICAL AMD COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGES OF DIRECT 3 T1S3 001EE7bM b ^ O12- CP^ 2^ cs^U^U. €s//aa?£ 3/.m-% N \ \ n THE SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGES OF DIRECT STEAM COMMUNICATION AND RAPID POSTAL INTERCOURSE EUROPE AND AMERICA. VIA GALWAY, IRELAND. BY PLINY MILES, ESQ., AUTHOR OF "OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION," "POSTAL REFORM," ETC. SECOND EDITION, ILLUSTRATED BY A MAP. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY TRUBNER AND CO., 60,^ PATERNOSTER ROW. 1859. % LONDON : PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND GREENING, GRAYSTOIiE PLACE, FETTER LANE, HOLBORN. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EAEL OF EGLINTON AND WINTON, K.T., P.O., LORD LIEUTENANT OF IRELAND, &c. &c. &c. My Lord: The deep interest which your Excellency takes in everything that relates to the prosperity of Ireland, and the happiness and well-being of the Irish people, is, I presume, the reason that I am indebted for the gracious permission to dedicate this little work to your Excellency. Acquainted as you are, my Lord, with the practical details of commercial affairs, your Excellency does not require, at my hands, any elaborate arguments or illustrative facts to prove that the industrial interests of the Irish people would be enhanced by 3 a regular steam mail communication between Galway and America. I know the warm interest which has ever been taken by Her Majesty the Queen, in all that concerns the happi- ness of Her Majesty's people throughout these kingdoms, and on each occasion of a royal visit to Ireland this feeling has been responded to by the most affectionate demonstrations of attachment and loyalty to Her Majesty's person and throne. When Mr. John Orrell Lever, an enterprising English merchant, commenced running a line of steamers from 6 DEDICATION. Galway to New York, the leading members of Her Majesty's Government at once saw the great national importance of the undertaking, and gave it their cordial approbation, not to the surprise, but the gratification of every one interested in the commercial greatness and prosperity of the kingdom at large. But no one, my Lord, was more alive to the advantages of this enterprise than your Excel- lency, and from no one has the spirited projector and his great undertaking received more cordial and earnest support ' than from yourself. If I have succeeded in bringing together any facts of interest that have a direct bearing on the necessity and importance of increased steam communication between Great Britain and Her Majesty's colonies, and other countries in North America, no one will more readily appreciate their force than your Excellency. In a report made to Parliament, in 1853, by the Committee on Contract Packets, of which Lord Canning was Chairman, it is stated that "the object of Govern- ment in undertaking the trans-marine postal service, is to provide frequent, rapid, and regular communication between this country and other states," and, particularly, " with those distant ports which feed the main arteries of British commerce, and with the most important of our foreign possessions ; to foster maritime enterprise, and to encourage the production of a class of vessels which would promote the convenience and wealth of the country in time of peace, and assist in defending its shores against hostile aggression. The reasons for desiring such communication are partly commer- cial, and partly political." Is it not, my Lord, a pertinent and self-evident fact that the objects of "frequent, rapid, and regular communication between this country and other states," and particularly with those countries which supply " the main arteries of British commerce," will be best carried out by having such commu- DEDICATION. 7 nication over the shortest and most direct route between Europe and America, particularly as that route begins and ends on British territory ? The commercial and political condition of the British Empire, and of the world at large, have undergone vast changes since the " Sirilts," the pioneer vessel of ocean steam communication, first crossed the Atlantic, in 1838. If it were an act of policy, politically and commercially, on the part of the British Government, in 1840, to pay a large subsidy for trans- Atlantic mail service, how much more is that service in need of encouragement and support at this time, when the popula- tion of America has nearly doubled, and the commercial and social intercourse between Great Britain and America has more than quadrupled since that service was commenced ? I will not, however, bring the dryness of statistical detail before your Excellency in this dedicatory address, but, wish- ing your Excellency a long life, and a lengthened period to do good in that eminent ofiice which Her Majesty has been pleased to confer upon you, I have the honour to subscribe myself, My Lord, Your Excellency's Most obedient Humble Servant, PLINY MILES. London, November 16th. 1858. CONTENTS. [alphabetical index at the close of the work.] PAGE CHAPTER I. — Influence of Steam Commerce on National Pros- perity, Civilization, and Productive Industry — Manufac- tures and Inland and Foreign Trade of Ireland as compared with the United Kingdom , 11 CHAPTER II. — Exact Proportion of Commerce, Manufactures, Resources, and National Revenue in Ireland, as compared with Great Britain— Exports to Different Countries — Steam Voyage of Six Days from Gal way to America ... 18 CHAPTER III.— Emigration from each of the Three Kingdoms— The number of Emigrants to Different Countries — Three- fourths of British Emigration on Foreign Vessels- Terrible Mortality on American Emigrant Sailing Ships — Duty of Government towards Emigrants 24 CHAPTER IV.— Articles of Food and Luxury, and of Raw Products, imported into the Kingdom — Exports of British Manufactures, and the great and immediate Increase on the Opening of Steam Communication — Duties taken off without a Diminution of Revenue 34 CHAPTER V. — Commerce with North and South America, the East Indies, and China, as compared with the Cost of Postal Service 44 CHAPTER VI.— Decline of French Coasting Trade, and great Increase of the Coasting Trade of Great Britain — Trans- shipments of Foreign Goods at English Ports — Vast Increase of Passenger Traffic on the Opening of Steam Mail Communication 53 10 CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER VII.— Natural Wealth of the North American Colonies — The Successful Opening of the California Overland Mail Route to the Pacific — Great Facilities and urgent Necessity for a similar Route through British America — The West and the East changing Places 62 CHAPTER VIII. — Letter Correspondence in Commercial Commu- nities — Disproportion of the Number of Letters in Ireland and Irish Cities, as compared to England — Letters and Papers between Great Britain and different Countries, and the Comparative Cost — Letters between Ireland and America, and large Decrease in the British trans- Atlantic Correspondence 74 CHAPTER IX.— Shipwrecks on the Shores of the United Kingdom — Small Amount of Pauperism in Ireland — Comparative Cost of Army, Navy, and Ocean Postal Service 86 CHAPTER X. — The American Express Company — Protection afforded to Emigrants arriving in America by the Galway Steamers — California Overland Mail Company 92 CHAPTER XL— Beneficial Effects of Low Postage on the National Revenue — A Threepenny trans-Atlantic Postage Demanded — General Summary of the Facts and Arguments here- tofore advanced — The Irish Commercial Pyramid — Dis- tribution of Packet Service at different Ports 98 CHAPTER XII.— Business Prospects of the Galway Line — Entire Support of the Irish in both Hemispheres— Direct Sup- port of British America — Shortest Sea Route always most Popular — Mail Service for Foreign Countries .... 109 CHAPTER XIII.— Prospects of the Atlantic Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company in America, and its connection with the American Express Company, and the California Over- land Mail Company — Extent of American Island Com- merce — Money Exchanges 116 STEAM COMMUNICATION. CHAPTER I. INFLUENCE OF STEAM COMMERCE ON NATIONAL PROSPERITY, CIVILIZATION, AND PRODUCTIVE INDUSTRY MANUFACTURES AND INLAND AND FOREIGN TRADE OF IRELAND AS COMPARED WITH THE UNITED KINGDOM. § 1. During the last twenty-five years, steam has revolutionized the commerce of the world. If we travel by land, the railway, the locomotive, and a speed of twenty-five miles an hour are indispensable. At sea, and on rivers and lakes, the steamship and the steamboat are equally essential. If packages of specie, gold-dust, bank notes, or valuable effects are to be sent long distances, Eailway and Express companies, aided by the highest efforts of steam conveyance, take the place of the sailing ship, the canal boat, and the stage- coach. It is with states and nations as with mer- chants, and travellers ; those who have clung to the old and nearly obsolete methods of conveyance, have been outstripped in the race by the active and the enterprising. If examples were wanted to prove this position, reference need only be made to Spain, the Two Sicilies, the Papal States, and Turkey — nations that were the last to adopt steam as a motive power on land or water, and at this time most notoriously behind all the other countries of Europe in commercial enterprise, and substantial prosperity. What is true in this respect with regard 12 STEAM COMMUNICATION. to nations, is almost equally applicable to separate states and communities in the same country. The large benefits accruing to commercial and manufac- turing communities from the regular arrival and de- parture of ocean steamships are so clearly understood, that the opening of a new line from any port is received with joyous congratulations by all classes; while, on the other hand, the withdrawal of steamers is looked upon as a general calamity. I propose to show, by a faithful comparison of the leading branches of commerce and manufactures, and the sources of national revenue, in the three kingdoms, that Ireland only lacks steam communication with some foreign nations and colonial possessions, to put the business of that country in a far more prosperous condition, and more on an equality with England and Scotland. 2. I do not wish to overrate the advantages of steam commerce, nor will I assume that the sole or principal prosperity of a country is dependent upon steam communication ; but the constant and unvary- ing testimony is, that wherever steam has been intro- duced trade has flourished, manufactures have greatly increased, and agricultural labour has met with a larger reward. When every state, every nation, and every community had the old means of conveyance, however inefficient those appliances may have been, all were comparatively on an equal footing : now steam is the rule, and slower means of conveyance the excep- tion. Where steam has been introduced, business increases, and activity succeeds to indifference. Where steam gives an opportunity for a rapid interchange of products, there manufactured arti- cles are in demand, and meet with a ready sale. Why does not the abundance of fish at St. Kilda affect the London consumer, or good prices in the Billingsgate market benefit the fisherman in the "far Atlantic Isle ? " The one is as virtually out of the world, or out of the reach of the other, as if they were STEAM CREATES A MAKKET. 13 on the opposite sides of the globe. And why is this? Solely because there is no efficient means of conveyance. A pine-apple can be taken from Barba- does to the market in Covent Garden more, readily, expeditiously, and cheaply than a basket of cod or turbot can be sent from St. Kilcla to Belfast ; and yet the one distance is nearly five thousand miles, and the other not half of five hundred. Twelve years ago, a good pony could be purchased in Shetland for twenty or thirty shillings, while it would cost the Londoner six or seven pounds in time, trouble, risk, and freight to convey the animal to the banks of the Thames. Then there were no steamers running to that northern group of islands. Now, and for many years, since steamers commenced running, the Shetland pony at home is worth from five to eight pounds ; he can be sent to London for thirty shillings, and will then cost the resident of Kensington or Belgravia little, or no more than before, and yet there is a difference of several pounds in favour of the islander who rears the animal for sale. This last is so much wealth created to the producer, and solely in consequence of a cheap, rapid, and efficient means of conveyance. 3. By looking at a wide range of facts connected with the commerce, the manufactures, and the revenue of each of the three kingdoms, we shall be able to arrive at certain results, and make certain deductions : we shall find that steam commerce has fostered, supported, and extended the manufactures of Eng- land and Scotland, and that an efficient and regular steam communication between Ireland and North America will necessarily be attended with similar results. We will first see the figures relating to com- merce — the tonnage entered and cleared, and the ex- ports of some leading articles, and their ratio to the popu- lation and the agricultural lands — next, the statistics of the principal manufactures ; and, lastly, the revenue. The following tabular statement exhibits the ratio that the leading branches of commerce therein enumerated 14 STEAM COMMUNICATION. bear to the population, the extent, and the cultivated acres of each of the three kingdoms, respectively. UNITED ENGLAND. eg & SCOTLAND. g & IRELAND. KINGDOM. o ™ o * o 27,435,325 17,905,831 65.3 2,870,784 10.4 6,515,794 23.7 Acres in cultivation! 19,475,000 11,400.000 58.5 3,290,000 16.9 4,785,000 24.6 Area, square miles ... 122,551 58,320 47.5 31,718 26.0 32,513 26.5 Tonnage entd. & eld.* 56,015,816 42,651,334 76.0 6,379,791 11.4 5,864,171 10.5 Tonnage entered and cleared abroad, sailf 17,799,516 15,623,498 88.0 1,565,386 8.8 503,990 2.8 Tonnage entd. & eld. 3,916,489 3,697,470 94.0 193,154 4.9 5,551 0.1 Total Tonnage enterd. , and cleared abroadf 21,716,005 19,320,968 89.0 1,758,540 8.1 509,541 1.6 Paper exported, lbs.* 15,312,576 13,202,644 86.0 2,097,466 13.6 12,466 0.8 Malt exported, bush.* 143,147 139,029 97.0 4,118 2.8 0,00 0. Spirits exprtd., galls.* 5.924,884 2,844.052 48.0 2.610.280 44.0 470:552 7.9 Tobacco in bond, lbs.f 41,568,171 37,826,263 91.0 2,152,553 5.2 1,589,355 3.8 It will be seen that England has 65^ per cent, of the population, Scotland 10-^, and Ireland 23^- per cent. Of the cultivated acres, 58 ~ per cent, are in England, about 17 per cent, in Scotland, and almost 25 per cent, in Ireland. In forming a comparative estimate of the resources of Ireland and the island of Great Britain respectively, we may estimate those of Ireland at about 24 per cent, (or nearly one-fourth), being not far from the proportion of the population and the cul- tivated acres. Taking this as our basis, we see that, of the 56 million tons of shipping that entered and cleared at the various ports of the United Kingdom in the year 1857 — which include coasting as well as foreign voyages, and British as well as foreign shipping — only 10 \ per cent, entered and cleared at Irish ports. Of the tonnage that entered and cleared from and to foreign countries — coasting voyages not included — only 1-- per cent, reached Ireland ; and of the steam tonnage (British as well as foreign) between the shores of the United Kingdom and foreign countries, only one-tenth of one per cent. Of the spirits exported about eight per cent, was shipped direct from Ireland, and of § Land in cultivation ; in green and white crops, clover, and also in fallow ; not meadow or pasture ; as reported in 1853. * 1857. | 1856 - XIMITED MANUFACTURES IN IRELAND. 15 tobacco in bond less than 4 per cent, is in Ireland. Of exports of paper (in all over 15,000,000 lbs. annually) not one per cent., and of the 143,000 bushels of malt, not one bushel went direct from Ireland. These are the leading articles that are exported from Ireland direct to foreign countries. Of the manufactures of linen — of which more fully hereafter — there are no official reports showing what amount or value goes direct from Ireland to foreign countries. The propor- tion of direct exports from Ireland, as compared with the amount shipped from the entire kingdom, is pro- bably no greater than that of distilled spirits. 4. The following is a STATISTICAL STATEMENT OF CERTAIN BRANCHES OF MANUFACTURES AND INTERNAL TRAFFIC IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. Spirits distill'd, gall Malt, manuf., bush. Paper manuf., lbs Railway,miles open Railway receipts... P. O. Money Orders Deposits in Savings Banksf Bank notes in cir- culation UNITED KINGDOM. 24,353,754 39,127,383 192,297,399 9,116 £24,183,610 £12,178,309 £34,946,012 £37,581,999 10,209,731 36,313,925 143,388,281 6,777 £20,527,748 £10,381,663 £30,404,870 £27,201,025 42.0 93.0 74.0 74.3 84.9 7,266,867 1,122,301 40,998,354 1,269 £2,510,478 85.0£1,002,857 87.0 72.0 £1,938,572 £4,305,251 30.0 2.0 21.0 14.0 10.4 8.2 6,877,156 1,691,157 7,910,764 1,070 £1,145,384 £893,789 5.5 £1,723,726 11.4 £6,075,723 28.0 4.3 4.1 11.7 4.7 7.3 5.0 16.0 The only articles in which Ireland has an amount of manufactures in proportion to her population and agri- cultural resources, are linen and spirits. While the miles of railway open in Ireland amount to 12 per cent, of the railways of the United Kingdom, the receipts from railway traffic are less than 5 per cent. The money-orders sent through the Post Office are a little more than 7 per cent., the deposits in savings banks 5 per cent., and the bank notes in circulation 16 per cent. This comparatively large proportion of bank notes does not argue a large circulating medium. Previous to 1780, Acts of Parliament then in force, prohibited the carrying of gold or silver into Ireland, t 1856. All other items in the table are of the date of 1857, 16 STEAM COMMUNICATION. and we know that by the issue of bank notes, of as low a denomination as one pound, there is com- paratively far more paper and less specie in circulation, in both Ireland and Scotland, than in England. 5. To give a clear and comprehensive view of some of the leading items of the trade and manufactures of the three kmgdoms, the foregoing statements, with some other figures referring to different dates, are recapitulated, along with some items of national revenue, in a single table. STATISTICAL VIEW OF CERTAIN LEADING BRANCHES OF COMMERCE, MANUFAC- TURES, & ND INLAND TRAFFIC OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. UNITED KINGDOM. EN&LAND. gg SCOTLAND. IRELAND. Population, 1851... 27,435,325 17,905.831 65.3 2,870,784 10.4 6,515,794 23.7 Acres in cultivation 19,475,000 11,400,000 58.5 3,290,000 16.9 4,785,000 24.6 Area, in sq. miles... 122,551 58,320 47.5 31,718 26.0 32,513 26.5 Tonnage, entered & cleared, 1857 ... 56,015,816 42,651,334 76.0 6,379,791 11.4 5,864,171 10.5 Tonnage, entered & eld. abroad, sailf 17,799,516 15,623,498 88.0 1,565,386 8.8 503,990 '2.8 Tonnage, entd. and eld. abrd., steamf 3,916,489 3,697,470 94.0 193,154 4.9 5,551 0-1 Total tonnage, ent. & cleared abroad f 21,716,005 19,320,968 89.0 1,758,540 8.1 509,541 1.6 Spirits distill' d, gal- 25,077,511 11,021,446 44.0 6,019,026 24.0 8,037,039 32.0 Spirits distill'd, gal- lons, 1857 24,353,754 10,209,731 42.0 7,266,867 30.0 6,877,156 28.0 Spirits exported, gallons, 1856 4,628,903 2,600,309 56.0 1,518,643 33.0 509,951 11.0 Spirits exported, gallons, 1857 ... 5,924,884 2,844.052 48.0 2,610,280 44.0 470,552 7.9 Spirit duty, 1855... £7,666,943 £4,316,733 56.0 £1,772,217, 23.0 £1,577,993 21.0 Spirit duty, 1857... £8,895,736 £4,083,892 46.0 £2,906,746' 33.0 £1,905,098 21.0 Malt manf., bush.* 39,127,383 36,313,925 93.0 1,122,301 2.1 1,691,157 4.3 Malt expt'd.,bush.* 143,147 139,029 97.0 4,118 2.8 Malt dutyt £6,697,610 £6,140,568 143,388,281 92.0 £320,568 4.8 40,998,354' 21.0 £236,474 7,910,764 3.5 Paper manuf., lbs.* 192,297,399 74.0 4.1 Paper exptd., lbs.* 15,312,576 13,202,644 86.0 2,097,466 13.6 12.466 0.8 Tobacco in bond,lbf 41,568,171 37,826,263 91.0 2,152,553 5.2 1,589,355 3.8 I.ailway,miles opn* 9,116 6,777 74.3 1,269 14.0 1,070 11.7 Railway receipts* £24,183,610 £20,527,748 84.9 £2,510,478 10.4 £1,145,384 4.7 P.O.Money Orders* £12,178,309 £10,381,663 85.0 £1,002,857 8.2 £893,789 7.3 Bank notes in cir- £37,581,999 £27,201,025 72.4 £4,305,251 11.4 £6,075,723 16.0 Money in Savings Banks, Nov.,1856 £34,946,012 £30,404,870 87.0 £1,938,572 5.5 £1,723,726 5.0 Where the three items (England and "Wales being * 1857. t 1356. REVENUE IN IRELAND. 17 reckoned together), relating to England, Scotland, and Ireland, do not exactly make up the sum total of the United Kingdom, in the official tables there are a few figures relating to the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands, that are not reckoned under either of these three separate heads. This will account for an apparent deficiency in some cases. 6. The subjects heretofore considered, are those relating to the employment and resources of the people. Let us now look at some items of national revenue. REVENUE FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES, IN 1855 AND 1857. DATE. UNITED KINGDOM. IRELAND. PERCENT Income and Property Tax ... 1855 Income and Property Tax ... 1857 Post Office Revenue 1855 Post Office Revenue 1857 Revenue, other sources 1855 Revenue, other sources 1857 Total Revenue 1855 Total Revenue 1857 £23,213,797 23,275,743 17,632,139 17,910,614 7,063,610 7,470,627 15,159,458 11,396,435 2,767,201 3,038,113 4,715,940 5,165,558 70,552,145 68,257,090 £2,224,766 2,244,792 2,649,646 2,883,890 450,077 485,309 1,149,290 842,911 196,816 230,950 9,969 13,698 6,680,564 6,701,550 9.5 9.6 15.0 16.1 6.4 6.5 7.5 7.4 7.1 7.6 0.2 0.3 9.4 - 9.8 There are certain taxes and imposts that are not levied at so high a rate in Ireland as in Great Britain. There are several reasons why the national revenue is not so large in Ireland, in proportion to the popula- tion, as in England and Scotland. But making all due allowance for these, the population, and the cul- tivated land of Ireland, being about one-fourth of the entire amount in the United Kingdom, the revenue from all sources should amount to far more than one- tenth ? 18 STEAM COMMUNICATION. CHAPTER II. EXACT PROPORTION OF COMMERCE, MANUFACTURES, RESOURCES, AND NATIONAL REVENUE OF IRELAND AS COMPARED WITH GREAT BRITAIN EXPORTS TO DIFFERENT COUNTRIES STEAM VOYAGE OF SIX DAYS FROM GALWAY TO ' AMERICA. § 7. I will now give, in a clearer light, the com- parative amount of commerce and resources of Ireland and Great Britain. By " Great Britain " is under- stood England, Wales, and Scotland, not the entire Kingdom. COMMERCE, MANUFACTURES, AND REVENUE OF IRELAND, AS COMPARED TO GREAT BRITAIN. PROPORTION ■3 § & « GREAT IRELAND. FOR IRELAND DEFICIENCY. BRITAIN. ACCORDING TO POPULATION. Population, 1851 20,776,615 6,515,794 6,515,794 000 100 00. Tonnage entrd. & clrcL* 49,031,125 5,864,171 15,376,770 9,512,599 38.0,62.0 Tonnage entered and cleared abroad — sailf 17,188,884 503,990 5,390,642 4,886,652 9.0 91.0 Tonnage entered and clrd. abroad — steamf 3,890,624 ' 5,551 1,220,148 1,214,597 0.599.5 Total Tonnage enterd. and cleared abroadf 21,079,508 509.541 6,610,795 6,101.254 8.0|92 Tobacco in bond — lbs.f 39,978,816 1,589.355 12,537.853 10,948,498 13.0|87.0 Railways — miles open* 8,046 1,070 2,523 1.453 42 4 57.6 £23,038,226 £1,145,384 £7,225,074 £6,079,690 15.8 84 2 Do. per 1,000 miles*... £2,863,314 £1,070.452 £2.863,314 £1,762.862 37.362.7 Letters thro' Po. Office* 461,615,000 42.806,000 144,768,000 101,962,000 80.0170.0 P. 0. Money Orders*... £11,384,520 £S93,789 £3,57H,327 £2,676,£38 25.075.0 Deposits in Sav. Bnks* £32,343,442 £1,723,726 £10,143,305 £8,419,579 17.083.0 Bank Notes in circuln.* £31,506.276 £6,075,723 £9,880,760 £3,805,037 61.538.5 Emigrants sailed* 207,126 5,749 64.957 59,208 9091.0 Spirits exprt'd. — galls* 5,454,332 470,552 1,710 546 1,239,994 28.0 72.0 Paper manuf'd. — lbs.* 184,386,635 7,910,764 57,825,940 49.915,176 14.0,86.0 Paper exported — lbs.* 15,300,110 12,466 4.798,3r5 4,785,839 0.3,99.7 Malt manuftd. — bush.* 37,436.226 1,691,157 11,730,840 10,039,683 14.086.0 Malt duties, 1856 £6,461,136 £236,474 £2,026.292 £1,789,818 12.0,88.0 £15,026,724 £2,883,890 £4,712.567 £1 828.677 fii n so n Customs duties* £21,030,951 £2,244.792 £6,595,562 £4,350,770 34.o|66.0 Post Office revenue*... £2 807,163 £230,950 £880,313 £649,363 26 0|74.0 Income &Prop'ty Tax* £10,553,524 £842,911 £3,309.692 £2.466.781 25.0:75.0 £6,985.318 £485,309 £2,190,682 £1,705,373 22.078.0 Revenue, other sources* £5.151 860 £13,698 £1,615.687 £1.601,987 8 99.2 £61,555,540 £6,7ol,550 £19,304,582 £12,603,n32 35.0,65.0 1857 f 1856 SMALL COMMERCE, SMALL REVENUE. 19 It will be observed in this table that the figures representing the " actual per cent." do not show the proportion that the several items of commerce, &c, in Ireland, bear to the amount in Great Britain, but the per centage of what there should be in Ireland. The tonnage entered and cleared at Irish ports during the year 1857, was less than six million tons, instead of over 15,300,000 tons; being only 38 per cent, (lacking 62 per cent.) of the just proportion. Of all the items named in the table, the deficiency in Ireland is in no cases so great as in its foreign commerce. If the tonnage entering and clearing at ports in Ireland, for ports " abroad," — foreign and colonial — were in pro- portion to the amount in Great Britain, instead of 509,541 tons in a year, there would be over 6,000,000 (six millions) tons, or more than ten times the present amount. If there be a deficiency of tonnage in the aggregate, how is it with steamships, between Ireland and distant countries ? Looking at an equal proportion, it has one half of one per cent. ; or one two-hundredth part as much as it should have. Instead of 5,551 tons (equivalent to the arrival and departure of one steam- ship annually, of 2,775 tons), there would be in a year over one million two hundred thousand tons. In excise duties Ireland pays 61 per cent, of her just proportion, showing a fair amount of manufactures of excisable articles. The customs duties amount to only 34 per cent., or one third ; being £2,244,792 in a year, instead of £6,595,562, the exact proportion. Of stamp duties there is a still greater deficiency, being only 22 per cent., or £485,309, instead of £2,190,682. Of emigrants, there were 86,238 natives of Ireland, that left for foreign countries, during the year 1857, and of these only 5,749 sailed direct from Ireland. Looking at these as a species of exports going from the kingdom, a due proportion for Ireland would have been 64,957. The Post Office revenue, Post Office money orders, and the number of letters passing through the mails, in Ireland, are only about one-fourth of the just b2 20 STEAM COMMUNICATION. proportion for the country ; the letters being in a little larger proportion, or nearly one-third. In other words, if the Post Office revenue in Ireland were comparatively as great as it is in England and Scotland, it would amount to £880,313, instead of £230,950, the present sum ; and of letters passing through the Post Office in a year, there would be 144,768,000, instead of the pre- sent number, 42,806,000. The gross annual revenue paid into the national exchequer by Ireland (1857) was £6,701,550. Were it to pay the same proportion as an equal population in England and Scotland, the amount would be £19,304,582, or over twelve and a-half millions in excess of the present sum ! It is not contended that, if one or two successful lines of steamers were started from Ireland to America, or other countries, that the revenue of that part of the United Kingdom would instantly rise up, from six and a-half millions, to over nineteen millions sterling, in a single year. But who can doubt, in the face of these official, reliable facts, that if Ireland had a fair share of profitable foreign com- merce, the inland traffic, the manufactures, the comforts of life, the wealth and prosperity of the people would be greatly enhanced ? Why .should each thousand miles of railway in the island of Great Britain bring an average gross revenue, annually, of £2,863,314, and in Ireland only £1,070,452; or a little more than one- third of the sum ? 8. Of course it will be replied that Ireland is not England, nor ever can be. It will be stated that the people are poorer ; and, very likely, it will be charged that they are less prudent, less ingenious and skilful, or less enterprising. If the Irish people have not as much genius, ingenuity, or skill, in manufacturing or the mechanic arts, how happens it that a very large proportion of the skilled workmen, and the operatives, both male and female, in Manchester, Leeds, Birming- ham, Glasgow, and other places, are natives of Ireland ? Who are the makers of the beautiful textile fabrics of Dubliu and Belfast; the poplins and the Irish linens, MARITIME POSITION OF IRELAND. 21 so well known the world over ? Can any direct cause be shown for the comparatively small amount of manu- factures, of inland traffic, and of national revenue in Ireland, except the exceedingly small amount of active remunerative foreign commerce? Is Ireland so situated that she cannot have both a prosperous commerce and extensive manufactures ? Human's American " Cyclopedia of Commerce' 7 (published at New York in 1858), in the article " Ireland," has these remarks : " If the possession of numerous fine bays and har- bours made a country great, as a commercial and maritime power, Ireland would be second to none in Europe." " Altogether, Ireland possesses fourteen harbours for the largest ships, seventeen for frigates, from thirty to forty for merchant vessels, with many good summer roadsteads, and an infinity of small harbours for fishing boats." It may be urged that Ireland has not so good a supply of coal as England, and that this must be a drawback to manufacturing in that country. The argument is not conclusive. The great seat of manu- factures in the United States is in the New England States, and the State of New York; localities that are destitute of mineral coal of every description. Every ton of coal in New England comes either from a foreign country (Nova Scotia), or from Pennsylvania, a distance, in either case, of nearly 1,000 miles, and much of it land travel or inland navigation. Pennsyl- vania, with coal enough to supply the world, is almost entirely without manufactures, except of iron. London is so far from a supply of coals, that about one gross half of the cost is that of transportation. Ireland, without a large supply, is not entirely destitute of coals, while at Galway there is an inexhaustible source of available water power, that may be turned to manu- facturing purposes, and which would go far to coun- terbalance the deficiency of fuel. 9. Is there any lack of agricultural enterprise in Ireland ? Is there any lack of e yidcnce that the landed 22 STEAM COMMUNICATION. proprietors of the present day, in Ireland, are an active, industrious, enterprising, and prosperous class of men ? Let the numerous estates, of the value of more than twenty-three millions sterling, that have changed hands under the Encumbered Estates Commission, within a very few years, and the vastly improved condition of those estates, bear answer. Is Ireland shut up like Switzerland, out of the way like Siberia, or possessed of every resource within herself, like China, that she can not have, or does not need as active a commerce as any portion of the United Kingdom? Has not Ireland every element of a prosperous agriculture, and nourishing manufactures ? and, is she not projected into the Atlantic several hundred miles nearer North America than any other part of Europe? During the year 1856, the ex- ports of British and Irish produce and manufactures to the United States and British North America, amounted to £26,018,482. To the United States alone, the amount was .£21,918,105, and of this £2,360,086, or more than one tenth of the whole amount, zvas of linen manufactures i almost entirely the produce of Ireland. The linen exported from this country to the United States in 1840, only amounted, in value, to £975,586. The gross value of the linen manufacture of the United Kingdom is not far from £12,000,000, annually, and of this sum about one gross third, or £4,000,000, is paid in wages to operatives. America (United States, Canada, &c.) is the customer that purchases from one-fourth to one-third of all the linen manufactures of the kingdom. Looking at the amount of population, the accessibility of the countries, and the advan- tages of reciprocal trade, the best customers for all branches of the manufacturing and productive skill of Great Britain are the young and vigorous nations and colonies on the west side of the Atlantic. 10. The exports of British and Irish produce and manufactures to all nations, in 1856, amounted to £115,794,088. This amount was pretty equally GALWAY TO AMERICA IN SIX DAYS. 23 distributed over the world. The three countries in each hemisphere that took the largest amounts were as follows : — AMOUNT OF EXPORTS OF BRITISH AND IRISH PRODUCE AND MANUFAC- TURES IN 1«56, TO THE PRINCIPAL COUNTRIES IN THE EASTERN HEMISPHERE. VALUE. WESTERN HEMISPHERE. VALCTE. Germany £12,196,801 10,546,190 8,950,122 United States... British N.Amer. £21,918,105 4,100,377 4,084,537 Australia Total £31,693,113 £30,103,019 11. And what is the comparative cost of shipment to these different regions ? A steam voyage from South- ampton to Australia is not accomplished under fifty or sixty days, while to the East Indies the time required is from twenty-two to forty days, with the necessity of transhipping all packages, passengers, and luggage, at Alexandria and the Isthmus of Suez. But to the continent of America the case is far different. The time required for a steam voyage from Gralway to New York is from eight to ten days, while two steamers, the smallest of the " Lever Line," have made the distance between Galway and St. John's, Newfoundland — the nearest to Europe of any port in America — on two occasions, in a few hours over six days. We see in the facts already given some of the manufacturing capabilities, and the commercial wants of Ireland; and we also see the nations and colonies that are the largest consumers of British products and manufactures. 24 STEAM COMMUNICATION. CHAPTER III. EMIGRATION FEOM EACH OF THE THREE KINGDOMS — THE NUMBER OF EMIGRANTS TO DIFFERENT COUNTRIES THREE-FOURTHS OF BRITISH EMIGRATION ON FOREIGN VESSELS TERRIBLE MORTALITY ON AMERI- CAN EMIGRANT SAILING SHIPS — DUTY OF GOVERNMENT TOWARDS ' EMIGRANTS. § 12. One of the most important elements in the com- mercial intercourse of civilized nations is the emigration and passenger traffic. The advantages or disadvan- tages of an extensive expatriation of citizens from the United Kingdom — however interesting as a branch of political economy — is a subject that I am not called upon to discuss. That Great Britain as a nation has reaped extensive benefits from numerous bands of her people going to distant lands, and there build- ing up prosperous colonies and powerful states, cannot admit of a doubt or question. It has removed the redundant population, and reduced pauperism and want. While those left behind have had less compe- tition, better wages, and a more prosperous trade, those who have settled in distant colonies and states have become, in turn, the customers of the former, and in- creased their comforts and their commerce by enlarging the market. One single Briton, or his descendant, living in a state or colony thousands of miles away, buys and consumes more goods of British manufacture than a hundred living in a nation claiming no kin- dred with this.* Whether owing allegiance to the * A good example is seen in the trade between Great Britain and China. The British goods and products sent to China in lSoti (the highest amount of any year since 1852) was £2,210,123. The EXTENSIVE EMIGRATION. 25 British Crown or not, the British race, wherever their lot may be cast, claim a kindred feeling, and have a large commerce with the "mother country." 13. We accept a somewhat extensive emigration as an existing fact, and the practical question arises, how should that emigration be managed and directed? A few figures, extending over the last three years, will show us the amount of this emigration, and the direc- tion it takes. EMIGRANTS (AND TRAVELLERS) FROM GREAT BRITAIN, WITH THEIR NATIONALITY. DATE. ENGLISH. SCOTCH. IRISH. FOREIGN. NOT DISTIN- GUISHED. TOTAL. 1855 1856 1857 57,132 64,527 78,560 14,037 12,033 16,253 78,854 71,724 86,238 10,554 9,474 12,624 16,230 18,796 19,200 176,807 176,554 212,875 Total 200,219 42,323 236,816 32,652 54,226 566,236 EMIGRATION FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM TO DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. DATE. 1855 1856 1857 UNITED STATES. BRITISH N. AMERICA. ALL N. AMERICA. OTHER COUNTRIES. TOTAL. 103,414 111,837 126,905 17,966 16,378 21,001 121,380 128,215 147,906 55,427 48,339 64,969 176,807 176,554 212,875 Total 342,156 55,345 397,501 168,735 566,236 United States of America the same year took £21,918,105. If the population of the latter country be stated at 25,000,000, and the former at 400,000,000, while each thousand Americans consumed British goods to the amount of <£876, a thousand Celestials only required the value of £5 10s. According to this, one American is worth as much to Great Britain, in a commercial point of view, as 160 Chinese. 26 STEAM COMMUNICATION. EMIGRANTS FROM GREAT BRITAIN TO AMERICA ONLY, WITH THEIR NATIONALITY. DATE. ENGLISH. SCOTCH. IRISH. FOREIGN. NOT DISTIN- GUISHED. TOTAL. 1855 1856 1857 29,811 34,856 42,329 9,268 8,243 9,474 63,270 63,131 70,516 8,951 8,341 11,111 10,080 13,644 14,476 121,380 128,215 147,906 Total 106,996 26,985 196,917 28,403 38,200 ■ 397,501 , 14. "We see that the emigration to America goes on by hundreds of thousands annually, instead of by tens of thousands, and nearly all by sailing ships. The continental emigration (French and German) is gradually changing to steamers, several lines from Bremen, Hamburg, and Havre, carrying vast numbers to New York every month. The most of these call at Southampton, and there receive passengers from Eng- land. Looking at the employment given to shipping, and the money paid for fares and subsistence, the emigrant and passenger traffic is certainly a large item in the commerce of the kingdom. With 500 as an average number on each vessel, it would take 800 ships, or 800 voyages, to carry the people away (foreigners and all included), that leave these shores every three years for North America alone.* At an average of .£10 for each passenger — not too high an estimate, when we include the money spent in an out- fit before starting — the sum disbursed would be about four million pounds (£4,000,000), and this only including those that sail to America. Without having any indication of the comparative number that go on steamers and sailing vessels, we have an official report laid before Parliament, which states the number of * The United States is, of course, included in the term " North America," as forming part of the continent, though North America, in this country, is often referred to as British North America only. EMIGRATION TO AMERICA. 27 emigrants and travellers that left the country on British and on foreign vessels, respectively. There is a slight difference in the numbers reported in this and the official reports just quoted, but not enough to materially affect the general result. EMIGRANTS TO AMERICA FROM GREAT BRITAIN, WITH THE NATIONALITY OP THE SHIPS IN WHICH THEY SAILED. DATE. BRITISH SHIPS. FOREIGN SHIPS. TOTAL. 1855 1856 1857 23,958 31,199 50,089 97,843 97,894 98,859 121,801 129,093 148,648 Total . . 105,246 294,296 399,542 In round numbers, out of the 400,000 emigrants and travellers that left this country for America, during the last three years, about 300,000 went on foreign ships, and 100,000 on ships owned in Great Britain. Of course, if this nation had an equal share of the commerce with America, one-half of these passengers — instead of one-fourth — would have sailed in vessels under the British flag. 15. I shall be pardoned for following the fortunes of some of these emigrants a little further. An official report, published in 1852, by the American Commis- sioners of Emigration, at New York, throws some light on the condition, the risks, and the casualties attending these emigrants, on the " foreign ships," in which they had embarked. Taking a single period, towards the close of the year, we find, between October 22nd. and November 16th. the arrival of thirteen ships. These had on board 6,207 emigrants, though 6,789 had embarked, and five hundred and thirty -two had died on the passage ! These are not a few prominent cases, but every ship arriving during a period of less than a month. I will go over a larger space, beginning 28 STEAM COMMUNICATION. at an earlier period, and copy a section of this report of the American Commissioners of Emigration. The mortality was so great some years since, that the attention of Government was called to it, and now there is undoubtedly a partial improvement. MORTALITY ON AMERICAN EMIGRANT SHIPS ARRIVING AT THE PORT OF NEW YORK, IN THE YEAR 1852. PASSEN- DIED ON DATE OF PORT 'WHENCE REMAINED NAME OE SHIP. GERS EM- THE ARRIVAL. THEY SAILED. BARKED. PASSAGE. ALIVE. Sept. 11 Liverpool... Lucy Thompson 800 35 765 „ 15 Liverpool... Niagara 249 38 211 „ 21 Bremen ... Chas. Sprague... 280 45 235 „ 27 Liverpool... Winchester . . . 463 79 384 Oct. 14 Liverpool... Marmion 295 34 261 „ 21 Liverpool... New York 400 16 384 ,, 21 Liverpool... Benjamin Adams 620 15 605 „ 21 Liverpool... Liverpool... Progress 428 17 411 „ 22 Washington ... 952 73 879 „ 30 Liverpool... London . . . Garrick 417 25 392 Nov. 1 Forest King ... 589 39 550 „ 2 London . . . Prince Albert 378 36 342 » 9 Liverpool... Wm. Tapscott ... 813 62 751 » 11 Havre Corinthian 500 41 459 „ 15 Liverpool... American Union 629 80 549 „ 15 Liverpool... Centurion 378 13 365 „ 15 Antwerp ... Statesman 272 25 247 „ 16 Bremen ... Delaware 250 15 235 „ 16 Liverpool... Emma Fields . . . 440 42 398 „ 16 Liverpool... Calhoun 875 54 821 „ 16 Hamburg... Guttenburg Total— 21 ships. 296 27 269 10,324 811 9,513 Out of 10,324 passengers that left for America, their hearts bounding with hope, 811 died on the voyage, and had a grave in the great deep. This was about 8 per cent., or one person in twelve. Prom every two families of six, one died; and of each hundred that left their native country, only ninety-two found the promised land. This is not the end of the sad chapter. The same report of the American Com- missioners of Emigration tells us that out of every 30,000 passengers that arrived, 837 were taken to the Marine Hospital, immediately, or within a few days of their arrival. A very large share of these were, of MORTALITY ON EMIGRANT SHIPS. 29 course, suffering from diseases contracted on the passage, and a great number of them died. Very- likely it is impossible to account for all of this frightful mortality on emigrant sailing ships. Some of the reasons, however, need not be guessed at — they are palpable and apparent from the condi- tion of their embarkation. The voyages are long, often fifty, and sixty, and sometimes seventy days ; the ships usually badly ventilated, and the fare unquestionably scanty and of poor quality. The price of passage is £4 10s., or £4, or £3 10s., and sometimes as low as £2 10s. for the voyage, board included. Though there is an emigration scale, the price paid is so low, and the complaints so numerous, the presumptive evidence is over- whelming that starvation, want, and food unfit for the subsistence of human beings, are the frequent results, if not the general rule, on these fatal voyages. Published statements signed by large numbers of emigrants, after their arrival, prove that "flour full of worms," and "bread fairly rotten," are given to the helpless creatures who are at the mercy of the officers and sailors of these ships. Earely does a steerage passenger cross the ocean twice in an emigrant ship. Every day, and every week, a new batch arrives in Liverpool, Hamburg, Antwerp, and other ports, and elegant handbills, portraying the " splendid accommodations of that comfortable ship the ' American Union,' " dazzle the eyes of the poor emigrant, and he pays his money and embarks. "Fifty -nine days" afterwards her arrival is announced, " with 549 passengers remaining, eighty having died on the passage." This is not an imaginary picture. Would that it were. We can have the slight satisfaction of considering that the most of these are not British, but foreign ships. I have never seen any published statistics of the mortality on passenger steamers. In this case I can only relate my own experience, and that has been 30 STEAM COMMUNICATION. somewhat extensive. The writer of these pages has made more than seventy voyages in steam- ships, in nearly all parts of the world, including four or five passages between New York and California, with nearly a thousand passengers on each ship. In the more than seventy voyages there did not occur six deaths, and that from every cause. This statement is made from data taken down at the time, and actually correct. Compare this, a record of the voyaging of tens of thousands of passengers, and only this inconsiderable mortality, with the promise and performance of " that splendid ship the ' William Tapscott,' '' from Liverpool to New York, with 813 passengers on board, and sixty- two deaths on the voyage ; and this, seemingly, not an unusual, but an average occurrence with this class of vessels between England and America. Do we not see in these mute but eloquent records the strongest and most powerful arguments for encouraging the establishment of steam packet lines between Ireland and America? Looking at the disproportion in the number of British as compared to foreign ships, and the frightful mortality on board the latter, is it not a high moral duty, as well as an act of commercial policy, to establish a different state of things? Do the annals of Waterloo tell a more direful tale? Ten thousand embarked and eight hundred perished ! and all within a period of about two months; and yet scarce a word is ever heard of this ; while a battle, with one half the carnage, fills the gazettes with figures and names, covers the land with sympathy and mourning, and furnishes sad tales for a quarter of a century. And the one case is of men, whose trade is war, who know the risks when they enlist, and are prepared to expect it ; while the other is of peaceful emigrants, helpless women and children, who are promised " comfortable ships, good fare, and good treatment ;" people who have loyal hearts with them, and who go to carry British EMIGRATION FROM IRELAND. 31 enterprise, British principles, British civilization, and pure Christianity to the ends of the earth. They never forget the land of their birth ; bnt does their country do its full duty by them ? Let any one scan the above table and then answer. 16. This is a substantial argument for Government support towards a steam packet station on the west coast of Ireland. And here it may be asked, why should people in Ireland, who are determined to go to the United States, or British North America, be obliged to cross the Irish Sea to the eastward, there to embark to go west? At Galway, a few hours', or at most but one day's journey from nearly every part of Ireland, the emigrant is more than three hundred miles nearer America than when at Liverpool, and, with an open sea before him, instead of a dangerous channel, and a far longer voyage. Is it asking too much, that Ireland, which has but from one-tenth to one-third of her fair pro- portion of the commerce of the kingdom (§ 7), should have her just share of the mail steam packet service to foreign countries ? In 1857, the number of emi- grants that sailed from the United Kingdom was 212,875, and of these 86,238 were natives of Ireland. But, how many of this entire number of over two hundred thousand — nearly one half of them Irish — how many embarked directly from Irish ports ? The correct official records say 5,749. Passing by the fact that over 86,000 of them were Irish people, the just and due proportion for Ireland (§ 7) — giving her a foreign commerce in proportion to her population — would be 64,957. We will not allow the imagination to dwell on the number of Irish men, women, and children, who have perished in that terrible " middle passage," the emigrant sailing ship between English ports and the ports of America. The years that we have been considering — the last three — have a diminished emigration, as compared to the previous four or five years. The number of emigrants that arrived in the United States from 1851 to 1854 — four 32 STEAM COMMUNICATION. years — averaged over 415,000 annually. The number arriving in five years — 1851 to 1855 — was 1,907,183, and of these 930,664 were natives of Great Britain and Ireland. Their nativity is given as follows : — Ireland, 529,304; England, 151,952; Scotland, 25,000; Wales, 3,166 and "Great Britain" (without specifying which kingdom), 221,242. 17. As a question of law, or liberty of action, no one will deny the undoubted right of any citi- zens or subjects to emigrate to foreign or colonial countries. We sometimes hear, in times of war, or during the discussion of great international questions, that many persons, once subjects and residents of the kingdom, have shown a feeling of hostility towards the Imperial Government. So far as the Irish are concerned — and they are those of whom we some- times hear these reports — would not a fostering care of Irish commerce, and a due regard to the comfort and the rights of the emigrants from Ireland, have a tendency to produce a different result ? The native of Ireland at home finds industry poorly rewarded, a redundant population, few profitable manufactures, very little commerce, and with this state of things he determines to emigrate. .He hears that there are eight different lines of mail steam packets leaving the United Kingdom, with mails and passengers for nearly every part of the civilized world. These steam packets — over 100 in number — are subsidized for the mail service, to an aggregate amount of nearly one million pounds sterling per annum. He next learns two unpleasant facts. Not a single steamer of all these powerful fleets leaves an Irish port, and not one single line carries emigrant passengers at a price that a poor man can afford to pay. He then finds that Government will permit him to leave the shores of his native land — no passport required — to embark for Liverpool, there to place himself and loved ones on board a foreign sailing ship, badly ventilated, badly found in provisions and comforts, and often most EXTENSIVE EMIGRATION UNCALLED FOR. - 33 infamously officered; and thence must he depart to visit a land that is hundreds of miles nearer the country he has left than the port where he is. He does not know that many ships have their numbers nearly decimated by death, brought on by want, foul air, starvation, and ill treatment. These are stern, undoubted facts ; but our honest citizen goes on board in blissful ignorance of the scene that he has got to realize, and, if possible, fight his way through. Does such a man retain a kindly recollection of the foster- ing care of the Government of the country where he drew his earliest breath, and where for years he paid a faithful allegiance? And yet this is but a faint picture of at least one million Irish people who have left these islands for distant lands during the last ten years; while nearly, or quite two-thirds of them have gone to swell the census records in the United States of America. Is it not clearly evident that an active and profitable commerce will greatly increase manufactures, and enhance the rewards of agricultural labour, and thus diminish the necessity for that extensive emigration which has drained and dGcimated the population of Ireland? The people who have left Ireland for a residence in foreign lands, have been some who were disaffected for political reasons, with all of the industrious and enterprising who failed to obtain that reward for their labour at home which they considered they were entitled to. Remove the causes of dis- content, extend equal Government privileges to all sections, assist a growing commerce by the aid of Government patronage, and the necessity for an exten- sive emigration will not exist. A contented, prosperous, tax-paying, loyal subject is a pillar and portion of the state ; a discontented, disaffected emigrant, seeking a foreign soil, may some day become an enemy. c 34 STEAtt COMMUNICATION. CHAPTEE IV. ARTICLES OF FOOD AND LUXURY, AND OF RAW PRODUCTS, IMPORTED INTO THE KINGDOM EXPORTS OF BRITISH MANUFACTURES, AND THE GREAT AND IMMEDIATE INCREASE ON THE OPENING OF STEAM COM- MUNICATION DUTIES TAKEN OFF WITHOUT A DIMINUTION OF REVENUE. § 18. The necessity of an extensive foreign com- merce will be seen by a reference to some of the principal articles that enter into the trade and manu- factures of the United Kingdom. The leading com- modities imported into the country from abroad may be classed under two heads — articles of food and luxury, and raw and partially wrought products that are worked up or consumed in manufactures and agri- culture. The following are the leading articles. VALUE OF THE PRINCIPAL ARTICLES OF FOOD, &c, IMPORTED INTO GREAT BRITAIN FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES AND COLONIAL POSSESSIONS. ARTICLES OF FOOD AND LUXURY. 1854. 1855. 1856. Wheat and other bread stuffs ... Sugar and molasses „ ... Tea ... Wines Butter Spirits Tobacco Fruit: currants and raisius Coffee Olive oil Cheese Spices Eggs Total — carried to nest page ... £22,743,601 10,775,450 5,540,735 3,616,369 2,171,194 2,791,047 1,348,449 583,204 1,575.185 748,828 906,078 379,601 228,650 £19,174,785 10,975,817 5,225,411 3,072,747 2,049,522 2,188,741 1,540,725 973,162 1,691,497 1,411,950 1,027,774 285,674 236,865 £53,408,391 £49,854,670 £25,070,979 12,510,745 5,246,459 3,728,540 2,641,476 2,250,837 2,240,270 1,580,953 1,494,342 1,124,757 1,096,261 415,389 293,550 £59,694,558 IMPORTS OF RAW PRODUCTS. 35 VALUE OF THE PRINCIPAL RAW MATERIALS IMPORTED INTO GREAT BRITAIN FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES AND COLONIAL POSSESSIONS. ARTICLES USED IN MANUFACTURES AND AGRICULTURE. 1854. 1855. 1856. Cotton Wool Silk, raw and thrown Timber and staves Seeds : clover, flax, and rape Flax, dressed and undressed Hides and skins Dyeing stuffs Oils: fish, palm, &c Tallow Copper, unwrought, and ore Guano Hemp, undressed Total Articles of food and luxury . Articles not enumerated... . Total imports ... . £20,175,395 6,499,004 6,454,357 5,689,895 3,211,523 3,384,216 2,297,647 2,306,288 3,319,339 2,348,311 1,624,222 2,530,272 2,371,898 £20,848,515 6,527,325 5,493,304 3,900,515 3,714,459 3,317,122 2,418,322 2,230,862 3,435,503 2,647,173 2,408,889 3,137,160 1,918,816 £62,212,367 53,408,391 36,768,295 £61,997,965 49,854,670 31,690,215 £26,434,695 8,654,272 8,496,163 5,181,203 4,635,701 3,627,507 3,425,022 3,265,981 3,131,020 2,931,444 2,357,661 2,139,442 1,935,873 £76,215,984 59,694,558 36,633,612 £152,389,053 £143,542,850 £172,544,154 In these figures we see what our " bread and butter" costs us ; what we pay annually for wheat, tea, coffee, sugar, wines, spirits, tobacco, fruit, spices, and other articles, all of which may be considered as necessaries of life. There is, also, an annual investment of sixty or seventy millions, for cotton, wool, silk, flax, timber, hides, oils and tallow, dyeing stuffs, and other commo- dities that are absolutely necessary to keep the wheels in motion that furnish employment for the people. The natural question that next arises is, how were all these articles paid for ? It was by the enhanced value given to these and other raw materials in the process of manufacture, and the facilities created by commerce to convey the manufactured goods to distant nations. c2 36 STEAM COMMUNICATION. 19. The following table gives the VALUE OF THE PRINCIPAL ARTICLES OF BRITISH AND IRISH PRODUCE AND MANUFACTURES EXPORTED FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM. 1854. 1855. 1856. Woollen manufactures Apparel, haberdashery, &c Hardware and cutlery Brass and copper manufactures... Leather and leather wares Tin and pewter wares Earthenware, porcelain, &c Other British and Irish manufac- Total products of the KiDgdotn . Exports of foreign and colonial merchandise ... £31,745,857 11,674,675 10,678,371 5,052,959 5,944,096 3,868,498 1,692,380 2,127,156 1,930,860 1,768,950 1,504,373 1,314,810 1,075,731 1,306,146 £34,811,706 9,472,886 9,741,716 5,035,353 3,964,080 2,960,391 1,534,856 2,439,432 2,211,215 2,113,177 1,141,839 1,367,777 1,135,090 1,019,609 £38,284,770 12,986,674 12,401,313 6,262,488 5,447,835 3,751,679 2,966,938 2,820,860 2,717,572 2,649,824 1,757,063 1,457,425 1,432,451 1,330,106 £81,684,862 15,499,864 £78,949,127 16,738,958 £96,266,998 19,527,990 £97,184,726 ' 18,636,366 £95,688,0S5 21,003,215 £115,794 ; 988 23,425,365 Total Exports £115,821,092 £116,691,300 £139,220,353 We can very readily see, if an extensive foreign market were not found for these articles of British and Irish manufacture, that it would be utterly impossible to furnish employment or supply bread to the millions who depend on manufactures for a subsistence. In importance as a manufacture — looking at the value exported — linen stands fourth in the list ; giving precedence only to cotton, iron, and woollen goods. These four articles, including clothing, hardware and cutlery, and machinery, contributed to the exports, in 1856, no less a sum than £81,852,331, being more BEFORE AND AFTER STEAM. 37 than two -thirds of all the exports of British and Irish products for the year. 20. It would not be difficult to prove that the people of these realms are indebted for a very large share of this vast sale of British goods, with the comforts they bring, to steam commerce alone. I will take the countries that are among Great Britain's best customerSj and compare the exports before the advent of steam with the amount exported since the opening of regular steamship commerce. Let us read the story told by the great nation on the west side of the Atlantic. It may be mentioned that the figures for the periods pre- vious to 1844 are from the United States reports, the exports to that country from 1800 to 1840, not being given in any accessible report in Great Britain. VALUE OF EXPORTS OF BRITISH AND IRISH MANUFACTURES AND PRODUCTS TO THE UNITED STATES, EVERY TENTH YEAR FROM 1800 TO 1840, AND EVERY THIRD YEAR SINCE 1841. BEFORE THERE WAS STEAM COMMERCE. SINCE THERE WAS STEAM COMMERCE. 1800 1810 1820 £5,914,195 5,859,988 * 5,339,854 4,020,747 5,869,638 1844 1847 1850 1853 £7,938,079 10,974,161 14,891,961 23,658,427 21,918,105 1830 1840 1856 The Cunard line of steamers commenced the . mail service weekly, from Liverpool to Boston and New York, by way of Halifax, in 1840, and that service has been continued to the present time. In 1850, an American line was started by E. K. Collins and Co., carrying the United States mails between New York and Liverpool. About the same period, and * The actual amount of exports, in 1820, was considerably less than this, but, as there was much irregularity in the American trade for several years after the war, I have given the average from 1815 to 18-20, 38 STEAM COMMUNICATION. subsequently, several other lines went into operation, nearly all having the western terminus at New York ; but running to the ports of Glasgow, Havre, Southampton, Bremen, Antwerp, and Hamburg. Since January, 1850, steam communication between Ame- rica and Europe has increased more than 100 per cent., and in the official reports of the trade and commerce between the United States and Great Britain the com- mercial results can be seen. The profitable commerce between this country and the great Eepublic of Ame- rica — the exports of British products — as we have just seen, underwent no perceptible increase from the year 1800 to 1840, — as shown by the exports every tenth year, — while the population of the American States, during the same period, increased from five to seventeen millions, and the trade and business of the country in the same proportion. But since the introduction of trans- Atlantic steam communication, eighteen years ago, how wonderful the results ! And with the increase of steam lines, and the corresponding increase of exports, how beneficial the effects in every branch of British manufactures ! We have noticed the state of trade with America every third year since 1844 ; and now we will look at the average results during the last fourteen years, divided into two equal periods. AVERAGE ANNUAL EXPORTS OP BRITISH AND IRISH PRODUCTS AND MANU- FACTURES, TO THE UNITED STATES, DURING TWO PERIODS OF SEVEN YEARS EACH. PERIOD. ANNUAL VALUE. PERIOD. ANNUAL VALUE. From 1844 to 1850 £9,901,919 From 1850 to 1857 £19,202,661 Steam communication with America since 1850 has doubled, and British exports to the United States have nearly doubled. No one can possibly misunderstand the lesson conveyed by these facts. The great argument advanced by Mr. Kowland Hill in 1836, was, that for twenty years — from 1815 to 1835 — the postal revenue DUTIES TAKEN OFF. 39 of the nation had not only exhibited no increase, but had absolutely declined: whereas during that period all other branches of revenue had greatly increased, the country had been in the enjoyment of peace, population had multiplied, and every description of trade and manufactures had been in a prosperous state. Is not the example of a trade nearly stationary for forty years, between two great nations, quite as instructive ? Penny postage, in eighteen years, has increased corre- spondence from seventy-five millions to over five hundred million letters annually, and steam commerce has increased the exports to one country from less than six millions to over twenty millions, or more than quadrupled it during the same period, while in the preceding forty years it remained about stationary, or absolutely declined. 21. Need we wonder, under such circumstances, that, since the commencement of Sir Robert Peel's ministry, the duty has been wholly or partially removed from more than 200 articles of necessity and luxury, without any diminution of revenue ? In 1842, the exports to all countries, of the products of the United Kingdom, amounted to £47,284,988; in 1847, to £58,842,377; in 1852, to £78,076,854; and in 1857, to £122,155,237. Without this foreign sale of the pro- ducts of British looms, spindles, forges, mines, and work- shops, to the value of more than one hundred millions annually, how would the nation have managed to pay twenty-five millions for breadstuff's every year, a similar sum for sugar, tea, wine, spirits, and tobacco (§ 18), and more than fifty millions for wool, cotton, raw silk, flax, and timber ? And what further facts or arguments are necessary to prove that this vast increase in British manufacturing and commercial industry adds to the comforts of life, the buoyancy of the revenue, and the loyalty of the population ? And where should we find this remunerative commerce without the ocean mail steam fleets, crossing -every sea ? Can it be contended 40 STEAM COMMUNICATION. for a moment, that, while steam commerce adds to the prosperity of the nation, it does not have the same effect in each community, and each port where the smoke-funnel and the paddle-wheel are seen ? Why should Ireland, with a population of 6,500,000, contribute in customs duties annually (§ 7) hut £2,244,792, while in England, Wales, and Scotland, the number of pounds sterling contributed exceed the total number of the population ? * Why should every single branch of manufactures in Ireland — linen and spirits alone excepted — be far behind the rest of the kingdom? Why should Ireland have less than one-twelfth of her share of foreign com- merce, and but one two-hundredth part of her share and just proportion of steam commerce to foreign and distant lands (§ 7) — a sum of arrivals and depar- tures of steamships in a year represented by the insignificant figure of 5,551 tons, while the rest of the kingdom exhibits a steam tonnage of 3,890,624 tons ? If her lack of manufactures, her deficiency of revenue, her few branches of productive industry, her small amount of postal correspondence, and general stagna- tion of trade, cannot be charged chiefly to her almost total want of active foreign commerce, can it be doubted for a moment, that with a profitable line of mail steamers to America, there would be a vast improve- ment in all these particulars ? If that part of the king- dom has not a due proportion of these, she has a redundancy of some other things. During the last twenty years, statesmen have had occasion to deplore, in Ireland, an abundant crop of want, poverty, poor- rates, discontent, disloyalty, and an immensity of emigration — all of them bad substitutes for prosperous manufactures, active commerce, large revenue, comfort, contentment, happiness, peace, plenty, and loyalty. 22. We have seen how the exports of British * Population of Great Britain, at the Census of 1851, 20,776,615 ; customs duties in 1857, £21,030,951. BEITISH GOODS EXPORTED TO AMERICA. 41 manufactures to America have kept pace with the gigan- tic march of steam commerce. The same lesson is taught by the extension of steam communication to other countries. Traffic by means of ocean steamers has not been going on as great a length of time, or been kept up with that activity with other nations and communities in America as with the United States, but the results during the period of steam commerce have been very nearly the same. The following table gives the VALUE OF EXPORTS OF BRITISH PRODUCTS TO DIFFERENT COUNTRIES IN NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA DURING THE LAST FOURTEEN TEARS. BUENOS AYEES BRITISH DATE. BRAZIL. AND CHILI. PERU. NORTH URUGUAY. AMERICA 1844 £2,413,538 £784,564 £807,633 £658,380 £3,044,225 1845 2,493,306 592,279 1,077,615 878,708 3,550,614 1846 2,749,338 187,481 959,322 820,535 3,308,059 1847 2,568,804 490,504 866,325 600,814 3,233,014 1848 2,067,299 605,953 967,303 853,129 1,990,659 1849 2,444,715 1,399,575 1,089,914 878,251 2,280,833 1850 2,544,837 909,280 1,156,266 845,639 3,235,051 1851 3,518,684 676,407 1,181,837 1,208,253 3,813,707 1852 3,464,394 . 1,452,966 1,167,494 1,024,007 3,065,364 1853 3,186,407 1,080,918 1,264,942 1,246,730 4,898,544 1854 2,891,840 1,729,335 1,421,855 949,289 5,980,876 1855 3,312,728 1,037,380 1,330,385 1,285,160 2,885,331 1856 4,084,537 1,389,552 1,396,446 1,046,010 4,100,377 1857 5,447,566 1,803,337 1,523,106 1,171,800 4,325,645 The total amount of exports to these countries during the two periods, separately, of seven years — 1844 to 1850, and 1851 to 1857 — with the average per year, will be found as follows : — 1844 to 1850. 1851 to 1857. Exports in seven years Average exports, annually £55,353,758 7,907,680 £81,367,209 11,623,887 42 STEAM COMMUNICATION. Mail steamers commenced running to Brazil in January, 1851, and we see the immediate effect in an increase of British exports of about one million ster- ling the first year ; exports that had remained almost entirely stationary for seven years. The annual exports of British products to Brazil from 1850 to 1857 — after the introduction of mail steam communication — more than doubled, during the seven years, while during the seven years previous, without steam commerce, the increase was only five per cent. ; not five per cent, annually, but five per cent, for the whole period ! ' 23. The exports of British manufactures to the British and other possessions on the west coast of Africa, and to the Canary Islands, during the last four years previous to steam communication, and the first four years of steam commerce, stand as follows : — EXPORTS OF BRITISH MANUFACTURES TO THE WEST COAST OF , AFRICA AND CANARY ISLANDS. 1849. 1850. 1851. 1852. Before Steam £669,652 £701,183 £704,400 £573,366 1853. . 1854. 1855. 1856. After Steam £1,009,040 £1,040,924 £1,294,756 £1,103,583 The mail steam communication to West Africa com- menced at the close of 1852. It is the same lesson constantly repeated. Of further examples of this de- scription we need none. These go over a lengthened period, and to several countries of great extent. They are not a few figures selected here and there to make out a certain case, and prove a particular theory, but they cover a period of time sufficiently large to show the exact state of commerce, and they comprise the most prominent countries with which Great Britain carries on steam communication. It will be observed that the increase of exports to British North America, after BEFORE AND AFTER STEAM. 43 the commencement of steam mail service to Halifax, Boston, and New York, was not as marked as in the case of the United States (§ 20, 33, 35), Brazil, and some other conntries. The reason is evidently in the fact that steam commerce with Canada had to be carried on in- directly, and by considerable land conveyance, either from Halifax or through the United States territory ; and dur- ing much of the period under review, the Grand Trunk Eailway of Canada had not been completed to Portland, the great ocean port for all British America. A comparison of the British trade to countries in the far East, at different periods, cannot be made which will decide the influence of steam as accurately as in the before-mentioned cases, in consequence of steam communication to India, China, and Australia being carried on at a disadvantage. As far as can be seen, however, the same results are shown. British goods were exported to the British East Indies to the amount of £5,077,146, in 1848; in 1854, the value was £10,025,969, and in 1857, £11,648,341. To the Cape of Grood Hope the amount in 1849 was £520,961, and in 1857 the British export trade to that colony had increased to £1,722,869. In all these cases the exports named are only those of British and Irish pro- ducts and manufactures, not the exports of foreign goods, the latter being very considerable in amount, but not so intimately connected with the industrial prosperity of the people of this country. 44 STEAM COMMUNICATION. CHAPTER Y. COMMERCE WITH NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA, THE EAST INDIES, AND CHINA, AS COMPARED WITH THE COST OF POSTAL SERVICE. § 24. Having seen the British export trade with the United States, Brazil, &c. (§ 20, 22), we will now look at the total commerce between Great Britain and the different countries of North and South America. EXPORTS AND IMPORTS BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND DIFFERENT COLONIES AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES, IN AMERICA, FOR 1856. NORTH AMERICA. EXPORTS. IMPORTS. TOTAL. East and West Canada Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Prince Edward's Island Hudson's Bay Territory Total, North America ... £2,541,841 606,864 557,897 459,564 86,371 125,970 £3,779,741 1,891,707 183,281 611,138 68,903 318,554 £6,321,582 2,498,571 742,178 1,070,702 155,274 444,524 £4,378,507 23,076,988 £6,854,324 36,081,415 £11,232,831 59,158,40-3 £27,455,495 £42,935,739 £70,391,234 WEST INDIES, MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND SOUTH AMERICA. EXPORTS. IMPORTS. TOTAL. British West Indies ... Spanish West Indies and Haiti Mexico and Central America . . . Honduras and British Guiana... New Granada and Venezuela ... Buenos Ayres and Uruguay .. Peru, Chili, and Bolivia Total ,. ... £1,642,955 1,611,969 1,212,274 664,603 878,848 4,264,516 1,446,835 2,556,572 £4,157,098 2,807,941 444,604 1,853,374 523,313 2,229,048 1,557,440 4,828,169 £5,800,053 4,419,910 1,656,878 2,517,977 1,402,161 6,493,564 3,004,275 7,384,741 £14,278,572 £18,400,987 £32,679,559 BRITISH COMMERCE WITH AMERICA. RECAPITULATION. 45 EXPORTS. IMPORTS. TOTAL COMMERCE. North American Colonies... Total, North America ... West Indies, Central and South America Total, America £4,378,507 23,076,988 £6,854,324 36,081,415 £11,232,831 59,-158,403 £27,455,495 14,278,572 £42,935,739 18,400,987 £70,391,234 32,679,559 £41,734,067 £61,336,726 £103,070,793 To see the increasing importance of this trade I will give the most interesting branch of it — the exports of British products and manufactures alone — for the last fifteen years; taking every fifth year, from 1842 to 1856. * ' EXPORTS OF BRITISH PRODUCTS AND MANUFACTURES TO DIFFERENT PORTIONS OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA, AND THE WEST INDIES. 1842. 1847. 1852. 1856. British N. America... United States Total, N. America £2,333,525 3,528,807 £3,233,014 10,974,161 £3,065,364 16,567,737 £4,100,377 21,918,105 £5,862,332 £14,207,175 £19,633,101 £26,018,482 British West Indies and Guiana Spanish West Indies Honduras New Granada Venezuela Total, Cen. America £2,479,622 366,253 141,896 111,803 381,543 103,100 128,611 £2,102,577 896,554 192,089 170,947 100,688 145,606 182,279 £1,908,552 1,033,396 251,409 122,806 366,020 502,128 273,738 £1,873,397 1,398,837 184,667 205,000 887,862 488,589 353,590 £3,712,828 £3,790,740 £4,458,049 £5,391,942 Uruguay & B. Ayres Chili Total, S. America £1,756,805 769,791 950,466 684,313 £2,568,804 490,504 866,325 600,814 £3,464,394 1,452,966 1,167,494 1,024,007 £4,084,537 1,389,652 1,396,446 1,046,010 £4,361,375 £4,526,447 £7,108,861 £7,916,645 46 STEAM COMMUNICATION. RECAPITULATION. North America Central America and West Indies South America Total, America ... 1842. 1847. 1852. 1856. £5,862,332 3,712,828 4,361,375 £14,207,175 - 3,790,740 4,526,447 £22,524,362 £19,633,101 4,458,049 7,108,861 £26,018,482 5,391,942 7,916,645 £13,936,535 £31,200,011 £39,327,069 25. In connection with this large traffic let us consider the annual sums expended for ocean mail service, which are stated in the " Estimate for the Post Office Depart- ment (Packet Service) for the year 1857," and also for 1858. We shall then be enabled to form some opinion of the commercial return for the investment made by the Treasury for postal services, and the countries that pay the largest profits on the annual expenditure. COUNTRIES. TOTAL COMMERCE. 1856. COST OF POSTAL SERVICE. AMOUNT OF POSTAGE. NET EX- PENSE OF POSTAL SERVICE. British North America . . . W. Indies & Cen. America. South America Total, West Indies, Cen- tral and S. America . Total, North America . Grand Total, America... £11,232,831 59,158,403 £93,770 86,420 £37,925 82,938 £55,845 3,482 £70,391,234 £180,190 £120,863 £59,327 £15,796,97? 16,882,580 £247,350 55,000 £53,568 36,842 £193,782 18,158 £32,679,559 70,391,234 £302,350 180,190 £90,410 120,863 £211,940 59,327 £103,070,793 £482,540 £211,273 £271,267 As I have no returns in an official form, except a Parliamentary document ordered to be printed Aug. 4, 1853 (giving the returns for 1852), that states the amount of postage received on these ocean foreign and colonial mail lines, I am unable to give returns of postage for the last year, which would unquestionably furnish a much more favourable view, materially diminishing the net expense of the postal service. The exact cost of the ocean mail service for each COMMERCIAL RESULTS OF OCEAN MAILS. 47 country, or section of the Continent, cannot be given. The annual subsidy for the United States and British American line (Liverpool to Halifax, Boston, and New York) is £172,840 ; and for the line from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Halifax, Bermuda, and St. Thomas, £14,700. One half of each of these sums, added together, is given as the cost of the postal service for British North America; and one half of the last-named sum, added to the £240,000 for the West India line, make up the cost of the ocean postal service for the correspondence and com- merce between Great Britain, the West India islands, Mexico, Honduras, and the States of Central and South America, as far south as Venezuela and British Guiana. And how do the returns look as they stand ? There is an active commerce with America, of £103,000,000 annually, and a net cost for ocean postal service of £271,267, but, in reality, considerably less than that, could we get at the exact postal receipts for 1856, the year for which the statistics of the com- merce are given. The exact expenditure, as it stands, is about one-fourth of one per cent, (represented by the decimal .26) on the amount of the commerce. The cost per cent, for the commerce of the British North American colonies is .5, or one half of one per cent.; for the United States, one-twelfth of one per cent. ; for the West Indies and Central America, 1.23, or one and one- fourth of one per cent. ; for South America, .1, or one-tenth of one per cent. ; for the West Indies, Central and South America, .65, or tivo-thirds of one per cent. ; and, as stated, for all America, one-fourth of one per cent. Really, this does not seem an exor- bitant expenditure. If a merchant should invest annually in advertising, £271,000, and get a trade of £103,000,000, it would not appear to be an unprofit- able expenditure. At this rate, £2,700 spent in adver- tising would bring a trade of £1,030,000 ; or £270 invested, would bring a trade of £100,000. Of course, it is not contended that all this trade with these countries is produced solely by this outlay for an 48 STEAM COMMUNICATION. ocean mail service. But most certainly a large propor- tion of it, particularly for the last few years, is directly the result of the steam mail service and the accompanying steam commerce, as can be clearly demonstrated (§ 20, 22). Without something to give in return, articles of food and luxury, and necessary raw products, cannot be purchased in foreign countries for consumption in Great Britain. Every single market, and every available locality for finding a sale for British and Irish products and manufactures, furnishes additional profitable employ- ment for the industrial and producing population of these islands, enabling capitalists and all other classes to contribute their proportion to the revenue with greater ease, increasing the comforts of life, and giving to the Chancellor of the Exchequer a favour- able balance sheet. 26. One more tabular statement will give a fair view of the increased sale of British manufactures in the Colonies and States of America, as produced by, and largely dependent upon an ocean steam mail service. The following figures give the value of the exports of British and Irish goods only (not foreign products), that went from Great Britain to the several countries named, during the year 1842, and also in 1856 — two periods with fourteen years intervening, during which time almost the entire ocean mail service has been created. EXPORTS OF BRITISH PRODUCTS, 1842. EXPORTS OF BRITISH PRODUCTS, 1856. ANNUAL GAIN IN FOURTEEN YEARS. COST OF POSTAL SERVICE. British N. America. Total, N. America. West Indies & Cen- Soutli America ... Total, W.I., Central, and S. America... Total, America ... £2,333,525 3,528,807 £4,100,377 21,918,105 £1,766,852 18,389,298 £93,770 86,420 £5,862,332 £26,018.482 £20,156,150 £1S0,190 £3,712,828 4,361,375 £5,391,942 7,916,645 £1,679,114 3,555,270 £240,000 55,000 8,074,203 £13,936,535 13,308,587 5,234,384 295,000 £39,327,069 £25,390,534 - _ £475,190 PROFITABLE RETURNS OF OCEAN MAILS. 49 The results are certainly very satisfactory. The annual sale of British products in British North America and the United States increased, between 1842 and 1856, from £5,862,332 to £26,018,482 ; a net annual gain of more than £20,000,000. The "West Indies, Central America, and South Ame- rica do not give so large a result. There the improve- ment was from £8,074,203 to £13,308,537 ; an annual gain of over £5,000,000. The increase for all America was from £13,936,535 to £39,327,069, an annual gain in 1856, over the exports of 1842, of £25,390,534. Certainly we cannot tell exactly the portion of this increased sale of British products that was due solely to the establishment of ocean mail steamers. During that period gold was discovered in California and Australia, giving a stimulus to trade, and, doubtless, some ocean steamers would have been set afloat by private enterprise alone. All goods do not go on steamers ; but these rapid mail carriers distribute letters, prices current, samples, and valuable goods, and these are followed by further shipments in sailing vessels. Making every allowance for the natural increase of commerce that would have taken place under the old regime, we see clearly that a vast extension of British commerce has been created in every part of the world by the various lines of ocean mail steamers. 27. China, Egypt and India, furnish a similar result. EXPORTS, BRITISH PRO- DUCTS, 1842. EXPORTS, BRITISH PRODUCTS, 1856. ANNUAL GAIN IN FOURTEEN TEARS. COST OP POSTAL SERVICE. China... Egypt... India . . . £969,3S1 221,003 5,169,888 £2,216,123 1,587,682 10,546,190 £1,246,742 1,366,679 5,376,302 Total... £6,360,272 £14,349,995 £7,989,723 £184,114 50 STEAM COMMUNICATION. Here we see an annual gain of exports in fourteen years, of £7,989,723, and this is represented by an annual postal charge of c£ 184,114, while in North America an annual gain of British exports to the amount of £20,156,150 is represented by an annual postal charge of £180,190. No one will contend that the mail subsidy should be graduated to the amount of commerce that exists, or to the apparent profit to the nation. If a colony be small, or far distant, and needs help, it should have it, independent of the commercial results, or the amount of postage produced for the outlay. We have seen the sum paid for ocean mail service, to and from the principal colonies and foreign coun- tries in the world : let us now see the exact com- mercial results in comparison. In the following table the full amount of commerce with each country, or division of the globe, is given, and in parallel columns the gross cost, or full subsidy for the mail service, and also the net cost, — deducting the postal receipts — according to the return of 1852. The amount of commerce is for 1856, and the postal expenses for 1858, being in most cases the precise sum that has been paid for several years. COUNTRIES. ANNUAL COM- MERCE. GROSS POSTAL EXPENSES. NET POSTAL EXPENSES. Egypt, India, and China British America and United States West Indies, Central, and South America £51,670,565 70,391,234 32,679,559 £184,144 180,190 302,350 £56,218 59,327 £211,940 With a commerce between this country and the colonies of North America and the United States, of £70,391,234, there is a gross postal subsidy of only .£180,190, while to the West Indies, South America, Egypt, Iudia, and China, with a commerce of MilL SUBSIDIES FOR THE AMERICAN COLONIES. 51 £84,350,124, there are subsidies to the amount of £486,464. Each £50,000 of mail subsidy for postal service between Great Britain, Egypt, India, and China, represents an annual commerce of £14,032,220; the same sum for mail services in the West Indies and South America represents a commerce of £5,404,260, while £50,000 expended in the postal service of the United States and British America produces, or repre- sents a commerce of, £19,532,503. There is no com- plaint that a very small outlay for North America pro- duces a most profitable result ; but the colonies of British North America are actually greatly in need of a direct postal service, with the accompanying commercial and emigration advantages — a service that would be of incalculable benefit if kept up regularly by powerful lines on the shortest route between Europe and America, and the most direct to the Grand Trunk Eailway of Canada, viz., from Gal way to St. John's, and from Galway to Portland. Great Britain imports lumber, timber, deal, and staves, annually, to the amount of over five millions sterling ; and naval stores — tar, pitch, cordage, &c. — to the amount of one or two millions more. Nearly all of this could be furnished by British North America alone; but strong arms are required to cut down and fashion the raw material for a market. Words would be thrown away in expatiating upon the vast extent of the present and the prospective trade of these colonies to the mother country ; and nothing can be plainer than the statistical demonstration just given that no country in the world with which Great Britain carries on a trade and has a mail service produces anything like the bountiful commercial and postal return, or receives comparatively so small a sum in mail subsidies as North America. Looking at the entire absence of a direct postal communication to Canada — except the two or three small steamers with a trifling subsidy from the Canadian Government, that run to Quebec — the two great colonies extending from the Saguenay to Lake ij 2 52 STEAM COMMUNICATION. Superior are justified in asking for a line of first- class steamers direct from Gal way to the port of Portland, with that meed of Government support that is allowed to other first-class lines. Looking at the vast and growing commerce of both countries, can there be a more powerful appeal than simply to point to Ireland on the one side, with a population of seven millions, and not one solitary mail steamer to a foreign country or British colony, and Canada and two millions more people on the other, with- out one penny for an ocean mail service, except to deliver mails at New York or Boston, which have then to be sent a long circuitous route through a foreign country? If ever a case was made out — on broad commercial grounds, on the necessities of a postal service, on the ground of a good return for the investment, on the necessity of giving a proper direc- tion to emigration, and on the plea, somewhat hack- nied, but applicable here, of justice to Ireland, and justice to a large and wealthy and prosperous colony — if ever a case was made out, it is this. It is not asked by a disloyal people. It is not asked by a small or a poor community, but by communities on both sides of the Atlantic who help themselves, who trust their own right arms, but who have to contend with the difficulties of expensive internal improvements, and who enjoy a far less proportion of foreign commerce than they are justly entitled to. It is not a gift that is wanted, but a moderate investment, which will return a large dividend in those commercial results that have made this the greatest commercial country in the world ; a country that by great enterprise, and steam communication, has increased the foreign sale of British products from £47,000,000 to £122,000,000, in the short space of fifteen years. These products to this extent would not be sold in foreign countries, thousands of miles away, without long lines of ocean steamers, lines that would not, and could not exist, except for Government patronage. THE FRENCH COASTING TRADE. 53 CHAPTER VI. DECLINE OF FRENCH COASTING TRADE, AND GREAT INCREASE OF THE COASTING TRADE OF GREAT BRITAIN TRANSHIPMENTS OF FOREIGN GOODS AT ENGLISH PORTS VAST INCREASE OF PASSENGER TRAFFIC ON THE OPENING OF STEAM MAIL COMMUNICATION. § 28. "While the foregoing figures furnish a satisfac- tory picture of British commerce, a different policy shows a very different result in the commercial annals of the nation on the opposite side of the Channel. France has very few steam mail lines to distant countries. The effects are visible in both her foreign and home trade. The coasting trade has been con- stantly on the decline for the last ten years. TONNAGE EMPLOYED IN THE FRENCH COASTING TRADE. Marseilles tons Bordeaux „ Havre ,, Kouen n Nantes „ Total, four ports Decrease since 1847 Entire tonnage in the coasting trade of France Decrease since 1847 tons 1847. 242,927 215,745 157,290 120,619 139,044 875,625 2,627,405 1856. 226,730 196,335 163,957 115,^655 110,666 813,453 62,172 2,432,813 194,592 It will be observed that the single place which exhibits an increase of tonnage, in the coasting trade, 54 STEAM COMMUNICATION. is Havre, the only port in France that has an exten- sive steam commerce, and that commerce almost entirely in foreign vessels. The JSiecIe, in giving these figures, remarked that there were employed in the coasting trade of France, 8,564 more men in 1847 than in 1856 ; whereas by the last official report (March 18, 1858), the number of men employed in the coasting trade of Great Britain, on both sailing and steam vessels, increased from 38,350, in 1854, to 43,600 in 1857 ; a period of only three years. This official report gives the following as the amount of tonnage and the number of men employed during the last four years, exclusive of masters, in the coasting and foreign trade of the United Kingdom — river steamers not being included: — DATE. SAILING VESSELS. STEAM VESSELS. TOTAL VESSELS. TOTAL NUMBER OF MEN. NO. TONNAGE. NO. TONNAGE. NO. TONNAGE. 1854 1855 1856 1857 16,869 17,074 18,419 18,429 3,516,456 3,701,214 3,825,022 3,830,119 538 754 851 899 212,637 288,956 331,055 381,863 17,407 17,828 19,270 19,328 3,729,093 3,990,170 4,156,077 4,211,482 162,416 168,537 173,918 176,387 Of the vessels exclusively in the home (coasting) trade, the tonnage of sailing vessels increased during these four years from 694,712 to 767,925, and steamers from 54,002 to 92,481 tons. This is a far different picture to the one drawn by the Steele respecting the coasting trade of France. A return just published in France gives the items of revenue for the last nine months, and also for the corresponding periods of 1856 and 1857. In the aggregate there was an increase of revenue, but in several sources of revenue that have a very direct bearing on the prosperity of commerce, there was a decrease in 1858, as compared to each of the two previous years. The following arc illustrative facts. DECREASE OF FRENCH REVENUE. 55 ITEMS OF FRENCH REVENUE DURING THE LAST NINE MONTHS (PREVIOUS TO OCT. 1858,) AS COMPARED TO THE SAME PERIODS OF 1856 AND 1857- DECREASE FKOM THE SAME PERIOD OF 1857. DECREASE FROM THE SAME PERIOD OF 1856. Stamp duty francs Duty on corn ,, Navigation dues ,. Duty on transmission of money „ 1,056,000 685,000 300,000 33,000 465,000 1,481,000 20,000 88,000 In Great Britain the stamp duties exhibited an increase in 1856, as compared to 1855, of £296,901, or 7,422,750 francs, and an average annual increase for several years hack of £203,508, or 5,087 ,7 00 francs. The duty on the "Transmission of Money" (Money Orders) in the United Kingdom has shown a progressive increase, since 1854 (running from £16,000, £20,000, £22,000, to £24,000), of from £2,000 to £4,000 each year, and this an increase of "clear profits "' after deducting all expenses. The total increase in amount of money transmitted by mail, in Money Orders, in the United Kingdom, in 1857 over 1856, was £374,711, and in 1856 over 1855, £791,279, or 19,781, 97 5 francs. In looking at the decline of the coasting trade of France, if it were charged to the increase of railways, why would not the same hold good in England, or in the United States, countries that have multiplied their railways to a greater extent than France, and yet the coasting trade has vastly increased likewise? The increase of postage money in France in nine months of this year, as compared to the same period last year, was only 168,000 francs, while in Great Britain the increase of three-fourths of a year, as seen in the last annual report, as compared to the year previous, was £125,570, or 3,147 ,250 francs. The increase in France . in nine months of this year, as compared to the same period of 1856, was 543,000 francs, and in Great 56 STEAM COMMUNICATION. Britain in 1857, as compared to nine months two y ears previous, the gain was 5,986,725 francs (,£239,461)). While there was an increase on the domestic postage in France this year over and above the same period of 1856, of 543,000 francs, the transit postage on foreign letters passing through France showed an increase of 428,000 francs. The foreign letters (letters trans- mitted to foreign countries) of any nation do not usually bear a greater ratio to the home or domestic letters than about one to sixty, but the nations situated around France actually increased the postage of that empire about as much by the postage on their letters passing through, as all of the French population, in both their home and foreign correspondence. When we take notice of the fact that the number of letters sent through the mails by the 35,000,000 of French people, in a year, does not exceed, in round numbers, 200,000,000, while the 27,000,000 or 28,000,000 in this kingdom write over 500,000,000 annually, the parallel between the two peoples has been carried far enough, in every- thing that relates to postal affairs. The French people import annually of agricultural products alone,* such as are produced in France, to the amount of more than £30,000,000 (over 750,000,000 francs), and yet the amount of guano shipped to France in 1854 was only 5,688 tons, while 11 3, 000 tons came to Great Britain, and 98,000 tons went to America. But guano can only be shipped to France in French vessels, while the commerce of Great Britain, even her coasting trade, is open to every flag in the world. Is not the difference between Great Britain and France in these commercial results attributable, in a great measure, to the more liberal measures adopted in this country, and among others in extending a judicious Government patronage to lines of ocean mail steamers ? * See statistics of French imports, for 1856, in a paper read before the Society of Arts, by M. F. K. Ue la Trehonnais, and published in the Journal of the Society of Arts, March 19th. lSoti. EXPORTS OF FOREIGN PRODUCTS. 57 And where is there an investment that pays as well, either as regards commerce, manufactures, or revenue ? 29. I have limited the statistics and tables thus far given of the exports of the country, to the goods and products of the British Isles. Those are specially noted as giving encouragement to, and finding a market for, the manufactures of the United Kingdom. But another important and profitable branch of British commerce consists in the conveyance by sea of foreign and colonial merchandise. The total value of such goods exported from the kingdom during the last three years, in addition to the exports of British products (§ 19), was as follows: — 1854. 1855. 1856. Foreign products... British products ... £18,636,366 97,184,726 £21,003,215 95,688,085 £23,425,365 115,794,988 Besides the exportation of articles the growth and production of other countries, after they have been regularly imported into the kingdom, there is a very active and profitable trade in the transhipment of foreign goods, brought into the country "for expor- tation," the value of which amounts to several millions annually, having nearly doubled since 1851. In some descriptions of the carrying trade British vessels have a fair share, as in the conveyance of merchandise; while the largest portion of the passenger traffic is in foreign vessels. With a line of mail steamers from Galway the continental travel through Great Britain to America would be largely increased. Travellers from Antwerp or Hamburg could go by way of London or Hull, and reach America with as little expense, and with nearly a thousand miles less of sea travel. There is also a constant and rapid increase in the business of carrying foreign goods to America in English ships, as the two following tables will show : — 58 STEAM COMMUNICATION. PRINCIPAL ARTICLES TRANSHIPPED AT PORTS OP THE UNITED KINGDOM, IN 1856. QUANTITIES. VALUE. Silk, Woollen, Cotton, and other Wheat, and other bread stuffs, qrs. Spirits, Brandy, Geneva, &c., galls. Total value 100,402 774,786 296,826 3,249,780 103,840 33,843 51,243 1,199,433 2,226,143 £3,470,380 266,642 194,361 157,957 146,529 81,774 47,608 26,903 20,737 16,272 149,921 ... £4,579,084 The countries that took the largest share, and to which the most of these transhipments were made, were those on the west side of the Atlantic. TRANSHIPMENTS OF FOREIGN GOODS TO DATE. UNITED STATES. BRAZIL. BRITISH N. AMERICA. REST OF AMERICA. 1851 £2,293,763 £134,062 £66,073 £180,228 1852 2,577,877 376,995 22,804 386,398 1853 3,695,387 427,797 51,379 329,410 1854 3,555,402 236,898 80,911 348,599 1855 1,941,411 270,099 39,550 489,429 1856 2,400,239 275,844 63,167 570,146 1857 2,079,111 498,936 74,718 459,917 TRANSHIPMENTS OF FOREIGN GOODS. 59 TRANSHIPMENTS OF FOREIGN GOODS TO ALL AMERICA, AND OTHER COUNTRIES. DATE. ALL AMERICA. OTHER COUNTRIES. TOTAL, TO ALL COUNTRIES. 1851 £2,674,126 £291,209 £2,965,335 1852 3,364,074 342,588 3,706,662 1853 4,503,973 774,101 5,278,074 1854 4,221,810 824,538 5,046,348 1855 2,740,489 842,177 3,582,666 1856 3,309,396 1,269,688 4,579,084 1857 3,112,682 1,395,805 4,508,487 These transhipments were almost entirely made in the ports of London, Liverpool, Hull, and Southamp- ton, the principal ports for steam commerce in the kingdom. From three-fourths to seven-eighths of these shipments were made to America, an average of more than half being to the United States. With some fluctuations, it will be seen that the general increase was far greater, and the value much more, to Brazil and the United States — with direct steam com- munication — than to British North America, where there was but little direct steam commerce. 30. Almost every item in the commerce of the " sister island " exhibits something under the present system that militates unfavourably against her in- terests ; and, so far as the trade, the manufactures, and the prosperity of Ireland can be enhanced, just so far will the industrial interests and the national revenue and prosperity of the United Kingdom be improved. The old fable of the different members of the body being entirely dependent on a due supply of food was never better exemplified than in the prosperity or the suffer- ing of the different communities or branches of any state or nation. In 1856, of 295,279 gallons of spirits (valued at £146,405) sent from the United Kingdom to North America, 129,764 gallons were shipped in British, and 165,515 in foreign vessels. Of linseed 60 STEAM COMMUNICATION. oil 1,690,462 gallons were sent to North America; 1,632,422 gallons in foreign, and only 58,042 in British vessels. In 1856, of 66,922,907 yards of linen sent from the United Kingdom to North America, 14,049,965 yards were shipped in British, and 52,872,942 yards in foreign vessels. Of the customs duties collected at the various ports of the kingdom, in 1857, the amount received at Hull, was £312,629, and at Cork, £270,873. At the small but important port of Folkstone, the amount collected was £135,381 ; at Galway, £24,840. 31. The most profitable branch of steam commerce (next to the mails) is the passenger traffic, and the direct and indirect benefits of this trade to the United Kingdom are very great, though not susceptible of an exact computation. The liberality of the Government, in England, and the absence of all passport systems, so annoying on the continent of Europe, the healthful- ness of the climate, and the beauty of the scenery, make this country the favourite route and residence of travel- lers and transient visitors from all nations. During the last three years the number of persons embarking for foreign and colonial countries, at ports of the United Kingdom, and reported in the emigration tables as "foreign" (§ 13), numbered from ten to twelve thousand, and the number whose nativity was not specified, was from 16,000 to 20,000. A large share of these were unquestionably foreigners. The figures of the official report of the American Commissioners of Emigration, giving the number of American citizens that visit foreign countries yearly, will give us some idea of the vast increase of the passenger traffic that followed the introduction of trans-Atlantic steam packets. The great tide of American travel did not set in until after the commencement of the American ocean mail service by the Collins, the Bremen, and other lines of steamers. Up to 1850, the average number of Americans that went abroad annually was only 5,492, and never did it exceed 7,500. In 1850, the Collins AMERICAN TRAVELLERS IN ENGLAND. 61 (American) line of steamers was- started, from New York to Liverpool, and soon after, lines to Southampton, Havre, and Bremen. In 1851, the number of American travellers to foreign countries was 29,362 ; in 1854 it was 32,641 ; in 1856, there were 39,319, and last year over 50,000. For tliirty-three years, ending with 1850, there were 120,534 Americans who visited foreign countries and returned, while in the next six years there ivere 188,998. It is estimated that at least two- thirds of all American travellers who go abroad visit Great Britain. The entire number of Americans com- ing to this country cannot fall short of 40,000 a year, and as the Collins' line of steamers has been with- drawn, leaving the ocean mail service almost entirely in British vessels, those who are fond of commercial and social statistics can estimate the amount of money scattered by these tourists on British soil, and in British hands. The associations for the advance- ment of social science may discuss and estimate the political and moral value that should be placed on this immense personal intercourse between two kindred peoples. It may be mentioned here that the annual exports of printed books from Great Britain to the United States, amounts (1856) to the value of £152,628. 62 GOLD MINES OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. CHAPTER VII. NATURAL "WEALTH OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COLONIES — THE SUCCESSFUL OPENING OF THE CALIFORNIA OVERLAND MAIL ROUTE TO THE PACIFIC — GREAT FACILITIES AND URGENT NECESSITY FOR A SIMILAR ROUTE THROUGH BRITISH AMERICA THE WEST AND THE EAST CHANGING PLACES. § 32. The commercial importance of the British North American colonies, and the late discoveries of gold in British Columbia, can scarcely be overrated. The gold and silver imported into Great Britain from the United States alone, in 1855, amounted to 46,300,738 dollars (£9,260,000), showing the value of the California mines to the commerce of this country. Every discovery, and all increased pro- duction of the precious metals in any and every part of the world, create an increased demand for British pro- ducts and manufactures, and an extended use of British shipping, provided efficient means are taJcen to secure in the favoured localities a fair opportunity for British trade. In the case of the colonies of this country, the facilities required are three ; a means of emigration, to furnish labour, capital, and a demand for trade; a means of transportation, and a direct mail service. What are the advantages of a colonial dependence to a community like Canada, Australia, or British Columbia? Most certainly they consist principally of an intimate union with the mother country, a part payment of their Government expenses, and direct assistance for an efficient mail service, as an aid to commerce and emigration. On the arrival of every British mail packet, subsidized and sent by the mother country to a distant colony, freighted with goods, letter bags 5 travellers, and emigrants, the THE CALIFORNIA OVERLAND MAIL. 63 resident colonist feels a glow of patriotism, appreciates the fostering care of the parent state, and understands that the connection is not a nominal but a real one, which gives reciprocal advantages to both parties. Great changes have taken place within a few years. The East India Company's territory is transferred to the Crown ; the charter and dominion of the Hudson's Bay Company are under revision ; the new mines of gold at Fraser Eiver have laid the foundation for a rapid growing and prosperous colony on the Pacific; the new treaties with China and Japan demand every facility for trade with those vast empires ; the supplies of timber in the United States are growing less and less, while the demands in that country for national and do- mestic consumption are largely increasing; the immense forests of British America, stretching from New Bruns- wick to the valley of the Saskatchewan, are intersected by navigable waters, the steamboat and locomotive are already penetrating their deep recesses, and in this territory of untold national wealth must Great Britain seek for raw materials of great importance; minerals, timber, bread-corn, fish, furs, an emigra- tion field, colonial dominion, and an expansion of com- merce greater than can be expected from any region over which the Crown and authority of Great Britain extend. A commission of the United States Government has made a successful survey and a favourable report on a line for a railway to the Pacific, from St. Paul, Min- nesota, to the mouth of the Columbia, but little south of the British boundary line [see map], and every day adds to the importance and increases the necessity of a highway to the Pacific, entirely on British territory. This highway may be first a wagon road, excepting the links which may be supplied by navigable waters, together with a line of magnetic telegraph; and a rapid filling up of the country by settlers will soon make the construction of a railway comparatively easy. The United States, with commendable enterprise and liberality, has opened a semi- weekly mail service from St. Louis and Memphis [see map] to San Francisco, 64 STEAM COMMUNICATION. a distance of 2,701 miles. This service costs the Government 600,000 dollars (£120,000) a year, and as a means of postal communication, an encouragement to settlers, and the predecessor of a line of telegraph and a railway, is of the highest importance. The climate is warmer, and the seasons longer in the United States ; but in healthfullness and salubrity, in fertility of soil, bountiful yield, and the benefits of living under British laws, the greatest inducements are held out to the British emigrant to locate himself in British North America, with an extent of country to choose from, reaching from Cape Bace, in Newfoundland, to Van- couver's Island, and comprising an area of available fertile land of not less than fifty million acres. But settlers will occupy these lands very slowly without the assistance of Government in opening the mail service, an assistance proportioned to the importance of the trade, the population and extent of the colony, and the wants of the people. 33. The great national advantages of putting Brit- ish America in the most direct mail communication with this country are readily seen, and also the urgent necessity of opening an overland highway to the Pacific, in British Columbia, by directing com- merce and emigration, and creating mail facilities through the fertile lands of the vast region west of the Ottawa and Lake Superior. As actual demonstration is better than theory, no apology is made for giving the following quotation from the New York Tribune, a paper more noted for opposing than encouraging national grants for carrying the mails. The quotation may be seen in the London Times, of October 27th, 1858:— " The Overland Boute eeom California to New " " York. — The first California overland mail arrived at '"' "St. Louis on Saturday, in twenty-three days and" " four hours from San Francisco, bringing dates from " " our Pacific emporium ten days later than had been " "received by way of the Panama route, and from the " " WESTWARD HO !" 65 interior of California of course still later. In the fact thus briefly stated we have a striking condem- nation of the policy blindly pursued by the Federal Government throughout the last ten years. During these years the Treasury has suf- fered at least two millions per annum for the sup- port of ocean mails, about one million per annum of which has been devoted to mails by way of the Isthmus of Darien to California. Had this money been expended in sending mails through our own territories on the most direct routes from the Missis- sippi to the Pacific, the service would have been far better performed than it has been, with the incidental result of opening a great national highway across the continent, lined with settlements and villages, and provided with every accessory to comfortable and expeditious travel, whereby the mails would be carried at least twice a- week from San Francisco to St. Louis within twenty days, with side routes from Memphis to San Diego, and from St. Paul to the Dalles in less than half the time now required by the roundabout ocean transit. Grant that these ocean mails would, at the outset, have been inter- rupted or delayed for two or three months in winter, and still the gain to the correspondence and business of the whole country would have been immense, while the advantage to emigration and travel woidd have been still more palpable. The pioneer from Wisconsin or Iowa who resolves to try his chances in California must now journey 1,000 miles eastward in order to begin his voyage of 7,000 miles to San Francisco, whence he must make another expensive eastward journey of several hundred miles to reach the mines, from which he was but 2,000 to 2,500 miles distant when he started. The cost to him of this circu- itous journey, both in time and money, is far greater than would be that of a passage by stage coach over the direct route, while the filth, discom- E 66 STEAM COMMUNICATION. "fort, and danger to health, of the sea route, are" " inconceivably the greater. Shall this be continued? " " Had the direct route or routes been opened at first'' " — that from St. Louis to San Francisco in 1849," " and side routes from Memphis or Alexandria to San " "Diego and from St. Paul to Portland or Oregon" " City in 1851 and 1852 — we should have been, ere" " this, in daily telegraphic communication with our " "Pacific brethren, and with stages running daily" " for two-thirds of the year on all three routes over" " good and safe wagon roads for emigrants, and " "with railroads covering at least two-thirds of the" "distance on one route and well started on the" " others. All this we have lost through Government " "patronage and partiality." The reader must be forcibly struck, while reading the above paragraph, by the case there given of the American traveller in Iowa, who has to journey a thousand miles eastward in order to reach a point whence to depart for California, which lies due west — and then have a long circuitous route — a case exactly parallel to the one of the Irish traveller from Donegal, Sligo, or Limerick, who goes several hundred miles to the eastward, making a voyage across the Irish Sea, in order to reach Liverpool, so he can embark for the west, retracing the very ground he has already lost. That folly in America is now done away with by the opening of the California Overland Mail route — a wise Government project that will do more in five years to open that vast region west of the Mississippi to the settler, than private efforts alone would accomplish in a quarter of a century. 34. The following paragraph is cut from a London newspaper of October 30th : — " The opening of the Overland Mail route to Cali- " " fornia through the United States, is a matter of the " "greatest interest and importance to Europe, inas- " " much as it will open up a vast country to European " "emigration, will be the precursor of a railway and" THE CALIFORNIA OVERLAND MAIL. 67 " land telegraphic communication from New York to " " San Francisco, and will greatly facilitate English " " intercourse with British Columbia. The Calif omian " " Overland Mail route is 2,700 miles in length, and" " is the longest land mail road in the world. ' The " " cost of it to the United States Government will be " " £120,000 per annum. The contract is to last six" "years. The mail is to be carried in four-horse" " coaches or spring wagons. The mail contract was " "signed Sept. 16, 1857, and on that day twelve-" " month the mails started. Up to the present time " "news has reached England of the starting of the" "westward mail, and of its having got nearly 700 " " miles on its journey, within the contract time, " " without any mishap." The President of the United States, in a telegram replying to John Butterfield, Esq., President of the Overland Mail Company, who had announced to the President, by telegraph, the safe arrival of the first California mail at St. Louis, said : — " John Butterfield, Esq. Sir — Your dispatch has" "been received. I cordially congratulate you upon" " the result. It is a glorious triumph for civilization. " " Settlements will soon follow the course of the road, " " and the east and west will be bound together by a " "chain of living Americans which can never be ;? "broken. "James Buchanan." The most significant part of the announcement of this mail arrival is the fact that six passengers — all the stage could carry — came through the whole dis- tance, without stopping, averaging at least 110 miles every twenty-four hours, entirely through a wilderness country, and the very first trip of an untried journey. Comment is unnecessary. This completely proves the feasibility of a successful mail service across the widest and wildest portions of the American continent. Direct overtures are made by this California Over- land Mail Company — a company organized on the joint-stock principle for the purpose of carrying e 2 N1W YORK SOCIETY LIBRARY 68 STEAM COMMUNICATION. mails, passengers, and goods to California, Oregon, and Vancouver's Island, overland — to the people of Great Britain and Ireland, and to the Atlantic Eoyal Mail Steam Navigation Company, to send emigrants, goods, parcels, and trade through that route to the gold mines on the Pacific. Great and undoubted advantages are offered to travellers and others to use this medium of communication — this great commercial path across the American continent. A large portion of that route is a desert region, unfit for settlements, and an expensive and difficult route for a highway. Yet the public are offered the greatest facilities for travel, and the conveyance of merchandise, emigrants will be attracted, and every fertile and available spot will soon teem with civilization, and echo with the busy sounds of industry. 35. K orth of the United States territory, in British America, the land is more fertile and far better wooded, presenting a strong contrast to the desolate region, the " Manvaise Terre" so vividly described by the early French travellers in the valleys of the Missouri and the Yellowstone. The haunts of the buffalo are now more and more in the British territory; the grape vine which at New York and Albany will not flourish north of latitude 42 J , is described by Baron Humboldt, in his botanical researches, as growing in wild luxuriance on the banks of the Eed Eiver of the North, in the parallel of 50°, the same rules of climatology holding good here which we find in Europe and Asia, that the interior and western parts of continents are far milder than the eastern. Prof. Hind, of Cambridge (Massachusetts)University, in a letter published in the New York Tribune, of Oct. 23rd (taken from the St. Antony (Minnesota) Express), gives the following account of the valleys of the Eed Eiver and the Assiniboin : — " Qf the valley of the Eed Eiver I find it impossible " " to speak in any other terms than those which may" " express astonishment and admiration. The descrip- " THE VALLEY OF THE RED RIVER. 69 " tion which I had read previous to my arrival there '' "did not in any way prepare me for the magnificent " " country at present occupied and controlled by those " " whose interests, no one seeks to deny, have .been" " opposed to settlement or communication with what " " may be termed the outer world. I entirely concur" " in the brief but expressive description given to me " " by an English settler on the Assiniboin, that the val- " " ley of Eed Eiver, including a portion belonging to " " its grand affluent [the Assiniboin], is a paradise of" " fertility. The character of the soil on the Assini- " " boin, within the limits of the ancient lake ridges, '' " cannot be surpassed. It is a rich black mould, ten " "to twenty inches deep, reposing on a lightish" " coloured alluvial clay about four feet deep. The " " area occupied by fertile prairies, which I visited " " and saw, certainly exceeds 1,500,000 acres, and, " "as will appear from an inspection of the map of" " Minnesota, the greater portion of the rich and avail- " " able prairie land in the valley of the Red River lies " " within British territory, while the valley of the Assini- " "boin is wholly within it. As an agricultural" " country, I have no hesitation in expressing the " " strongest conviction that it will one day rank among " "the most distinguished. The opinions expressed" " at the settlement by different individuals, on the " " soil, climate, and natural productions of the " " country, are often of a very opposite character ; I " " found invariably that descriptions and opinions '•' " were remarkably affected by the relation which the " " individual bore to the honourable Hudson's Bay " "Company. The present state of society and the" " condition of the people in the settlements is far " " from being a pleasing or encouraging subject. The " European and Canadian element has been gradually " " diminishing for years, and the half-breed population" "is apparently drawing closer to the habits and" " tastes of their Indian ancestry. That agriculture" "and all the simpler arts have been discouraged, is" T) 70 STEAM COMMUNICATION. " but too apparent. The interests of the fur trade " "are necessarily opposed to the centralization and" u settlement of the half-breed and Indian hunters, M " and it is everywhere evidenced that these interests " " have been so held at a great sacrifice of means, and " "by the practice of a far-seeing and skilful policy." "Bed Eiver has been settled for forty years, and" " now contains a population of 7,000 souls, yet no " " single branch of industry, common even in the " " thinly settled parts of Canada, is practised there. " /'"Whatever efforts were made in times past, and" "there have been many, they have terminated in" "failure, and it is difficult to resist the impression" "that these failures were designed by some one in" "authority." The picture here given of the rule of the Hud- son's Bay Company is certainly not flattering. 36. One more quotation will close my list of autho- rities. The following is from a letter dated Toronto, Oct. 18th. 1858, and published in the London Sun, of Nov. 2nd : — " A great deal of attention is now directed to the " "opening up of the north-west territory, and" " every one rejoices that the public mind of England" " is being awakened to the importance of railway '' " communication across the continent, in British ter- " "ritory. A company having this for its ultimate" " object has been organized under a charter of last'' " session. Mr. Dawson, M.P., is president, Mr. " " Lewis Moffat, merchant, of Toronto, vice-president, '' " and Sir Allan MaeNab and a number of influential " " bankers, merchants, and lawyers, are among the " "directors. The company already owns a steamer" "running from Collingwood to the head of Lake" " Superior ; and it is intended to open up from that " " point communication with the Bed Eiver — first, by " " a road sixty miles in length, thence by small " " steamers and barges on two reaches of navigation, " "one seventy and the other 150 miles in length;" TO FRASER RIVER IN THIRTY-FIVE DAYS. 71 " and, thirdly, by a road over the prairies, 100 " " miles, to Fort Garry, on the Red Eiver. From " "thence another steamer is to run to the Falls of " "the Saskatchewan, through Lake Winnipeg, and" "beyond the Falls another steamer is to traverse a" " distance of 750 miles on the Saskatchewan, which " "would bring the traveller within two or three days' " "journey on horseback of the gold mines on Fraser " " Eiver. From twenty to thirty days would suffice" " to carry the passenger by this line to the Pacific. " " The route would be pleasanter and healthier than" " by Panama. You are already aware that the " "Americans have a stage road now in operation 5 ' " from St. Louis to San Francisco. Twenty-three days " " are required for the transit. If you compare the ' ' " twenty- three days of staging with the compara- " " tively easy and healthy transit by the magnificent '' "line of steam navigation through British territory, " " the advantages of this route can hardly be over- " "estimated. It is thought that £75,000 would'' " supply the boats, and make the roads necessary to " "enable the company to carry passengers from" " Toronto to Fraser Eiver. The opening of the line " " of navigation will be only a preliminary to the " " construction of the railway, and it is very fortunate " " that such natural means of communication exist for " " opening up the country. We are constantly receiv- " " ing intelligence from Eed Eiver, and every addi- " "tional report strengthens our belief in the value of" " the Eed Eiver and Saskatchewan districts as fields " " for settlement. All who have visited the country " "are enraptured with the beauty of its scenery and" " the fertility of its soil." Here is a country for a breadth of at least six de- grees of latitude, north of 49° — the United States line - — where the land in British America abounds in game, timber, and fertility to a far greater extent than the territory south of that parallel, and not only are the inducements the greatest, but the facilities are 72 STEAM COMMUNICATION. abundant for opening a mail route, combining steam navigation and a wagon road, together with a telegraph, across the continent, which will bring the Fraser Eiver gold mines and the shores of the Pacific within thirty-five days' travel of London, and convey news to and from that region in less than a single week, by mail steamers running regularly from Gal way to St. John's and Portland. With such facilities for conveying mails, despatches, travellers, gold and silver, valuable packages, and emigrants, should this Government permit three- fourths of British trans- Atlantic emigration to fill up the unoccupied acres, swell the census, and augment the national wealth and strength of the republican giant of the West ? Three years will not elapse before there will be regular lines of United States steamers from California to the Sandwich Islands, Japan, China, and Australia. Nature has decided that the shortest and most practicable highway from London to China and India, is through Holyhead, Gal way, Portland, and the valleys of the St. Lawrence, the Saskatch- ewan and Fraser Eivers. It rests with the British people and British Government of to-day to say whether these facilities shall be accepted at once, a new highway be opened to China and the East, through the gold regions of the Pacific coast, the annual half million of European emigrants be invited to the interior of North America, and a great extension of commerce be immediately made, or that a powerful rival should get a long way the start, and leave the British American region for ever in the background, and all for want of Government aid, now so greatly needed, and so certain to repay, in increased com- mercial, and colonial advantages, a profitable rate of interest for long years to come. We see that the California overland mail route has been opened, and the first trips accomplished with success, giving the most brilliant promise for the future. THE EAST AND WEST CHANGING PLACES. 73 37. The camel and dromedary have been successfully introduced in these regions, and employed extensively, both by Government and private parties; and here this useful animal makes journeys of sixty miles a day, carrying 800 lbs. on his back, and swimming broad and rapid rivers without being relieved of his burden, a feat he was never known to accomplish at the East. As a kind of compensation, we learn that the system of joint-stock Express companies, so largely in operation in America, has extended to the East, an association of capitalists of this description having just been formed for transporting mails, goods, and travellers, from St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Constantinople, across the plains of Tartary, Siberia, and China, to Irkoutsk, Kiachta, and Pekin. The Oriental Caravan, with its slow and toilsome progress, and immense numbers, will soon be a thing of the past, while railways, steamships, and rapid overland Expresses are absorbing the trade of the world, and creating a traffic, which in magnitude and celerity was never dreamed or imagined by the wildest enthusiast of the palmy days of Spanish, Dutch, Venetian, or Oriental commerce. "Will Great Britain, as heretofore, take the lead in colonial and commercial enterprise, or suffer herself to be outstripped and vanquished by a younger, more enterprising, and more fortunate rival ? 74 STEAM COMMUNICATION. CHAPTEK VIII. LETTER CORRESPONDENCE IN COMMERCIAL COMMUNITIES — DISPRO- PORTION OF THE, NUMBER OP LETTERS IN IRELAND AND IRISH CITIES, AS COMPARED TO ENGLAND — LETTERS AND PAPERS BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, AND THE - COMPARATIVE COST — LETTERS BETWEEN IRELAND AND AMERICA, AND LARGE DECREASE IN THE BRITISH TRANS -ATLANTIC COR- RESPONDENCE. § 38. Letters follow commerce. They also create and aid commerce. The amount of correspondence in any conntry or community will, of course, be greatly influ- enced by high or low postages, and by general postal facilities, frequency of the mails, rapidity of delivery, &c. These circumstances being equal, the number of letters written in any community will depend greatly on three things ; density of population, general intel- ligence, and social habits of the people, and commercial pursuits. As an illustration of the benefits of low and uniform postage, and good postal facilities, the corre- spondence in this country, at two periods, furnish a most instructive example. In 1839, the year before Mr. Eowland Hill's system of penny postage went into operation, the number of paid letters circulated by post in the United Kingdom was 75,908,000, or less than three for each person of the aggregate population. The next year — the first of penny postage — there were 168,768,000, and in 1857, 504,421,000 ; being an average of over seventeen for each man, woman, and child in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the number of letters circulated in 1856, Avas 131,450,409, or less than five to each person. In that country there is no penny postage, no uniform postage, no letter delivery, and no statesman or politician with the will, ability, and courage to take COMMEECE INCEEASES CORRESPONDENCE. 75 up and revise their three or four rates of letter postage, their eight or nine hundred rates of postage on printed matter, their entire absence of letter delivery, letter pillars, letter receiving houses, district Post Offices in cities, and other postal necessities and conveniences. The vast disproportion between the amount of letter correspondence in different localities is shown in several striking examples. In London alone, with 2,500,000 people, during ten years— 1847 to 1856 inclusive — there were written and sent by post 920,527,039 letters ; while in the entire United States of America with 25,000,000 people — ten times the number in London — during the same period, there were written only 888,527,549 letters, being over 60,000,000 less than in this metropolis. Another striking fact is, that there were more letters written and sent by post in the United King- dom during four years — 1853 to 1856 — than in the United States, from the formation of the Government, in 1789, to the year 1856, a period of almost seventy years. The estimated numbers were 1,789,076,769 (during four years in Great Britain), and 1,652,104,648 (during 67 years in the United States).* The following figures give respectively the amount of population, and the number of letters written in the State of uSTew York alone, and every State south of the Potomac and Ohio rivers (in 1856,) including Arkansas and Texas, west of the Mississippi, and California, Oregon, and other territory on the Pacific. POPULATION. LETTERS. State of New York States South of Potomac, Ohio, &c. 3,470,059 9,804,823 29,259,943 28,196,242 The inhabitants of the State of New York, who are * See Homan's American " Cyclopedia of Commerce/' page 1588. 76 STEAM COMMUNICATION. less than three and a-half millions, write more letters than those of thirteen other States, and several terri- tories, with a population of about ten millions. While the country districts in the United States write and send by post less than three letters to a person, annually, the large cities contribute from twenty to forty to each person. 39. While much of the difference in the amount of correspondence , in the United States, and in Great Britain, must be attributed to the far superior system and lower postage in this country, we must seek the difference in amount of correspondence in different localities in the same country in other causes. In a city with four, eight, ten, or twelve letter deliveries daily, far more letters will necessarily be exchanged than between people separated by wide distances, and with mails only once a day, or once or twice a week. From all these facts and deductions we shall be enabled to see the prominent reasons why any one locality fur- nishes many more or many less letters than another. In different countries systems are different, and people have different habits, but in the same country where all speak the same language, have the same manners and customs, and equal postal privileges, we must look for any great difference in amount of correspon- dence to some particular difference in social habits, education, general intelligence, or commercial pursuits. Ireland, as we have seen (§ 7), with 6,500,000 people, sends through the post in a year (1857), 42,806,000 letters, while Great Britain, with a population of 20,700,000, produces 461,615,000 letters— the just proportion for Ireland being 144,768,000, instead of 42,806,000. People in the country districts of Ireland may have less educational advantages, be less social, and, for various reasons, be less accustomed to corre- spond than the people in the country districts of England. But so far as English and Irish cities are concerned, the inhabitants in Belfast and Cork must be in a position, and live under circumstances, almost LETTERS IN ENGLISH AND IRISH CITIES. 77 precisely like the population of Hull or Southampton, commercial pursuits and privileges alone excepted. The people in the Irish cities are as well educated, no doubt ; they are as noted for their intelligence and activity of mind, and they have precisely the same postal privileges. Let us, then, see the difference in amount of correspondence, that is, the use of the Post Office, in several English and Irish cities. POPULATION AND POSTAL REVENUE OF DIFFERENT CITIES IN ENGLAND AND IRELAND. POPULA- TION. POSTAL REVENUE. LETTERS. POPULA- TION. POSTAL REVENUE. LETTERS. Liverpool . Hull. . . . Plymouth Southmtn. Total . . 375,955 84,690 52,221 35,305 £104,865 18,803 10,569 12,219 17,424,578 3,134,344 1,756,166 2,030,333 Belfast. . . Cork. . . . Limerick. . Waterford . Total. . 100,300 85,745 53,448 25,297 £15,547 11,915 7,115 3,594 2,583,320 1,979,820 1,182,242 597,186 548,171 £146,456 24,345,421 264,790 £38,171 6,342,568 The population is according to the census of 1851, and the postal revenue as reported in the annual report on the Post Office, for 1857. Taking the annual postal revenue, and the number of letters written yearly, we find that each .£1,000 of revenue represents 166,162 letters. From this data we are enabled to see the exact proportion of letters written by each thousand, or each twenty-five thousand people in three different cities, Southampton, Liverpool, and Belfast. POSTAL NUMBER OF REVENUE. LETTERS. At Southampton 25,000 people produce £8,654 1,437,924 „ Liverpool „ „ „ 6,973 1,158,689 „ Belfast „ „ „ 3,875 643,878 These undeniable facts all point to one conclu- sion. An active foreign and domestic commerce creates an extensive amount of correspondence. In Southampton there are more steamships, and a greater amount of travel and active trade, than in 78 STEAM COMMUNICATION. Liverpool, and more letters in proportion to the population; while Belfast, in amount of correspondence, is far behind them both. In Southampton there are, in a year, fifty-seven letters for each person; in Liverpool, forty-six ; and in Belfast, twenty-five ; England pro- duces in a year twenty -one letters to each person; Scot- land sixteen, and Ireland only seven. Now, steam commerce as a means of finding a market for surplus manufactures may be a good thing, or, possibly, it may not ; and a large amount of correspondence by mail may be the cause of wealth, industry, and prosperity : or numerous letters may be produced by productive in- dustry, active commerce, and flourishing manufactures ; at any rate, we must be certain that, to a great extent, they go together. The fact is, they act reciprocally on one another. A people who have a large letter corre- spondence give direct evidence in that correspondence that they are intelligent, social, prosperous, and well to do in the world ; that manufactures and commerce flourish ; and there we shall find a community that contributes its just quota to the national revenue. On the contrary, where the correspondence is small, there trade languishes, manufactures are not well supported, or the people are not generally intelligent, or noted for their intellectual activity, and the national revenue there receives but a meagre support. 40. Let us now look at the postal results ; the amount of correspondence. Though the importance or necessity of a mail service is not to be judged entirely by the number of letters and printed documents sent by post, yet this is some criterion of the postal wants of a community. Of the correspondence to the prin- cipal commercial nations and colonies with which Great Britain has a steam mail service ; about one third part (7,304,690 letters and printed documents) is between this country and North America, one third (7,857,576) with France and Germany, and the remaining third with the "West Indies, South America, the Mediter- ranean, India, China, and Australia. COEEESPONDENCE WITH DISTANT COUNTEIES. 79 NUMBER OF LETTERS, ALSO OP BOOKS AND NEWSPAPERS, EX- CHANGED BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND SEVERAL COLONIES, AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES, IN 1856. Country. Letters Outward. Letters Inward. Total Letters. Books & Papers Outward. Books &, Papers Inward. Total Books & Papers. United States 1,733,745 1,547,054 3,280,799 1,063,584 872,664 1,936,248 British N. America . 358,284 396,915 755,199 908,028 424,416 1,332,444 W. Indies & Pacific . 322,716 281,700 604,416 572,412 122,496 694,908 South America 66,252 80,076 146,328 123,408 60,084 183,492 East Indies and China 711,726 763,570 1,475,296 1,199,082 302,037 1,501,119 Mediterranean 234,786 175,056 409,842 92,802 9,420 102,222 Australia 913,733 * 913,733 1,342,466 * 1,342,466 France 2.184,916 2,021,610 4,206,526 718,296 614,304 1,332,600 Germany f Total 911,957 635,145 1,547,102 586,968 184,380 771,348 7,438,115 5,901,126 13,339,241 6,607,046 2,589,801 9,196,847 The total number of letters, books, and newspapers to different sections, will stand thus LETTERS. BOOKS AND PAPERS. TOTAL. Sent to, and received from, the United States „ „ „ N. American colonies Total — North America Sent to, and reed, from, W. Indies & Pacific Sent to, and received from, South America... Sent to, and received from, Australia „ „ East Indies and China „ „ Mediterranean Total — British ColoniesJ Sent to, and received from, France ,. » » Germany Grand Total 3,280,799 755,199 1,936,248 1,332,444 5,217,047 2,087,643 4,035,998 604,416 146,328 3,268,692 694,908 183,492 7,304,690 1,299,324 329,820 4,786,742 913,733 1,475,296 409,842 4,147,092 1,342,466 1,501,119 102,222 8,933,834 2,256,199 2,976,415 512,064 4,158,486 4,206,526 1,547,102 4,973,159 1,332,600 771,348 9,131,645 5,539,126 2,318,450 13,339,241 9,196,847 22,536,088 * Not reported. f German Postal Union only ; not Bremen or Hamburgh. | With the " British Colonies " are reckoned the letters, papers, and books, to and from the Pacific, Peru, Chili, &c, and also the " Mediterranean " region, Malta, Ionian Islands, Alexandria, &c. 80 STEAM COMMUNICATION. We have already noticed the proportionate commer- cial results of steam mail service to different colonies and foreign countries (§ 24, 25), and now we can see how many letters and papers are exchanged — the postal results. By placing, side by side with this correspondence, the gross subsidy, or the total cost of the ocean service for the several countries, we shall see the number of packages produced for the money expended. The last column exhibits the total number of letters and papers passing in both directions for a fixed investment, the sum selected being £50,000. *The amount of correspondence is for the year 1856, while the cost of the service is the sum voted in 1858 — the cost, that year, differing very little from the year 1856, except in the case of Australia, where the present steam service was not commenced till 1857. United States British America West Indies and Pacific South America Australia East Indies, China, and the Mediter- ranean All North America West Indies and South America . . Total, and Average . . COST OF SERVICE. £86,420 93,770 272,350 30,000 185,000 184,114 180,190 302,350 £851,654 LETTERS, BOOKS, AND PAPERS. 5,217,047 2,087,643 1,299,324 329,820 2,256,199 3,488,479 7,304,690 1,629,144 14,678,512 LETTERS, ROOKS, ETC., FOR £50,000. 3,018,425 1,113,172 238,540 549,700 60,978 947,956 2,026,941 276,126 861,765 For an investment of £851,654 — of which £339,169 was returned in postage, if calculated at the rate of 1852, leaving a net cost of £505,135, — there were sent, in both directions, between Great Britain and these countries, 14,678,512 letters, books, and newspapers, of which about two-thirds were letters. The United States and British North America have a correspondence with Great Britain, in a year, of 7,304,690 letters, &c, being about one gross half of the amount for all the IMPORTANT COMMERCE OP BRITISH AMERICA. 81 countries named. The West Indies, South America, the Mediterranean, Egypt, India, China, and Australia, have an annual correspondence with Great Britain of 7,373,822 packages, at an annual cost of £671,464, or, 549,085 packages for each £50,000 expended; while almost an equal amount of correspondence is carried on with North America, at a cost of £180,190, or 2,026,941 letters, books, and papers, for each £50,000 of subsidy. In every particular the most favourable result is shown for North America. The trade with that continent is the largest and most profitable that is carried on with any section of the world, the corre- spondence is by far the most extensive, the mail service produces the most liberal return for the money invested, and yet, as we shall see, the mail communi- cation is so inefficient that correspondence is constantly decreasing. The commercial demand in Great Britain for timber, gold, and other products of the field, forest, and mine, that are produced in Canada and British Columbia, will increase one hundred fold in the next five years; and, with a line of mail steamers, con- necting Galway with Newfoundland and the Grand Trunk Eailway at Portland, and taking telegraphic messages between America and Europe in six days, the trade and intercourse must largely increase. 41. But how stands the postal traffic, looking through a series of years ? The figures of the export trade — British products only — to the United States, in 1842, 1847, 1852, and 1856, stand respectively at £3,528,807, £10,974,161, £16,567,737, and £21,918,105. "With a growing trade like this, in- creasing with giant strides that have no parallel in the commercial history of the world, and a constantly aug- menting travel and personal intercourse, we should naturally suppose that there must be a corresponding increase in the postal traffic and communication by mail. On the contrary, the postal intercourse between Great Britain and the United States is constantly and largely decreasing, and this while the correspondence betv> ean p 82 STEAM COMMUNICATION. the United States and other parts of Europe is increas- ing to an enormous extent. The following statement, taken from the United States official reports — reduced to English currency, reckoning five dollars to the pound sterling — exhibits the postage, and the annual increase or decrease, for several years, between the United States and Great Britain, and the United States and the continent of Europe : — DATE. CONTINENTAL EUROPE. GREAT BRITAIN. TOTAL. ALL EUROPE. AMOUNT. INCKEASE. AMOUNT. DKCKEASE. 1853 1854 1855 1856 1858 £37,548 52,498 63,762 74,279 115,079 £14,950 11,264 10,517 40,800 £184,376 195,930 185,939 179,529 160,554 £9,991 6,410 18,975 £221,924 248,428 249,701 253,808 275,629 I have no postal reports for 1857; but whatever might be the figures of that year, the results of this statement would not be affected or altered. The amount of money paid as postage on mail matter between the United States and the continent of Europe shows an increase from 1854 to 1858, of £62,581; or more than 100 per cent., while between Great Britain and the United States, during the same period, there was a decrease of £35,376, or a falling off of more than 22 per cent. Had the increase from 1853 to 185rf been as great with Great Britain as with the continent of Europe, the postage money the last year would have been £565,712, instead of £160,554. Of the one shilling (or 24 cents) postage on letters to the United States, one penny and a half, or three twenty-fourths, go to Great Britain, as the British inland rate ; eight pence, or two-thirds, to the nation whose packet performs the sea service, and two pence half-penny, or five cents, to the United States, for the American inland rate. These figures, and this regulation, only apply to the postal correspondence between Great Britain and the IRISH CORRESPONDENCE WITH AMERICA. 83 United States. To British North America the postage is sixpence, and, taking the number of letters between Great Britain and British America, and between Great Britain and the United States as a basis — as given in the British official report for 1856 — we find that there is four-seventeenths as much correspondence, and two- seventeenths as much postage money in the former case as in the latter. This, though but an "estimate," is based directly on official data, and is undoubtedly a close approximation to the exact figures. From these facts we get at the POSTAGE ON MAIL MATTER BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND ALL NORTH AMERICA, WITH ITS DISTRIBUTION. DATE. OCEAN POSTAGE. BEITISH INLAND. OCEAN AND INLAND. AMERICAN INLAND. TOTAL POSTAGE. 1853 £137,378 145,990 138,542 134,060 119,628 £25,658 27,373 25,977 25,137 22,431 £163,136 173,363 164,519 159,203 142,059 £42,930 45,621 43,295 41,895 37,384 £206,066 218,984 207,814 201,098 179,443 1854 1855 1856 1858 It is a fact, admitted by the British Post Office authorities, that one gross third of all the correspond- ence between the United Kingdom and America is to and from Ireland. The following figures exhibit the POSTAGE BETWEEN IRELAND AND AMERICA. DATE. OCEAN POSTAGE. BRITISH INLAND. OCEAN AND INLAND. AMERICAN INLAND. TOTAL POSTAGE. 1853 £45,793 48,663 46,181 44,689 39,876 £8,586 9,125 8,659 8,379 7,477 £54,379 57,778 54,840 53,068 47,353 £14,310 15 207 14,431 13,965 12,461 £68,689 72,995 69,271 67,033 59,814 1854 1855 1856 1858 This large correspondence — since both the population and the amount of cultivated land in Ireland are v 2 84 STEAM COMMUNICATION. respectively less than one-fourth of the entire king- dom (§ 3) — shows the prominent part and great interest that Ireland has in the American postal service, and the urgent need of a direct postal service. And how can we account for the small amount and the constant decrease of correspondence between Great Britain and America ? In 1854 — by the United States official report — the number of letters between the United States and Great Britain was 4,336,704, and the number in 1858 [estimate based on the postal receipts] was 3,495,234. This insignificant number of letters is exchanged between the two nations, while in their home correspondence the British people write 500,000,000, and the people of the United States 140,000,000 letters annually, Two sentences will explain it all. Postage is altogether too high — not simply twice as high as it should be, but four times, at least — and there has not for many years, been any improvement, but a deficiency and decline in the speed, punctuality, and regularity of the steamship service. The Cunard line of steamers has run regu- larly, expeditiously, and punctually, once a week for many years, leaving nothing further to be desired, so far as the service once a week is concerned. When the Collins' (American) line of steamers, run — as it did from 1851 to 1857 — once a fort- night, there was another efficient service, every other week. The Cunard line in 1853, 1854, 1S55, and 1856 carried mails between this country and the United States, with postage amounting respectively to £115,637, £117,832, £82,258, and £80,682; while the amounts by the Collins line, during these years, stood at £46,654, £53,082, £80,020, and £73,134. In 1855, the postage by the Cunard line fell off very considerably, probably, partially in consequence of some steamers withdrawn to serve in the Crimean war. The postage by that line has never recovered, neither has the entire amount. between the two countries. Since the Collins line has been withdrawn, about a year since, the only reliance for mail service — except once EIGHT DAYS SAVED. 85 a week by the Cunard steamers from Liverpool — has been on transient ships — slow commercial steamers, or screw boats, from Southampton or Liverpool; making the passages usually in about fourteen days, sometimes in thirteen and a half. The Cunard steamers run once a week regularly, averaging about twelve days for the voyage across. By another weekly line, starting from Galway, Ireland, and making the passages in ten days, according to the tender made to the Government by the Atlantic Eoyal Mail Steam Navigation Com- pany ; this line alternating with the line from Liver- pool (Cunard' s) would make a semi- weekly service of such rapidity and punctuality that no other steamers now running on the Atlantic could, except by mere accident or chance, carry a single day's news from one continent to the other. It would be, simply, changing the service from one regular weekly line of twelve days, and another irregular weekly service of thirteen and a half or fourteen days, to an active, regular semi- weekly service, one-half of the vessels going in twelve, and the other half in ten days. The gain to the com- mercial community for one-half of the weekly corre- spondence to and from America would be just about four days in each direction, and eight days in obtain- ing an answer to a letter. To the people of Ireland — the section of the kingdom having one-third of the trans-Atlantic correspondence — the difference in the time of one-half of the correspondence, would be from one to two days more, in consequence of the steamers departing and arriving at Galway. Looking at the sensitiveness exhibited in the amount of correspondence, when the service is more or less rapid and efficient, we may be perfectly certain that by this arrangement there would be at once a large increase in the number of letters and amount of postal revenue ; an increase beneficial in a financial point of view, and of great advantage to the commercial and business interests of the people of these kingdoms. 86 STEAM COMMUNICATION. CHAPTEK IX. SHIPWRECKS ON THE SHORES OF THE UNITED KINGDOM — SMALL AMOUNT OP PAUPERISM IN IRELAND — COMPARATIVE COST OF ARMY, NAVY, AND OCEAN POSTAL SERVICE. § 42. The shipwrecks occurring on and near the shores of the United Kingdom involve annually a great sacri- fice of life and property. In the year 1857, there were 1,143 shipwrecks; in 1856, 1,153; and in 1855, 1,141. Of the wrecks occurring last year, 277 resulted from collisions, and 866 from other causes. Of all the wrecks, 437 resulted in total loss of the vessel and cargo, and 706 in " serious damage." Of the vessels wrecked, 63 were over 600 tons burthen ; and of the entire number 39 were steamers. The total loss of property was £519,301, and 532 lives were lost. The annual average loss of life is 780 ; the number lost in six years being 4,680. In the wrecks of 1857, there were 9,819 lives placed in " imminent peril." The " Wreck Chart " of the year exhibits the marks of col- lisions, total wrecks, and serious casualty, in chequered profusion on every shore of the kingdom ; the largest quantity being from the Thames to the Tyne ; and, through the St. George's Channel and Irish Sea, from Landsend to Greenock. On the score of humanity it must be the object of Government to distribute the commerce as much as possible over every available portion of the surrounding waters, so as to guard, as far as may be against collision, and direct it in the safest localities. From both of these considera- tions the shipowners of the kingdom, and the people of WRECKS AROUND GREAT BRITAIN. 87 Ireland in particular, are justified in asking for a diver- sion of some portion of the active commerce of the country to the western shores of that island, thereby lessening the peril to life and propeiiy, which is so greatly increased by crowding too large an amount of shipping in the confined and dangerous localities of the Irish Sea, and the English, Bristol, and St, George's Channels. Of all the wrecks that occurred near the kingdom, in 1857, 600 took place between Dungeness (Straits of Dover) and the Pentland Firth; 286 between Landsend and the Clyde (inclusive) ; and 100 on all parts of the Irish coast. These numbers, in 1856, were, respectively, 506, 307, and 155, and in 1855, 576, 251, and 127, showing a considerable decrease on the shores of Ireland. A large proportion of these wrecks on the coasts of Ireland were in consequence of the great amount of shipping, and the dangers of the navigation passing in and out of the confined bays and harbours of the West of England and Scotland. Two striking instances of this may be named in the total loss of the steamship New York, on the Mull of Cantire, going out of Glasgow last winter, bound to New York, and the stranding of the iron steamer Great Britain, in Dundrum Bay, some years since. In short voyages, like those between Galway and America, the danger from that appalling calamity, a ship burning at sea, is proportionably lessened. Had the ill-fated steamer Austria, so lately consumed by fire, with about 500 lives, been on a voyage from Galway to New York, she would not have been thus terribly destroyed on the thirteenth or fourteenth day out, for, ere that time arrived she would have been safe at her moorings in New York harbour. That calamity will undoubtedly give an impulse to travel to and from the continent of Europe through England and Ireland, thus avoiding the dangers of a perilous channel navigation, and the multiplied hazards of a protracted voyage on the ocean, 43. We observe the comparative amount of 8S STEAM COMMUNICATION. business done in different parts of Great Britain and Ireland, the commerce of the kingdom to various foreign countries and colonial possessions, and the vast increase of that commerce wherever steam mail lines have been set in operation. We notice, notwithstanding the favourable geographical and commercial position of Ireland, that she lacks some of the main elements of support of a flourishing business community. And what is the domestic position of Ireland ? — what her deservings ? — what her demerits ? — Is she disloyal ? No. Does she entail a burden upon herself, or the kingdom at large, in enormous taxes for the support of the poor ? We shall see. Does she refuse her aid, individually or collectively, in times of danger, when help is required for means of offence or defence ? Facts will show. The following figures give the NUMBER OF PAUPERS IN 1857 IN RECEIPT OP RELIEF IN EACH OF THE THREE KINGDOMS, AND THE PROPORTION THET BEAR TO THE WHOLE POPULATION. DATE. UNITED KINGDOM ENGLAND AND WALES. PER CENT. SCOTLAND. ™ C IRELAND. PER CENT. 1855 1856 1857 1,018,157 1,037,951 1,000,223 897,686 917,084 885,010 . 48 4.8 46 120,471 120,867 115,213 4.1 4.1 3.9 89,619 73,525 56,910 14 1.1 0.9 Almost one-twentieth part, or nearly five per cent., of the population of England and Wales are paupers, and almost one-twenty-fifth part, or four per cent., of the population of Scotland ; while in Ireland not one per cent., or less than one-hundreth part, of the population receive parochial relief. EXPENDITURE FOR THE RELIEF OF THE POOR. 1855 1856 1857 UNITED KINGDOM. £7,351,777 7,366,805 7,153,742 ENGLAND AND WALES. £5,890,041 6,004,244 . 5,898,756 PER PER- SON. SCOTLAND. PER PER- SON. IRELAND. PER PER- SON. a. d.l 6 3 £611,785 s. d 4 2? £849,951 s. d. 2 7 6 3j' 629,349 4 4| 733,212 2 2:] 6 If 635,472 4 4f 619.514 1 10J It may be remarked that if Ireland has so few poor, IEELAND ENTITLED TO A PACKET STATION. 89 this fact of itself is evidence of real prosperity. But there is a condition of things among individuals that is a medium position between absolute pauperism and a state of comfort and prosperity. This is the condi- tion of a large number in Ireland. We see direct evidence on every side ; we cannot shut our eyes to the fact, that many of the great avenues of manufac- tures, trade, and commerce, are shut out, or do not exist in Ireland. 44. Government has lately, in one thing, remem- bered Ireland. In seeking some means of raising an additional revenue, the Government has increased the excise duty on distilled spirits in Ireland, equali- zing it with England and Scotland. Will not the same Government equalize some other matters — ocean mail steamers, for instance ? Galway is the happiest chosen of all localities in Europe for a steam packet station for trade and mail service with North America. If it were once established on any scale proportionate to that of other packet stations and steam lines, in Liverpool, Southampton, and some other ports, there would be a large traffic ; money would flow into Ire- land, people there would have more comforts ; they would consume more taxable articles ; larger quantities of tea, sugar, coffee, wines, tobacco, American bread- corn, timber, &c, and, while the people would rejoice and be made glad, her Majesty's treasury would be filled. In short, with the comfort, the prosperity, the commerce — steam commerce, of course, included ; that is, a packet station, a breakwater, and a fair annual mail subsidy — with all these things, as they are pos- sessed and enjoyed in England, Ireland would be as prosperous as any portion of the United Kingdom. 45. In time of war or peace does not Ireland furnish her quota of troops ? It is computed that at least one gross third of the rank and file of the British army are Irishmen. This is, unquestionably, below rather than above the truth. The sons of Ireland are not wanting in courage or patriotism. And what are the 90 STEAM COMMUNICATION. annual expenses of the army and navy ? In the mis- cellaneous statistics of the United Kingdom (official), we have the expenses of the army and navy for the last two years : — EXPENSES OP THE ARMY AND NAVY FOR TWO YEARS. Expenses of the Army Expenses of the Navy 1856. 1867. TOTAL. £27,806,603 19,654,585 £20,811,242 13,459,013 £48,617,845 33,113,598 £47,461,188 £34,270,255 £81,731,443 Let us put beside of this the cost of the ocean mail service for the same two years, and look at the contrast : — EXPENSE AND ESTIMATED POSTAL REVENUE OF THE OCEAN STEAM MAIL SERVICE FOR TWO YEARS. Annual cost (Official) Revenue (Estimated) Annual net cost 1856. 1857. TOTAL ; TWO YRS. £756,487 442,000 £965,064 565,000 £1,721,551 1,007,000 . £314,487 £400,064 £714,551 Here certainly we have a very strong contrast. Eighty - one million pounds in two years for the support of the army and navy, and during the same two years the little sum of £714,551 expended for ocean mail service ! £81,000,000 and £714,000 ! A satirical writer would be greatly tempted to quote FalstafF halfpenny worth of bread, to two gallons of sack ! I will not say one word against the eighty-one millions paid for the army and navy ; but I will say, that if a most trifling investment ever brought a profitable return, then has this modest £714,000, for two years' ocean mail service, given a most ample interest. In 1842 — when this country had just started the ocean steam mails — there were liritish INCREASE OF BRITISH EXPORTS. 91 goods sold in foreign countries (§ 21) to the amount of £47,284,988, while, in 1857, the sum of these exports was £122,155,237 — a clear annual gain of £74,870,249. The net cost of the ocean mail service is £714,000 for two years, or £357,000 a year. The net gain in exports of British goods for two years, now, as compared to fifteen years ago, is £149,740,498 ; or, in round numbers, one hundred and fifty million pounds sterling ; and this gain is more directly traceable to that little investment of £357,000 a year, than to any other cause. Looked upon as an investment is there any other national expenditure that brings so tangible a return ! If Great Britain has not been bountifully paid for three or four millions invested in subsidizing ocean mail steamers during the last twelve or fifteen years, then the increased sale of British products, to the amount of several hundred millions in the same period, must be set down as of no advantage to the people of these realms : the one has unquestionably been produced by the other. 92 STEAM COMMUNICATION. CHAPTER X. THE AMERICAN EXEEESS COMPANY PEOTECTION AFFOEDED TO EMIGRANTS ARRIVING IN AMERICA BY THE GALWAY STEAMERS CALIFORNIA OVERLAND MAIL COMPANY. § 46. There is one important consideration in the con- nection between the Atlantic Eoyal Mail Steam Naviga- tion Company and the shores of America, that must not be passed over. By a reference to the map that accom- panies and forms a portion of this work it will be seen that there are various long lines of railway that run from New York, Boston, Portland, and other seaports on the Atlantic, to every part of the far West, and every portion of Canada where the iron track is yet laid down. At Niagara Falls and at Montreal these rail- ways intersect the boundaries of the United States and British America, crossing the great rivers by magni- ficent bridges. Much of the travel and transportation business in America is in the charge of a great com- mercial association known as the " American Express Company." This company have an arrangement with all the principal railways in the northern states and Canada,* hiring any amount of carriages, trucks, and motive power that they require, by any and every passenger train. f They have no object whatever — * The American Express lines of railway are represented on the map by a peculiarly engraved line ; thus =*^r-- f This company has a far larger and more important business than the firms of "Chaplin and Home," and "Pickford and Co.," in this country. The American Express uses only fast passenger trains. THE AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY. 93 like many railway companies — in inducing travel, and sending passengers or goods over any one route in pre- ference to others, and their business extends equally through Canada and the " States." This company is the agent of the Atlantic Eoyal Mail Steam Naviga- tion Company ; not only at New York, but through its resident directors and local agents at Boston, Port- land, Montreal, Ottawa, Kingston, Toronto, Hamilton, Buffalo, Detroit, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, Mil- waukee, St. Paul, and over four hundred other towns and cities scattered throughout the United States and British America. Trusty and faithful messengers, doing the Company's business, go by every fast passenger train, in charge of goods or specie, or attending to pas- sengers, as the case may be — thus traversing thousands of miles of railway daily. It is well known that tens of thousands of emigrants, many of them with con- siderable worldly possessions, go from Great Britain to America every year, landing at New York and Boston, with the object of proceeding at once to some part of British America. On landing in the " States," and find- ing themselves under the sole (but greatly divided) influence of rival American railway companies and land speculators — everyone of whom has every induce- ment to keep them in the " States," rather than allow them to go to Canada — we cannot wonder that very few of them ever reach the soil of British America. At this time the American Express Co. are agents for this British line of steamers from Galway to New York, and, having exactly the same interest and the same power over ail the railways into and through Canada that they have to the Mississippi valley, or any other part of the United States, they will send emigrants and travellers precisely where they wish to go, without any regard to the nationality of their position. Passengers booked in Great Britain for any part of British Ame- rica, or only to New York, Boston, or Portland, will, on arriving, be furnished with tickets to their destina- tion, and be accompanied by a special messenger of the 94 STEAM COMMUNICATION. American Express Company, several trains daily car- rying these messengers on the business of the Company, to every important town and locality in North America. Any one who is desirous of appreciating the importance of this arrangement of the Atlantic Eoyal Mail Steam Navigation Company, not only to the passengers and emigrants themselves, but to the interests of British America, need only see the daily reports in the American journals, or look for one day at the streets of New York, or even of Liverpool. The Irish emigrant no sooner lands in Liverpool from Dublin or Water- ford, or in New York, from any emigrant ship, than he is at once beset by every species of " crimp," " touter," "skinner," " boarding-house keeper," and "emigrant runner " — all bent on one sole object, that of obtaining his money. The vast number so literally robbed in New York, with and without pretence — for robbery of the person, by violence, is now fearfully common in that city, and constantly on the increase, leaving the victims destitute, without being either at home or in the land they were striving to reach — can only be computed by thousands each year, if not tens of thou- sands. The evil was one of such magnitude at New York that the city made a purchase of Castle Garden, and turned it into an emigration depot, putting it under the charge of the Commissioners of Emigration. The place is made as strong as a gaol, to keep the "runners" from breaking in and plundering their victims before they are fairly landed. As soon, however, as they are outside of this, they are at the mercy of a set of villains that can only be described in the lan- guage of the " Newgate Calendar." Every person who has resided for one month at New York, during the last ten years, will know that I only speak plain, sober facts, too notorious to be questioned or denied. All this will now be done away with, so far as the passengers by this Company's steamers are concerned. They will be under the direct charge of the commander of the steamer, and a trusty agent of the American Express OVERLAND MAIL SERVICE. 95 Company — as soon as arrangements are completed — from the moment they embark at Galway till they arrive at their destination, or the principal town nearest their destination, whether that place is Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Milwaukee, La Crosse, or St. Paul. The two companies will have their reputation and the success of their business at stake, in keeping up the strictest fidelity of these engagements with the public, and the people and Government of Great Britain. The map accompanying this work will show the im- portant sections of country, and a few of the numerous lines of railway covered by the vast operations of the American Express Company, and those companies with which they are in correspondence. 47. The responsibility and high position of the Presi- dent and Directors of the American Express Company are evident from the important contract which has lately been made with them by the American Government, and formerly referred to (§ 32, 33, 34, 36). When the Go- vernment advertised for proposals for transporting the mail overland from St. Louis and Memphis to California, the leading directors and managers of the American Express Company — and also of the " Wells, Pargo, and Co." (joint stock) New York and California Express, under the same general stockholders and directors — formed a separate joint-stock association (capital two million dollars), and called it the "California Overland Mail Company." They put in bids for this California overland mail service, and though there were several other parties and companies that sent in lower bids, the American Postmaster General made the contract with these gentlemen, as the ones best qualified, by busi- ness experience, ample capital, and high reputation, to carry out such a formidable undertaking. The complete success of the first trip — going through in twenty- three days — two days less than the contract time, as heretofore shown — proves that the confidence was wisely placed. Put little idea can be formed of 96 STEAM COMMUNICATION. the magnitude of this gigantic undertaking by persons who have never visited the far western plains and forests of America. The distance is 2,701 miles of land travel, more than three-fourths of which is a howl- ing wilderness, or positive desert, and inhabited only by wild beasts and wilder Indians, the most of the tribes of the latter being exceedingly hostile, embittered and stimulated by wrongs, well-founded fears of the future, and actual want from the increasing scarcity of game. There is no route of land travel on the eastern continent that so nearly resembles the track of the California overland mail, as the one from Moscow and St. Peters- burg to Pekin, (§37) through Tartary and Siberia, by way of Irkoutsk and Kiachta. The leading managers, directors, and stockholders of the American Express Co., the California Over- land Mail Co., and the Wells, Fargo and Co. Express, are Henry Wells, President of the Ame- rican Express Co., John Butterfield, Vice-President, and President of the California Overland Mail Co. ; Alexander Holland, a Director in each, and Treasurer of each Company ; and Wm. G. Fargo, and John- ston Livingston, Directors in all three Companies. It is with these Companies and these gentlemen that the Managers of the Galway line of steamers keep up a connection with all parts of America, presenting the most extensive facilities for the safe attendance and sure conveyance of passengers, emigrants, specie, and valuable goods to every section of that continent — facilities never before enjoyed by any other company. A passenger can be booked in any of the offices of the Atlantic Eoyal Mail Steam Navigation Com- pany in Great Britain, go to New York in a steamer from Galway, there be received by the managing director of the American Express Company, and be sent in charge of a trusty messenger to any principal town in the United States, or Canada ; or by the Cali- fornia Overland Mail Company, across the country to San Francisco, and thence to the Fraser River Gold ADVANTAGES TO EMIGRANTS. 97 Mines, in charge of the Wells, Fargo and Company Ex- press, whose business extends to that region. The same facilities can be obtained by special contract for the conveyance and delivery of the mails from Great Britain to any and every part of British America. The importance and value of the American con- nections and unrivalled facilities possessed by the Atlantic Eoyal Mail Steam Navigation Company in that country for sending passengers, as well as goods, to any and every approachable locality, with safety and celerity, seemed to justify this full explanation. To the emigrant these arrangements are of the greatest importance in securing care and attention on his route in a strange country, till he arrives at the termination, or near the termination, of his journey ; and to the Governments of Great Britain and British America, they are the surest and most certain pledge, that emigrants once on their way, in the charge of the Atlantic Eoyal Mail Steam Navi- gation Company, to any part of North America, will be sent to their destination without those influences and sinister designs that frustrate the efforts of so many, and make them the forced and permanent residents of a country they never selected, or intended for a home. 98 STEAM COMMUNICATION. CHAPTER XL BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF LOW POSTAGE ON THE NATIONAL REVENUE A THREEPENNY TRANS-ATLANTIC POSTAGE DEMANDED — GENE- RAL SUMMARY OF THE FACTS AND ARGUMENTS HERETOFORE ADVANCED THE IRISH COMMERCIAL PYRAMID DISTRIBUTION OF PACKET SERVICE AT DIFFERENT PORTS. § 48. The reasons for asking a Government subsidy for the line established between Galway and the United States and British America have nearly all been given. In the first place, the direct and imperative interests of the nine or ten millions of British subjects living in Ireland and British America demand a direct postal service, no less on commercial than on social and political grounds. Such a line, even at a high sub- sidy, could be made remunerative to the Government, directly and indirectly, by returns in postage, by an increase of commerce, enlarged demands for manu- factures, a certain augmentation of revenue from excise duties, stamps, customs, income and property tax, and other direct financial benefits to the nation and the treasury. A pertinent example, the force of which no one will dispute, is seen in the results of Mr. Rowland Hill's penny postage, the first year of its operation. The great reduction in the rate, while it increased correspondence enormously, returned a smaller net revenue by several hundred thousand pounds. And yet, the Treasury tvas largely the gainer, for every branch of national revenue had greatly increased, and that from no assignable cause except the direct stimulus and encouragement given to every species of internal trade, manufactures, and productive industry, by the low and Uniform postage. ADVANTAGES OP LOW POSTAGE. 99 It will be a subject for the consideration of Government, after increasing the mail service to America, whether there shall not be a reduction of rates to three pence a letter, both to the United States and British America. Such a measure would be a most powerful stimulus to commerce and emigration, and one that, on the part of Her Majesty's sub- jects, from London to Vancouver's Island, would do more to encourage British trade, promote the con- sumption of British products, and strengthen the ties that bind Her Majesty's dominions together, than any other national measure whatever. A threepenny letter postage from Great Britain to St. John's, Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Fort Garry, and Fraser Eiver, with a direct over-sea and over-land mail from Galway to Portland, and thence to the Eed Biver country, the Saskatchewan, and Vancouver's Island, would encourage more emigration in those fields, and promote more British trade, than ten times the in- vestment given in a less popular, but perhaps more plausible direction. At three pence a letter, the postal receipts would probably be a little less, at first, than at the present high rates ; but in a short time cor- respondence would increase more than four-fold. For social purposes alone, friends and relatives scattered in Great Britain, the United States, and British America, would write at very short intervals — as they now write in this country, with the boon of penny postage. Should we be surprised that when Englishmen or Irishmen emigrate to the United States or British America, they, in a majority of cases, become indifferent to, or estranged from their native land ? Of the new line, the Earl of Eglinton, the Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland, says, " I am not too sanguine in telling you that ere long Galway will be the high- road of communication, for passengers and mails at least, between England and America." Would not the advantages be greatly enhanced if the project were accompanied by a threepenny trans- Atlantic postage ? G 2 100 STEAM COMMUNICATION". 49. The arguments embodied in the foregoing pages are not difficult to comprehend. They tell the same story, and point to the same conclusion. A general resume or summary of the facts stated is easily given. Steam creates a market, by offering a means of transportation, raising the value of the article in the hands of the producer, without increasing the price to the consumer (§ 2). Ireland is far behind the rest of the king- dom in the elements of a profitable commerce, and in no particular so much as in steam commu- nication with foreign countries (§ 3, 4, 5, (3, 7). While the commerce and industrial pursuits in Ireland are behindhand in extent and prosperity, the revenue of the country, from that portion of the United Kingdom, is necessarily far behind England and Scotland, looking at the common basis of popula- tion and area of cultivated land (§ 6). This defi- ciency is so great that Ireland contributes but little more than one-third of her due proportion to the national income. While the deficiency is plainly per- ceptible in every branch of revenue, it is most apparent in customs, stamp duties, and those sources most immediately dependent upon foreign commerce (§ 6, 7). The revenue from Ireland is comparatively larger in excise duties than in any other department ; a species of tax that weighs peculiarly heavy on those branches of manufactures that are subject to it (§ 6), and more especially where there are no profitable outlets for foreign commerce. In one large department of Irish productive industry — the distillation of spirits — these duties have lately been raised, and equalized with the duties in Eu gland and Scotland ; and from this reason alone there is just ground for asking pro- portionate Government encouragement to foreign commerce in Ireland (§ 44). A large proportion of the emigration from the United Kingdom is from Ireland to America ; and those leaving that portion of the king- dom for the most part are subjected to the expense, EMIGRATION ARRANGEMENTS IN AMERICA. 101 and risk of a voyage to England or Scotland from whence they embark ; and, when there, are several hundred miles further from their destination than when they started from home (§ 7, 13). About three-fourths of the emigration from the kingdom is in foreign vessels (§ 14), and in these the fare, treatment, and accommodations are generally so bad as to cause a high rate of mortality on board, amounting often to one-twelfth, and sometimes to one-eighth of the passengers (§ 15). The advantages, in the in- crease of comfortable British ships — particularly steamers — for these purposes, and other direct encouragements for emigration to British colonies instead of foreign countries, will serve to strengthen the bonds of union between Great Britain and her colonial dependencies, and thereby augment her com- merce, rule, and national strength. The Atlantic Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company, with a suc- cessful line of steamers now in operation between Galway and America, offers these inducements to a great extent, and they have been welcomed and encouraged by a large amount of Irish travel and emigration. The connections of this company by its agencies in America offer every guarantee to the British Government and people that passengers and emigrants bound to any part of America will be protected from those dangers and disastrous influences that have formerly shipwrecked the pros- pects, and turned the course of so many unfortunate emigrants, who, when landed in a foreign country, from foreign ships, find no adequate care or pro- tection whatever. These arrangements are most ample, and such as are possessed by no other line of vessels from this country (§ 46, 57, 58). Ireland does not lack good harbours, or good position, or any other natural element of profitable trade, either with Ame- rica or other parts of the world (§ 8). The call for large importations of articles of food and luxury, and raw products, is increasing in an accelerated ratio 102 STEAM COMMUNICATION. every year, and no means are adequate to maintain a proper balance of trade except to find the widest possible foreign market for every species of British and Irish manufactures (§ 18). A reference to the statistics of trade between Great Britain and different foreign countries proves in unmistakable language that wherever lines of British mail steamers are running, the increased sale of British manufactures has been from five to twenty-fold greater than before the mail contracts commenced (§ 20, 22, 24). The amount of correspondence is the largest, and the sum paid for mail service the smallest between Great Britain and the North American colonies of any of the British colonial possessions, in proportion to the popu- lation, while the proportion of correspondence from Ireland to America is far larger than from England and Scotland (§ 41). Looking at the profitable commerce between Great Britain and different colonies and foreign countries, there is no section of the world that gives so large a return for the expen- diture in the ocean mail service as that with North America, no countries where the increase of trade is so rapid, or its prospective development to a large extent so certain (§ 24).' Looking at the annual cost of the army and navy, of the foreign mail service, or at any other branch of national expenditures, there is no investment, considering its object, more insig- nificant in amount, and none that gives so large a return as the annual subsidy for ocean mail service (§ 45). With a small steam commerce the French coasting trade is constantly on the decline ; with a large amount of steam mail service with foreign countries, the coasting trade, the tonnage, and the men employed in the mercantile marine of this country, are constantly and largely on the increase With the increase of commerce there is a direct in- crease of manufactures, the revenue is buoyant, and taxes can be removed, and are removed from RESOURCES OF BRITISH AMERICA. 103 numerous articles of necessity and luxury without diminishing the national income (§ 21). With the in- crease of steam commerce comes a great increase of foreign travellers from every nation, producing beneficial results, socially and financially (§31). With the increase of British commerce, and liberal Govern- ment arrangements in patronizing mail steam lines, there follows a great increase of foreign carrying trade, transhipments of foreign goods in Great Britain, and a transfer of the trade of foreign countries to British bottoms (§ 29). There is no direct mail service between Great Britain and Canada that is subsidized by the Imperial Govern- ment, while the Grand Trunk Kail way of Canada, has a most eligible seaport at the harbour of Portland, which, though in the United States, has all the advan- tages and privileges that it would possess were it in the colony itself. This harbour is open at all seasons of the year, and, looking at the cost and importance of the Canadian internal improvements, the increasing trade of that colony with the mother country, the Irish people that form a large share of its population, the extensive call for emigration, and its proximity to the coast of Ireland, the reasons seem conclusive and paramount that a direct mail steam packet service should be at once established between these two im- portant sections of the British Empire. The late important discoveries of gold in British Columbia demand increased mail service, and en- larged Government encouragement for emigration to all North America (§ 32). The late successful opening of an important United States semi-weekly overland mail service to California, will be certain to attract British emigration, and can only be counter- acted by additional mail service through British North America (§ 32, 33, 34). The Canadian census reports of 1851 show an annual production of grain to the amount of 45,367,938 bushels, 4,433,237 acres under cultivation, 2,870,004 in grazing lands, 104 STEAM COMMUNICATION. and 10,633,907 acres of forest, in the two provinces of East and West Canada. The energy of character dis- played by the inhabitants of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and other parts of British Am erica, the vast amount of wealth they have created from the heretofore unused and valueless resources of the sea, the mine, and the forest, and the heavy investments made for iDternal improvements, fishing vessels, mining apparatus, roads, and public works, may well plead in favour of additional grants for mail service, both on land and at sea, not as a gift, but as an investment that will produce a bountiful return. Looking at the Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland, which has reached a point nearest America of any iron road in Europe, the same argument holds good. The investment has been made in a country comparatively poor, and will, by its use as a mail route for a portion of the way to America, not only greatly benefit the country through which it passes, but be of direct value to the people, the Treasury, and the Government of Great Britain. Canada has raised a regiment of troops for the British army, and Ireland constantly contributes a large quota to the permanent offensive and defensive force of the kingdom ( § 43). A direct advantage of great national importance to the Government in the establishment of ocean mail lines, is the facility afforded for means of transporta- tion in time of war. During the late war, there were no means of conveying troops at all adequate to the demand, without using the mail contract packets. At Athlone is one of the most important military stations in the United Kingdom, and from this point, by means of one or two steamers that will always be kept at Galway, a thousand or more troops can be embarked and sent on their way to any part of the world, at an hour's notice. At Galway are important harbour improvements that have been erected at con- siderable cost, and, with a line of mail steamers direct to St. John's, Portland, and New York, there will THE IRISH COMMERCIAL PYRAMID. 105 be a combined link of iron, steam, and electricity, to connect this Empire in durable bonds with the United States, and with the people, the grain fields, the forests, and mines of all North America. 50. To recapitulate the disproportion existing in the commercial resources and productive industry of Ireland and Great Britain, the following table is pre- sented, and which may be denominated the Irish Commercial Pyramid (inverted). Men in the Army Representative Figure 159 Postal Correspondence with America „ 137 Proportion of ' Population in Ireland „ 100 Proportion of Excise Duties . . .. „ 61 Proportion of National Revenue . . „ 35 Proportion of Customs' Duties . . „ 34 Proportion of Postal Correspondence „ 30 Proportion of Money Orders . . „ 25 Proportion of Income and Property Tax „ 25 Proportion of Stamp Duties . . „ 22 Proportion of Money in Savings' Banks „ 17 Proportion of Railway Income . . „ 16 Proportion of Paper Manufactures „ 14 Proportion of Malt Duties .... „ 12 Proportion of Tonnage trading abroad „ 9 Proportion of Steam Tonnage trading abroad „ \ Proportion of Subsidies for Steam lines „ Here is certainly a fine tapering off. "With a popu- lation (acres in cultivation the same) represented by the number 100, the excise duties stand at 61 ; but national revenue, customs' duties, corres- pondence, money orders transmitted, and money saved, grow less and less, till we come to, unquestionably, one of the main pillars of British commercial supre- macy — steam communication on the ocean — and what do we find for Ireland ? Not the representative par value of 100, no, nor 50, nor 25, nor even 10 ; in fact, not 1, but the fraction J ! Irish steam commerce to foreign and colonial countries, as represented in the com- 106 STEAM COMMUNICATION. mercial annals of 1857, would seem to be ^th part of its just proportion. But if the proportion of Irish steam commerce abroad is represented by \ in- stead of 100, what is the proportion for Ireland of the nine hundred thousand and odd pounds for ocean steam mail service ? The literal figure, and the representa- tive figure are the same — 0. It is a cypher. It can- not easily be less I Words would add no force, and certainly would give no support to a pyramid that is based upon nothing. 51. One more subject and I have done. "What course is taken when the Government requires a mail service to a near or distant land ? Is there any attention paid to the geographical position of seaports ? A few facts will show. If mail steamers are required to connect the island of Great Britain with Orkney and Shetland, are they set running from Cornwall, or even from Hull ? No, they start from Aberdeen, Wick, and Thurso. The mails sent to the Isle of Skye, leave the Clyde ; those for Ireland start from Holyhead, the nearest available point ; or, for the north of Ireland, from Glas- gow. The mails for the continent of Europe leave from London, Dover, and Eolkstone ; those for the Peninsula of Spain, Malta, Alexandria, Australia, China, and India, depart from Southampton. Those to the West Indies and South America also leave Southampton. By the rule of proximity, and on the wise plan usually followed, of distributing Government patronage, why should not at least a portion of the mails for North America leave Galway, the fine har- bour, and once noted commercial town of the west of Ireland? It is not asked that one penny of mail patronage be withdrawn from the port of Liverpool, from Southampton, or any other place, be it of large or small commercial importance. Let us see how the amount of Government patronage in the form of subsidies for steam mail service to the principal foreign countries is distributed at the different ports: — DISTEIBUTION" OF POSTAL PATRONAGE. 107 Steam Packets from Southampton. Annual Sum. Mail Service to West Indies and South America, £270,000 Mail Service to Australia, via Malta, Alexandria, Suez, and Ceylon, ... ... ... ... 185,000 Mail Service to Alexandria, Calcutta, and China, 13 9, 4 14 Mail Service to Lisbon, Oporto, and Gibraltar, 20,500 Total, for Southampton, £614,914 Steam Packets from Liverpool. Mail Service to Halifax, Boston, and New York, £172,840 Mail Service to West Africa, 20,500 Total, for Liverpool, ... £193,340 Steam Packets from Devonport. Mail Service to the Cape of Good Hope, ... £33,000 Total, for Southampton, Liverpool, and Devonport, £841,254 A portion of the amount set down to Southampton may be considered as expended on steamers running from Suez to Bombay, Ceylon, Calcutta, and Sidney, and from Calcutta to Hong Kong ; but the English mails from Great Britain depart from Southampton, the head- quarters of the steam packet company. This does not make up the amount paid for ocean steam mail service, there being a line from St. John's to Halifax, Bermuda, and St. Thomas' ; a line from Panama to Callao and Val- paraiso ; one from Australia to New Zealand, and some others, but they are the principal ones that depart from ports in Great Britain. A reference to dates and sums will show that very little has been added to the expense of ocean mail service in ten years. In the estimates for Post Office Packet Service in 1848-9 the sum voted was £814,360, and for the service to America, £145,000. In the estimates for 1858-9 these sums stand respectively, £988,488, and £172,840. And yet the active foreign commerce of the United Kingdom has increased nearly or quite one hundred million pounds sterling, annually, during the same period. Are there not substantial reasons for asking that there 108 STEAM COMMUNICATION. be an increase of mail service between the United King- dom and the great commercial communities of North America, and that that service should be from Galway, in Ireland, to St. John's, Newfoundland, Halifax, Quebec, Portland, and New York ? "With the official figures given in the foregoing pages, any person can comprehend that the convenience and advantage of mere letter traffic secured by mail steamers bears no comparison whatever to the commercial, manu- facturing, colonial, social, and other national benefits arising from steam communication. If the dominion of the Hudson's Bay Company in North America is to cease; if the direct advantages of a field for colonization in the most valuable and important of all the territories sub- ject to the British crown, are to be secured ; if advan- tage is to be taken of the new discoveries of gold at Fraser Eiver ; if British settlers in North America are entitled to the same facilities for travel and mail cor- respondence that are enjoyed by citizens and emigrants in the United States ; if national enterprise and judi- cious expenditure are to keep pace with the growing demands of trade, and the increased activity of foreign nations ; if a new and advantageous highway is to be opened to Japan and China, to secure the benefits of valuable treaties with peoples that comprise about one half of the population of the globe, — if these are objects worthy of consideration, and prizes worth contending for, how utterly insignificant appears the expenditure necessary to accomplish results so im- portant to the present and future generations ! And this is a question of to-day. Other nations are in the field, with considerable vantage ground, and no lack of enterprise, shrewdness, activity, capital, or national strength. If the whole matter is narrowed down to one of its most unimportant items — the simple question of speed — will a contract be entered into on the condition that the average length of passage to America is shorter, just in proportion to the distance saved by making Galway a point of departure ? COMMERCIAL STEAMERS. 109 CHAPTER XII. BUSINESS PROSPECTS OP THE GALWAY LINE — ENTIRE SUPPORT OP THE IRISH IN BOTH HEMISPHERES — DIRECT SUPPORT OF BRITISH AMERICA SHORTEST SEA ROUTES ALWAYS MOST POPULAR MAIL SERVICE FOR FOREIGN COUNTRIES. § 52. The direct necessity of increased mail ser- vice to America has been presented, and, it is hoped, demonstrated, in the preceding pages. Another im- portant consideration is the commercial position of the line. Where there are no opportunities for establish- ing a trade, the sole dependence of a new line of steamers must be on the Government subsidy for carrying the mails. Some lines of ocean steamers depend, to a very large extent, upon the remunera- tion for the mail service, while many others establish a profitable trade and furnish good dividends solely by the passenger and commercial traffic. "With other examples, may be named the monthly line from Glas- gow to New York, which has enjoyed a large and profitable business for years. The foundation of the trade consists in the demands of commerce between Scotland and New York, the direct traffic being very considerable, and not coming into competition with steamers to other ports. The screw line from Liver- pool to New York — formerly to Philadelphia — the Hamburg and New York line, and a part of the Vanderbilt line (not engaged as mail packets), are among the examples of self-supporting lines of com- mercial trans-Atlantic steamers. Twenty years since, prudent people imagined that 110 STEAM COMMUNICATION. none but the reckless and rash who were compara- tively indifferent to danger would ever attempt to cross the ocean, except in sailing ships. Now, the deaths and casualties from every cause, and the mortality from every description of accident and shipwreck, in proportion to the number of persons travelling, is far less on steamships than on sailing- vessels. First-class travel, emigration, commercial traffic, and goods and freight of almost every descrip- tion, are gradually changing from sailing craft to steamers. In the competing world of commerce, to- day, the two great considerations are means of convey- ance, and time of transit. The enormously increasing business of telegraph lines, railways, and steamships, and the immense sums of money paid every day to aotihilate time, show that the commercial race is "to the swift." Does not the vast increase of com- mercial traffic between Great Britain and all parts of the world, as exhibited in the foregoing pages, demon- strate the demand for, and use of extensive steam communication, wherever it can be made applicable ? Had it been an object with the projectors of the line from Gal way to America, to establish a company to do a purely commercial and passenger business, and one that would be remunerative, without a mail service, that could readily have been done. An im- portant consideration in an ocean steam traffic is, not to attempt a rate of speed that is higher than prices paid for the traffic will justify. On the trans- Atlantic route, freight at fifteen shillings a ton, and passengers at four pounds each, must go on sailing vessels ; double these prices might pay on steamships that would average eight or nine knots ; while a mail subsidy of five thousand pounds a round trip, and passengers at twenty-five pounds each, would pay to run at a rate of fifteen miles an hour. 53. The reasons for anticipating a large traffic by steam, between Ireland and America, are unimpeach- able. Instances are almost unknown where steamers IEISH PEOPLE IN AMEEICA. Ill unexposed to railway competition have commenced running, and been withdrawn for want of patronage. On the contrary, almost all steam lines find a larger amount of business than the projectors anti- cipated. To illustrate this one case maybe quoted, and that one relates to the traffic by steamers on the west coast of Ireland. A few years since Mr. John Orrell Lever put a small steamer on the route from Westport to Liverpool. The first steamer that left Westport had very little freight — a mere nothing ; among other trifling articles a basket containing two hundred eggs. Now, the traffic on the route is so large that a steamer three times the size of the first is constantly employed, and the number of eggs sent by each trip amounts to between one and two millions ! The direct steam traffic from Westport and Galway, both coasting and foreign, at once creates a trade that is sustained by three or four millions of people. These vessels have established a traffic where none existed before, and opened the markets of England to the agriculturists of all the western and north-western counties of Ireland. There were never any steamers running regularly between Ireland and America before the " Lever Line" was started in June last. The enthusiasm and unanimity with which these steamers have been wel- comed, both in Ireland and America, show the hold they have upon the wishes and interests of the people. There are in America over four million people who are natives of Ireland, or the children of Irish parents. In New York city alone there are 160,000 Irish people. It may be said that " cheers " and " enthu- siasm " cost little, and bring no returns ; but in this case it is not so. Of the four millions of Irish in America, and seven millions in Ireland, a very large portion of them have either some direct interest of their own for a steam line, or some voice in direct- ing the patronage, the travel, or the emigration of others. The Irish residents of New York do not 112 STEAM COMMUNICATION. charter steamers to accompany vessels down the bay, get up public meetings, present valuable flags, and show, in other unmistakable language, that they give this line their hearty support, without meaning some- thing. If Irish people have a leading trait of charac- ter, it is an intense nationality — an undying love for the Emerald Isle. With the return of emigrants, and the visits to Ireland of those that are well settled in America, there are a vast number of Irish that are coming back to Ireland. The " Prince Albert," on her last voyage from New York, returned full, and left 130 disappointed applicants, 90 of whom wanted a cabin passage. Nearly every departure from Gal way has left passengers and freight behind, because the steamers were literally full. 54. When a branch line has been started from Galway to Portland, the population and Government of British America will give the Company their heartiest support. The Grand Trunk Eailway, already stretching in one unbroken line — the bridge at Mon- treal, not yet quite finished, excepted — from Portland to the navigable waters of Lake Huron, offers a direct means of communication with the great west of Ame- rica, and a feeder for such a line of steamers unequalled in the annals of steam commerce. By reference to the letter from Toronto (§ 36) it will be seen that this route presents a line of steam communication the very shortest and most direct that can be found or made, from London to the upper waters of the Sas- katchewan, only two or three days' journey from Fraser Eiver — save and except two pieces of road of 160 miles in length, and two or three steamers that require to be built. All capitalists who have money invested in com- merce, in manufactures, in lands, or railways, and all engaged in works of internal improvement, in Ire- land, feel a direct interest in supporting this line of steamers. The press and public opinion in the United States and British America, are already SHORTEST EOUTES MOST POPULAE. 113 enlisted in favour of the project. The only excep- tions are among those who have some direct interest in other steam lines. It is quite in vain to say that heavy goods, manu- factures, and produce, between London, Birmingham," Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, and Liverpool, and America, will not go across Ireland. No expectation has been raised of doing the English- American freight business over this line; and yet, vast numbers of valuable packages, with a very considerable amount of heavy freight, at highly remunerative rates, have been offered, and much of it taken, to go between England and New York, via Liverpool, or Holyhead, Dublin and Galway. The Irish business alone — the freights and passengers ; the linen, spirits, and other articles going out ; the American tobacco, grain, fruit, and "notions," coming this way; with the great number of small and valuable parcels that pay heavy rates of freight — will furnish a highly remunerative business, that must increase to a vast extent when the facilities once become known. The fact formerly men- tioned (§ 31), that the first year of the Collins steamers brought the number of American travellers up from about five thousand to over 29,000, shows at once the expansion of passenger traffic, and the strong national feelings that stimulate a people to support vessels connected with their native country. 55. There is not an instance of competing lines of steamers on record where, in case of any material difference of distance, the shortest route has not in- variably had the preference with the travelling public. There are three routes between London and Paris, across the channel ; that by Dover or Folkstone (con- sidered as the same route), the one by New Haven and Dieppe, and the one by Southampton and Havre. The fares are put much the lowest by the two last-named, which have the longest sea routes, and yet the record of the number of passengers shows the over- whelming evidence of greater popularity in a sea H 114 STEAM COMMUNICATION. passage of two hours or two and a half, over one of six or twelve. Passengers between London and Paris. By Avay of Dover and Calais, and Folkstone and Boulogne, 163,641 By way of New Haven and Dieppe . . . 18,613 By way of Southampton and Havre . . . 16,176 Comment is unnecessary. The route by Southampton (twelve or thirteen hours' sea-passage) is the cheapest, with unquestionably a pleasanter country traversed by the railway on each side, and yet the New Haven route (six or eight hours' sea-passage), with a little shorter voyage, attracts more travellers; and both together have but little over one-fifth as many passen- gers as go yearly via the South-Eastern railway, and Dover or Folkstone. In connection with steam lines to and from English ports — Hull, London, and Southampton — passengers are to be booked through from Copenhagen, Hamburg, Eotterdam, Antwerp, Bremen, Ostend, Paris, and Havre, via Gal way, to all the leading cities and towns of the United States and British America. The main differ- ence that the Galway line of steamers will make in the trade of Hull, London, Southampton, and Liverpool, will be to increase the passenger traffic through each of these ports. It will also add to the railway traffic over the English and Irish lines of railway. Looking at the calamities that are far more likely to occur, and that more frequently do occur, on long steam voyages, and the universal desire of passengers to abridge their sea travel, and see as much land travel as possible, it w T ould be a mere waste of words to attempt to prove that the most popular and by far the largest travelled route between Europe and Ame- rica must be through Great Britian and Ireland. It costs less in time and money, diminishes risk, abridges the suffering and discomfort of sea travel, gives foreign travellers an opportunity of seeing the people, the scenery, the public works and cities of Great Britain; lengthens life by adding to its enjoyment, and gives MAIL SERVICE FOR FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 115 strangers an opportunity to spend their time and money among a people and amidst scenery unsurpassed in interest by any ever sought by the tourist. 56. The Governments that are to be negotiated with for mail subsidies are the United States, and the. several colonies of East and West Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, on the American side of the Atlantic ; and in Europe, the Governments of Great Britain, France, Belgium, Holland, Prussia, and the States of the Zollverein. To each of these Governments the Galway route offers the most un- rivalled facilities for speed, punctuality, and safety in the transmission of the mails. The only Government yet applied to, that has returned a positive answer, is Newfoundland, and that answer has been a mail contract, made conjointly with the British Govern- ment. His Imperial Majesty, Napoleon III., Em- peror of the French ; His Gracious Majesty, Leopold, King of the Belgians, and His Highness the Due de Brabant, will undoubtedly take a compre- hensive view of the position of the Galway line of steamers. The French Government, by adopting this route to the important French colonies and fisheries of the islands of Miquelon and St. Pierre, near New- foundland, will at once create a trade and an amount of commercial intercourse that would not otherwise exist for twenty years. The Paris correspondent of the London Times (Nov. 10th), in reference to the applica- tion of Mr. Lever to the French Government for a trans- Atlantic mail service, says :- — " It is evident that, in these railway days, all trans-marine mails and pas- sengers should in all cases, as far as practicable, be carried by land to that point of embarkation which secures the shortest and most rapid passage of the ocean. The first element requisite for the selection of the best trans- Atlantic packet station for Europe is, that it be the most western point of the great conti- nental frontier and this essential element has been accorded by nature to Ireland." H 2 116 STEAM COMMUNICATION. CHAPTER XIII. PROSPECTS OP THE ATLANTIC ROYAL MAIL STEAM NAVIGATION COM- PANY IN AMERICA, AND ITS CONNECTION WITH THE AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY, AND THE CALIFORNIA OVERLAND MAIL COM- PANY — EXTENT OF AMERICAN INLAND COMMERCE — MONEY EX- CHANGES. § 57. The facilities for communication with all parts of the American continent, and for obtaining the largest amount of freight and passenger traffic, on the other side of the Atlantic, are absolutely unrivalled, and such as have never before been ob- tained by any European steamship company. Ameri- can inland commerce is a system peculiar to that country. Since the introduction of steam more than twenty-six thousand miles of railway have been built in the United States and British America. On the inland waters — the great lakes and rivers — over eigh- teen hundred steamboats are constantly running. Though steam conveyances — and, to a great extent, railways — reach from Portland (Maine), and Quebec (Canada), to St. Louis, Memphis, New Orleans, Galves- ton (Texas), and even to California, Oregon, and British Columbia, there are difficulties in the way of transporting goods, specie, and valuable parcels over such long distances, where there are numerous com- panies and persons that have charge of the different routes. The railways are often of different gauge, are con- structed under charters from the different States, and in numerous instances their tracks do not connect, making transhipments and change of conveyance of frequent occurrence ; and, consequently, no system of booking parcels over long distances could be had except through some intermediate party. That connecting AMERICAN EXPEESS COMPANIES. 117 link has been supplied by joint stock associations known as Express Companies. These companies have their separate routes and tracts of country, and run, not in competition, but in connection with one another. The Express companies hire their .convey- ance and motive power of railway companies, steam- boat owners, and any other parties carrying on trans- portation over the routes they wish to traverse. A package sent between New York and St. Louis, or any other points, may pass through the hands of one Express company, or two or three, though there is but one party known to the shipper, and that is the company originally receiving it, and whose receipt is given. 58. The leading Express companies, formerly alluded to (§ 47), are the American Express, the Wells, Eargo and Co.'s Express, and the California Overland Mail Company. The leading directors and officers are the same persons in each company ; the California Overland Mail Company being formed by stockholders of the other two*. In fact, the three * The American Express Company. Board of Directors. Henry Wells, President, John Butterfield, Vice-President, William G. Fargo, Secretary, Alexander Holland, Treasurer, \ Johnston Livingston, Hamilton Spencer, William A. Livingston. Wells, Fargo, and Co.'s California Express. Board of Directors. D. N. Barney, President, Henry Wells, William G-. Fargo, B. P. Cheney, Johnston Livingston, Nathaniel Stockwell, . E. P. Williams. California Overland Mail Company. Board of Directors. John Bixtterfield, President, W. B. Dinsmore, Vice-President, Johnston Livingston, Secretary, Alexander Holland, Treasurer, t William G. Fargo, Hamilton Spencer, D. N. Barney, E. P. Williams, M. L. Kinyon, Hugh Crocker, Giles Hawley, David Moulton. t Alexander Holland, Esq., is the Resident Managing Director, at New York, as well as the Treasurer, of the American Express Company, and the California Overland Mail Company. 118 STEAM COMMUNICATION. AMERICAN INLAND COMMERCE. 119 companies may be considered as one friendly joint- stock association, formed to carry on a vast system of mail, passenger, and goods traffic, from the eastern to the western shores of the continent of North America, including every city and town of any note, and every main travelled route from Halifax, N.S., Quebec, Portland, Boston, New York, and Montreal, to Canada West, St. Paul (Minnesota), St. Louis, Memphis, New Orleans, San Francisco, and all parts of California, Oregon, and British Columbia. No sooner were the Fraser Eiver gold mines discovered, than Wells, Fargo and Co., announced that they had extended their New York and California Express to that locality. Wells, Fargo, and Co., do an express business be- tween New York and California, and British Columbia, via Panama — the ocean mail line ; the Overland Mail Co., from St. Louis and Memphis, on the Mississippi river, to San Francisco, across the great plains and the Pocky Mountains (see large map) ; and are connected at the east end of their routes with the Am. Express, and at the west (California) with Wells, Fargo and Co. The American Express Co., with their head-quarters at New York, have unquestionably the largest inland transporta- tion business of any company in the world. Their own routes over the American railways, where they send their Express messengers and tens of thousands of packages, daily, are shown by the dotted lines on the map, a section of which is given on the opposite page. Their system of transportation extends equally through BritishAmerica and the United States. The vast opera- tions of the American Express Company may be ima- gined, when it is stated that, during the year 1857, they had passed through their hands, as carriers, over 10,500,000 packages of goods, besides specie and bank notes to the amount of more than 400,000,000 dollars (eighty millions sterling). This was the busi- ness of the American Express Co. alone. The combined operations of the three united companies — without their European connection — embrace over 15,000 miles 120 STEAM COMMUNICATION. of railway, not less than 12,000 of steamboat convey- ance on rivers and lakes, ocean steam tracks of 6,000 miles, besides a vast amount of minor conveyance, and one mail stage-coach route of 2,700 miles across the widest part of the continent. The American Express Company alone have over four hundred agencies, scattered through all the northern, middle, and western states ; having one in each city and prin- cipal town as far west as the thinly settled frontier, bordering on the Indian territory. The three com- panies have more than six hundred agencies, extending over the entire continent, as far as British Columbia. By the appointment of the American Express Company as general agents for the steam line in America, each of these agencies becomes an agent for the Atlantic Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company. Arrange- ments are now in progress that will enable the Atlantic R. M, S. Co. to send and receive, not only telegraphic despatches, but specie, bank notes, bills of exchange, goods, and valuable parcels, between all the principal cities of Great Britain and the continent of Europe, and every part of North America, offering to the public one sole undivided responsibility. It may confidently be asked whether these arrangements in magnitude and importance do not surpass those of any steamship en- terprise ever put in operation in any part of the world ? The American Express Company act for no other line of trans- Atlantic steamers, and at all of their agencies book passengers, and make contracts for freight and parcel traffic in both directions : to and from Great Britain and Ireland, and other parts of Europe. 59. A special agent (the writer of this work) was sent to America, with the first steamer from Galway, to make arrangements for the principal agency of the line at New York. Pending the negotiations he addressed letters to several parties filling high official and financial positions, making enquiries respecting the American Express Company. THE AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY. 121 The position and standing of that company with the business community and the United States Govern- ment, can be learned from the replies, some of which are appended. From the Hon. John J. Cisco, Assistant Treasurer of the United States, at New York. Office of the Assistant Treasurer, U.S. New York, August 3\st. 1858. Dear Sir, I am in receipt of your letter of the 30th inst., asking some information as to the business reputation and responsibility of the American Express Company of this city. In reply to your inquiries, I have to say that during the time I have occupied the official position of Assistant Treasurer of the United States at New York (now nearly five years), the Government have employed the American Express Company to transmit specie to and from the office to various parts of the Union. This delicate service has been performed with great promptness and care — only one loss has occurred, and that by the unfaithfulness of one of their agents, to the extent of fifty thousand dollars, which was promptly paid by them on proof of loss. This Company has a large capital employed in its business, it is exceedingly well managed, and has the confidence of the community, as well as the Government, to a large extent. Their extended business facilities throughout the United States would, in my opinion, make them desirable agents for a Steam Navigation Company of the character named in your letter. Very respectfully, John J. Cisco, Assistant Treasurer. From Publius V. Rogers, Esq., Cashier of the Bank of Utica, N.Y. Bank of Utica, Aug. 31st. 1858. Dear Sir, I have received your favour of the 30th inst., making in- quiry in reference to the American Express Company. From an apparently insignificant beginning, this company has grown to be almost the sole agents in the north and west for transporting money and every species of valuable property. This bank has employed the American Express Company for several years to transport bullion, bank-notes, bonds, &c, and have never had a miscarriage, until now we deliver our packages, amounting annually to over two millions of dollars, with the same freedom from anxiety that we transact any other ordinary business of the day. This company is employed, I believe, by all the banks within the circuit of its operations. You are, perhaps, aware the company is not a corporation with 122 STEAM COMMUNICATION. limited liability of shareholders, but a co-partnership, with unlimited liability of all parties in interest, and that its stock is widely distributed, embracing many of the wealthy and most prudent citizens of our own and neighbouring states. Your suggestion as to making the Express Company agents for a line of steamers is novel,; but, from the first, the plan commended itself to my judgment, and reflection confirms the impression. You at once secure an active agent in every considerable village or city in the north and north-west, and at trifling cost. As to the safety of your Company intrusting its interests to this Express Company, our own estimate may be gathered from what I have above stated as to our own business with the company, and from the fact that this company has, I suppose, an average daily charge of over five million dollars in specie and bank-notes, aside from other valuable freight. Very respectfully yours, P. V. Sogers, Cashier. From Duncan, Sherman, and Co., Bankers. Office of Duncan, Sherman, and Co., Bankers, New York, August 30th, 1858. Dear Sir, In answer to your note of the 28th inst. : — The company you inquire about [the American Express Company] is largely engaged in transporting specie, bank-notes, merchandise, &c, for all classes of business men throughout this country, and we think perfectly enjoy the confidence of the commercial community for promptitude and fidelity in the manner in which they conduct their business. We ourselves employ them in all our Express business. Your obedient servants, Duncan, Sherman, and Co. From J. Smith Homans, Esq., Secretary of the New York Chamber of Commerce, fyc. Office of the Banker's Magazine and Statistical Register. New York, 162 Pearl Street, August 3\st. 1858. Dear Sir, In reply to your note of inquiry respecting the American Express Company, I take pleasure in saying that the proposed arrangement with them, as agents of the " Atlantic Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company," will, if carried into effect, in my opinion, be conducive to the important interests of the Company. The high credit enjoyed by the firm or Company, as capitalists, and as controlling important business relations with the Pacific MONEY EXCHANGES. 123 coast and with the western portions of the United States, will enable them to do essential service to the Steamship Company in its business intercourse with this country. I think the British Company may congratulate themselves on having such responsible and able agents on this side of the Atlantic. Wishing your Company ample success, I am, yours truly, J. Smith Homans, Pliny Miles, Esq. Editor " Banker's Magazine" The character and extent of American inland commerce, and of the great companies that conduct the operations, may be gathered from the foregoing statements. The Atlantic Eoyal Mail Company are prepared to enter into contracts, and are now making arrangements to convey European mails, and to send passengers, merchandise, and specie to every part of America, and from every portion of America to all the principal localities in Europe. As formerly stated (§ 46, 47), the Express Company at New York are to receive emigrants there, and send them by railway to any and every section of North America, where they are desirous of going. The same will be done from Portland, Boston, or any other ports where they may be landed by the steamers of the Atlantic Eoyal Mail line. One of the most important business transactions in connection with the emigrant and commercial traffic across the Atlantic, is that of money exchanges. The sums of money sent by the Irish % alone, in America, to their friends in Ireland, amount in some years to several millions sterling. The items of such an exchange business are generally of too insignificant a character to make it an object for large banking houses ; and, in consequence, these remittances have usually been made by the packet companies. With the transfer of the emigrant business to this steam line, the money exchanges will follow. The arrange- ment affords at once an agency in every principal town in America, where the resident Irish, Scotch, 124 STEAM COMMUNICATION. English, French, German, Norwegian, or other settler, can deposit his funds, and get an order to send to his friends in the Old Country, which will be cashed by the nearest local agent of the line. From these explanations it will be readily seen, that if the Atlantic Eoyal Mail Steam Navigation Company do not at once enter into most extensive business operations of a permanent and reliable de- scription, it will not be for want of a field, and ample opportunities. If the Company do not make their extensive trans-Atlantic business return a good profit to the shareholders, it will, unquestionably, be in consequence of direct mismanagement, or extensive opportunities most grossly neglected. The field of operations is wide and comparatively new ; many of the arrangements are such as wholly to defy com- petition ; the extent of traffic seems absolutely un- limited ; and tens of millions of people, and hundreds of millions of private and public capital have a direct interest in encouraging and sustaining the operations of the Company. 125 INDEX. [ The figures refer, not to the Page, but to the section. Acres in Cultivation in Great Britain and Ireland ... 3,5 Acres in Cultivation, and in Forest, 'in Canada 49 Africa, Exports to, increase of, since Steam 23 American Express Company ... 46,47,58,59 American Inland Commerce 32, 57 American Travellers in Great Britain 26 Army and Navy, expense of 45 Assiniboin and Red River valleys 35,36 Athlone, its importance as a Military Station 49 Atlantic Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company, and its Business Facilities in America and Europe, 46, 47,52 to 59 Before and after Steam ... ... ... 20,22 23 Books Exported to the United States ... 31 Brazil, Exports to, before and after Steam 22 Breadstuffs Imported Annually 13 British American Colonies, and their Products ... 27, 32, 40, 49 British Products carried in Foreign Vessels 30 Britons and their descendants buy British Goods ... 12 California Overland Mail Service 32, 33, 34, 36, 47, 58 Camel on the American Plains 37 Canada, Products of ... 27, 32, 40, 49 Cheap Postage, great benefits of 20, 38, 48 China, Shortest Route to, through British America ... 32, 36 126 INDEX. Chinese, 160, receive as many British Goods as one Briton, Coasting Trade of France declining Coasting Trade of Great Britain increasing Collins and Cunard Steamers commenced running Collins' Steamers increased Travel five-fold Commerce with America since 1842 Commerce of Ireland as compared with Great Britain, Commercial Steamers between Europe and America Correspondence with distant Countries Correspondence between Ireland and America . . . Cotton, Flax, Silk, and Wool imported Countries that have no Steam Communication Customs Duties at different Ports Customs Duties in Great Britain and Ireland Decrease of Correspondence between Great Britain and America Duties taken off without diminishing Revenue Duty on Spirits in Ireland increased 20, SECTION. 12 28 28 20, 31 31, 54 22,24 7 52 40, 41 41 18 1 30 6,7 41 21 44 Emigrants from Great Britain, and their Nationality ... 13 Emigrants to America and other Countries 13, 16 Emigrants, the few that leave direct from Ireland ... 7, 1 6 Emigrants, and the Ships in which they sail 14 Emigrants, Mortality of, in Sailing Ships 15 Emigrants, their perils at New York 46 Emigrants, their Protection by the A. R. M. S. N. Co. and the American Express Co 46 Emigration, extensive, uncalled for, 17 Expenses of Army, Navy, and Ocean Postal Service ... 45 Exports of British Goods to all Countries since 1842, 21, 24, 26, 27, 45 Exports of British Products 10, 19, 21, 27, 45 Exports to Countiies in America since 1842 24 Exports to North and South America 22,24,26 INDEX. 127 Exports to the United States before and after Steam ... Exports to South America and Africa, before and after Steam Communication Exports of British Products doubled since 1847 Exports to Africa, India, and China Exports to India, China, and Cape of Good Hope Express Companies of America Express Routes to British Columbia Express Company from Moscow to Pekin . . . SI-.CTION. 20 22,23 21 23, 27 23 .46,47,57,58,59 . ... 47, 58 . ... 37 Food, Importations of, in the United Kingdom 18 France, Decline in Coasting Trade of 28 Fraser River and London connected by Steam ... 32, 33, 30, 54 French Government, its interest in the Galway Line as the Direct Mail Route to the French Fisheries ... 56 Galway, and its distance from America, as compared to Liverpool and other ports See Map. Galway to St. John's and Portland 11,27 Galway, and its Position as a Packet Station 11, 44 Galway, its immense Water Power 8 Gold Discoveries in British Columbia 32 Gold and Silver imported into the Kingdom 32 Government, its duty towards Emigrants 17 Governments applied to for Mail Subsidies 56 Grand Trunk Railway of Canada 23, 27, 49, 54 Imports of Food and Raw Products 18 Ireland only lacks Steam Commerce ... 1 Ireland, its Commerce as compared to Great Britain ... 5, 7 Ireland, its Correspondence with America, as compared to Great Britain 41, 50 Ireland, Revenue of, as compared to Great Britain ... 6, 7, 50 Ireland and its Seaports ». 8 128 I N-D E X. Ireland, its supply of Men for the Army . . . Irish Commercial Pyramid ... .,„ Irish People living in America Japan and China, most Direct Eoutes to Letters follow Commerce Letters and Papers to distant Countries Letters in English and Irish Cities Letters in Ireland and Great Britain Letters between Ireland and America Letters in France and Great Britain Letters in the United States and Great Britain Letters respecting the American Express Company Lever Line ; Steamers to America in Six Days . Lever Line ; the first Steamers between Ireland America Linen Manufactures of Great Britain London to British Columbia by Steam Mail Subsidies at different Ports Maritime Position of Ireland" Mauvaise Terre, or "bad lands" of America Men employed in Navigation, in Great Britain . , Money Exchanges between Ireland and America Money expended by British Emigrants yearly . . Mortality on Emigrant Sailing Ships , Ocean Postal Service, Expense of Oriental Caravan, a thing of the Past Overland California Mail Service and SECTION. 45 50 53 32, 36 38 40 39 7, 39 41, 50 28 38, 41 59 10 53 9 32,33,36,54, 58 51 8 35 28 59 14 15 25, 26, 27, 45 37 32, 33, 34, 36, 47, 58 Packet Service, Expense of, on various Routes ... 25, 26, 27, 45 Packet Stations of the Kingdom 51 Paper, small amount made in Ireland 3,4,5 INDEX, 129 Passengers (American) crossing the Atlantic annually, Passengers between London and Paris Passengers from Europe to all parts of America Patipers in Ireland and Great Britain Penny Postage, and vast increase of Correspondence Penny Postage, the impetus it gives to the Revenue Portland Harbour open the year round Postal Expenses as compared to Commerce. Postal Service, Cost and Proceeds Post Office Revenue in Ireland and Great Britain President of the United States, Letter from Railway from Halifax to British Columbia Red River valley, its beauty and fertility Revenue from different Sources Rowland Hill's system of Penny Postage 46, SECTION*. 31 55 47, 55 43 38 48 49 25, 26, 27, 45 40, 45 6,7 34 32, 36 35, 36 6 20,38, 48 Shipwrecks on the Shores of Great Britain Shipwrecks most frequent on long Voyages Shortest Sea-routes most popular Spirits and Linen Exported in Foreign vessels ... Spirit Duty in Ireland increased Stamp Duties of Ireland, as compared to Great Britain States behind others that have no Steam Commerce . Steam revolutionized the Commerce of the World Steam creates a Market Steam Commerce of Ireland - 2 ^(jth of its just proportion, Steam Traffic doubled Exports in a short time ... Steamers between Westport and Liverpool Subsidies for Mail Service at different Ports Summary of Facts and Arguments Telegraph Messages from Great Britain to all parts of America in six days ... 42 55 55 30 44 6,7 1 1 2 7,50 20 53 51 49 40 130 its d ex. SECTION. Threepenny Trans- Atlantic Postage demanded 48 " Times " Paris Correspondent respecting Trans- Atlantic Postal Service from Galway 5G Tonnage in the French coasting trade .» 28 Tonnage, Sail and Steam, of the United Kingdom ... 28 Transhipments of Foreign Goods 29 Vine flourishes in America to the parallel of 50° North, 35 Westport and Liverpool Steamers 53 UjMiJ' B R 1 T 1 A MaiAv !p O L OJ . u, ** 5 ^ M* N '^a| $ ThftJan. ffSeoMits ^&jg7 A ~ rC Si /i"^ 1... REFERENCES. (jfmericandgento cflh^jtllanh* litficgrapheil fo mOi'irnTtraiy. SJ. /r/MK&M &re Futrfa. I VLW mm Ml H