Ocean Steam Navigation and the Ocean Post Part 8

The contract was transferred in 1843 to the "Peninsular and Oriental Company," Southampton was subst.i.tuted for Falmouth, the weekly trips were changed to three per month, and the subsidy was reduced accordingly, or to 20,500 per annum. The service has been performed on these terms ever since. The Aberdeen and Shetland contract was made in 1840, at 900 per year, after a failure to run on 600, by a previous arrangement. It now continues as then made.

It is known that the first pa.s.sage across the Atlantic was made in the American steamer "Savannah," which left Savannah, Georgia, on the 25th May, 1819, and at the end of twenty-two days arrived in Liverpool, steaming only fourteen days of the time. The Savannah was only 350 tons tonnage, and had an engine of ninety horses' power. Captain Moses Rogers was her commander. The "Sirius" arrived in New-York on the 23d of April, 1838. The steamer "Great Western" next followed, in the same year. And although this was only nineteen years ago, it is instructive to notice the observations which the _London Times_ made at that day.

That journal said, March 31, 1838:

"There is really no mistake in this long-talked of project of navigating the Atlantic ocean by steam. There is no doubt of the intention to make the attempt, and to give the experiment, as such, a fair trial. The Sirius is actually getting under way for America."

On the 4th of July, 1839, the British Government entered into a contract with Samuel Cunard of Halifax for a semi-monthly mail line between Liverpool, and Halifax, and Boston, at the sum of 60,000 or $300,000 per annum. That contract inaugurated a new era in our American commerce with the old world, and gave an impulse to those international interests and those commercial amities which have bound Great Britain and the United States in the bonds of enduring friendship and mutual, neighborly dependence. Boston soon proved inadequate to the support of the entire line, and half of the steamers were sent to New-York; and thus they continue to run to this day. It is a singular fact that since that contract was made, eighteen years ago, there has never been one transatlantic steamer except those of Mr. Cunard running to or from that port. This contract was renewed with Mr. Cunard in 1850, when weekly trips were required for the greater portion of the year, and the subsidy was advanced, not in the ratio of the service, which was only doubled, but as three to one, from 60,000 to 173,340, or from $300,000 to $866,700. The experience of twelve years had demonstrated both the necessity of continuing the line, and of increasing the subsidy which the Government paid, to such a sum as would secure good steamers, regularity of trips, and efficiency of service. The Company now has nine steamers, with 18,406 tons aggregate tonnage, and 6,418 horses' power. The contract, which is to continue for twelve years, until 1862, was so altered in 1852 as to provide for a weekly service as well in winter as in summer; and it will continue in force from 1862 until twelve months after notice may be given for the discontinuance of the line. The compensation for the same is at the rate of 11_s_ 4-1/2_d_ per mile. Lord Canning's Report to Parliament in 1853, before noticed, in particularizing on this line, said:

"An additional allowance, _within certain limits_, is to be made to the contractors in the event of an increase in the rate of insurance on steam vessels, or in the freight or insurance of coals, as compared with the rates payable at the date of the contract, if proved to the satisfaction of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty."

Thus, instead of abandoning this line after an experiment of twelve years, and finding that it could never be self-supporting, the British Government wisely determined to let their policy produce its full fruits, and continued it for another similar term of years, with three times the former subsidy, for only twice the old service. (_See Collins and Cunard Lines, Sec. X._)

A contract was made in 1840 for steam to Malta, Corfu, and Alexandria, and the service was extended in 1845 to Suez, Bombay, Ceylon, Calcutta, Hong Kong, and Shanghae. It was renewed again in 1853, terminable in 1862, or after twelve months' notice, with a service between Sydney and Singapore, with the "Peninsular and Oriental Company;" and the subsidy for the whole service was increased from 199,600 or $998,000 per annum, to $1,224,000 per annum. The Company have thirty-nine vessels of 48,835 tons, and 12,850 horses' power, and run 796,637 annually, at 6_s_ 1-3/4_d_ per mile. The steamers run the whole service of 796,637 miles annually, at this low rate because much of the service is confined to the Mediterranean, as for example, their line from Southampton to Vigo, O Porto, Lisbon, Cadiz, and Gibraltar; and also that between Ma.r.s.eilles and Malta. This is but like the coasting trade at the utmost, and is not ocean navigation proper.

Before the contract was renewed the same company got for the service between Hong Kong and Ceylon, 12_s_ 7_d_ per mile, and for that between Suez and Calcutta, 1, 0_s_ 1-1/2_d_ per mile.

The contract with the "West-India Royal Mail Packet Company" was made in 1840 for a semi-monthly service to the West-Indies, Central America, and Mexico, at 240,000, and for 547,296 nautical miles per annum. The contract was renewed on the same terms in 1846, and again in 1850, when the Brazil service was added, and the subsidy increased to 270,000 or $1,350,000 per annum, for twelve years, or until 1862, and one year after notice shall have been given. The length of the routes now run by the Company is 37,000 nautical miles, with thirty-four stopping places. The West-India service of 393,432 miles, is performed at the rate of 10_s_ 10-1/2_d_ per mile, under special contract; no advertis.e.m.e.nt ever having been made for tenders. The Brazilian portion of the service embraces 153,864 miles annually. Pay per mile for the whole Royal Mail service is 9_s_ 10_d_ per mile. This Company has twenty steamers, of 29,454 tons, and 9,308 horses' power.

On the Brazil portion of the service the touches are at Lisbon, Madeira, Teneriffe, St. Vincent, Pernambuco, Bahia, Rio de Janiero, Monte Video, and Buenos Ayres. On the West-India division, St. Thomas is the central depot, after touching at the Azores. Ten branch lines radiate from St. Thomas to Antigua, Barbados, Blewfields, Carriacou, Carthagena, Aspinwall, (which they call Colon,) Demarara, Dominica, Grenada, Greytown, Gaudaloupe, Havanna, Honduras, Jacmel, Jamaica, Martinique, Porto Rico, St. Kitt's, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Santa Martha, Tampico, Tobago, Trinidad, and Vera Cruz. Lord Canning says:

"It is stipulated that if at any time, from causes recognized by the Lords of the Treasury as being of a 'distinctly public and national character,' the insurance on steam vessels shall rise above 6_l_ 6_s_ per cent., the freight of coals above 1_l_ 2_s_ 6_d_ per ton, and the insurance on coals above 2_l_ 2_s_ per cent., the Company shall receive an additional sum, to be settled by arbitration, but not to exceed 75,000_l_ a year in the whole."

The special contract for the West Coast of South-America, with the "Pacific Steam Navigation Company," for three round trips per month between Panama and Valparaiso, touching at Buenaventura, Guayaquil, Payta, Lambayeque, Huanchaco, Santa, Pisco, Islay, Arica, Iquique, Cobija, Copiapo, Huasco, and Coquimbo, was made in 1845, at 20,000, or $100,000 per annum, for five years. It was renewed in 1850 for ten years; and hence, expires in 1860, if notice may be given to that effect; the trips being only semi-monthly, and the subsidy increased to 25,000 per annum. The Company has seven steamers, of 5,719 tons, and 2,396 horses' power. (_See List of British Mail Lines, Paper B, page 193._)

The contract for running fast packets between Holyhead and Kingston, in Ireland, was made in 1848 with the "City of Dublin Steam Packet Company," for 25,000 per annum, and is terminable at twelve months'

notice after 1860. The line is run twice every day. The service to the Channel islands, from Southampton to Jersey and Guernsey, was established in 1848, at 4,000 per annum, for three trips per week.

That of the West Coast of Africa was established in 1852, at 21,250 per annum. Leaving Plymouth, the steamers touch at Madeira, Teneriffe, Goree, Bathurst, Sierra Leone, Monrovia, Cape Coast Castle, Accra, Whydah, Badagry, Lagos, Bonny, Old Calabar, Cameroon, and Fernando Po.

This contract was made with the "African Steamship Company," for a monthly service, and terminates in 1862 if twelve months' notice be given. There must be three steamers of 700 tons each, and the pay is, for 149,880 miles annually, at 2_s_ 6_d_ per mile. The contract with the "General Screw Steamshipping Company," for service semi-monthly from Plymouth to the Cape of Good Hope and Calcutta, touching on the return voyage at St. Vincent, Ascension, Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, Point de Galle, Madras, and St. Helena, for 50,000 per year, to be reduced after two years to 40,000 annually, and that to the Cape of Good Hope and Port Natal, touching at Mossel and Algoa bays, Buffalo, and Port Francis, for 3,000 per annum, with the same Company, were both made in 1852; but the service was found impracticable on the terms, and was abandoned. That from Plymouth every two months to Sydney and New South Wales, with the "Australian Royal Mail Steam Navigation Co.," for 26,000 per annum, and touching at St. Vincent, Simon's Bay, or Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope, King George Sound, Port Philip, and St. Helena, was made also in 1852; but was likewise soon abandoned, as the subsidy in each case was too small.

About this time the Chancellor of the Exchequer requested a thorough investigation into the foreign steam packet system. This was made in the most searching manner in 1853; and such was the effect that it was determined not only to sustain all of the existing lines in all of their integrity, but to extend the system and afford additional facilities to British commerce and the British people. Accordingly, a new contract was made last year, 1856, with the "European and Australian Mail Steam Packet Company" for a monthly service between Southampton, Ma.r.s.eilles, Malta, Alexandria, Suez, and Sydney, at an annual subsidy of 185,000, or $925,000. The Company has seven steamers of 13,410 tons, and 3,290 horses' power. They run 336,000 miles per annum, and receive 11_s_ per mile from the Government. It must be borne in mind, too, that when this line was established there were already two lines to the East-Indies and China, and one to Australia. This makes two to Australia, and three to the East generally.

There is also a contract, made in 1850 with Mr. Cunard, for running monthly between Halifax and Newfoundland, and Halifax, Bermuda, and New-York, as well as between New-York and Bermuda and St. Thomas.

New-York was soon dropped from the list, doubtless because the British steamers yielded us more advantage than was gained by the mother country or the Provinces, and the line is now continued, at the original compensation, 14,700, or $73,500, between Halifax and Newfoundland, and Halifax, Bermuda, and St. Thomas, connecting with the Cunard steamers. The steamers are small coasters, and run at the rate of 3_s_ per mile. Hence, they make 98,000 miles per annum.

The ocean mail steamers of Great Britain run 2,532,231 miles per year, at a total cost to the Admiralty of 1,062,797, or $5,333,985. The ocean mail steamers of the United States run 735,732 miles per year, at a total charge on the Post Office Department of $1,329,733. The British steamers run three and a half times as many miles as ours do, and receive for it a sum more than four times as large. The average price paid to their princ.i.p.al companies, as the West-India Royal Mail, the Cunard, the Australian, and the Peninsular and Oriental, including its Mediterranean coasting service, is 9_s_ 7_d_, or $2.39 per mile; while the average price paid by us, or for the Collins, Havre, Bremen, Aspinwall, and Panama, San Francisco and Oregon, is $1.80-3/4 per mile. The highest sum paid per mile by the British Government is 11_s_ 4-1/4_d_, or $2.83-1/2, to the Cunard Company, $2.75 to the Australian, and $2.46 to the West-India; and the lowest, 6_s_ 1-3/4_d_, or $1.53-1/2 to the Peninsular and Oriental, much of whose service is coasting. This is saying nothing of the Pacific and the African coasting lines. The highest sum which we pay is to the Collins line, $3.10-1/2 per mile; and the lowest to the Havre, $1.00-1/2 per mile; while the sums paid to all of the other companies range but little above the last figures. The lowest rate per mile paid to any of the lines under the contract, was to the Pacific Mail, $1.70. It must not be forgotten that the low rates per mile of the Havre and Bremen result from those lines taking the postages, since their contracts expired; a sum by no means adjusted to the service done. They had ships that they could not let lie idle. Under their regular contracts the pay per mile of the Bremen line was $2.08, and of the Havre $1.76-1/2. While the British Government pays to four of her princ.i.p.al transmarine services an average of $2.39 per mile, we pay to five of ours an average of $1.80-3/4 only, or but about two thirds as much as she does. While our total annual expenditure for foreign mails is $1,329,733, a sum by $20,267 less than that paid to the single service of the West-India Royal Mail Company, that of Great Britain is $5,333,985. And, while our total income from transmarine postages is $1,035,740, a sum but little short of that paid in subsidy, taking the present Bremen and Havre services at the estimates of last year for sea and inland postages combined, the income from the whole transmarine service of Great Britain, including ocean and inland postage, was, when the last report was made in 1853, 591,573, or $2,957,865; but little above half the sum paid in subsidy, and including the French, Belgian, and Dutch routes, where the postal yield was much greater than from the ocean lines. The estimates which I present below have been made with great care from distances and subsidies furnished me by the reliable First a.s.sistant Post Master General, Hon. Horatio King, from the last report of the late Post Master General, and from the report of the British Post Master General, Lord Canning, before noticed. Every item is consequently authentic.

AMERICAN.

----------+------+----------+----------+----------+-------+------------------ | | | | Gross | Total | Line. |Trips.|Distances.| Subsidy. | Postage. | Miles | Pay per Mile.

----------+------+----------+----------+----------+-------+------------------ Collins, | 20| 3,100| $385,000| $415,867|124,000| $3.10-1/2 Bremen, | 13| 3,700| 128,987| 128,937| 96,000| 1.34 Havre, | 13| 3,270| 88,484| 88,484| 85,020| 1.00-1/2 Aspinwall,| 24| 3,200| 290,000| 139,610|153,600| 1.88-3/4 Pacific, | 24| 4,200| 348,250| 183,238|201,600| 1.70 Havana, | 24| 669| 60,000| 6,288| 32,112| 1.86-1/2 Vera Cruz,| 24| 900| 29,062| 5,960| 43,200| .67 | | |==========|==========|=======|================== | | |$1,329,733|$1,035,740|725,732|$1.80-3/4 Average.

Total average per mile, $1.80-3/4. Average of five princ.i.p.al lines, $1.80-3/4.

BRITISH.

KEY: A: Cunard, B: Royal Mail, C: Pen. and Oriental, D: Australian, E: Bermuda and St. Thomas, F: Panama and Valparaiso, G: West Coast Africa, H: Channel Islands, I: Holyhead and Kingston, J: Liv. and Isle of Man, K: Shetland and Orkneys,

-----+------+----------+----------+------------+---------+-------------------- | | | | Gross | Total | Line.|Trips.|Distances.| Subsidy. | Postage. | Miles | Pay per Mile.

-----+------+----------+----------+------------+---------+-------------------- A | 52| 3,100| 173,340|143,667.10s| 304,000|11s 4-1/2d $2.38-1/2 B | 24| 11,402| 270,000| 106,905.00 | 547,296| 9s10 $2.46 C | 24| [F]| 244,000| 178,186.11 | 796,637| 6s 1-3/4 $1.53-1/2 D | 12| 14,000| 185,000| 33,281.12 | 336,000|11s00 $2.75 E | 24| 2,042| 14,700| | 98,000| 3s00 $0.75 F | 24| 2,718| 25,000| 5,715.00 | 130,434| 3s10 $0.96 G | 12| 6,245| 23,250| 3,196.02 | 149,880| 2s 6 $0.62-1/2 | | | | French | | | | | | Belgian, | | | | | | and Dutch | | | | | | Postage. | | H | 156| 132| | {74,430.08 | 41,184| I | 730| 64| | {36,158.09 | 93,440| J | 112| 70| | {10,032.15 | 14,560| K | 52| 200| | | 20,800| | | |==========|============|=========|==================== | | |1,062,797|591,573.07s|2,532,231| 9s 7d $2.39 -----+------+----------+----------+------------+---------+--------------------

Total Average per Mile, $2.10-1/3. Average of four princ.i.p.al lines, $2.39.

[F] The Peninsular and Oriental Company run twice per month between Southampton and Alexandria, and between Suez and Calcutta and Hong Kong; twice per month between Ma.r.s.eilles and Malta; between Singapore and Sydney every two months; and three times per month between Southampton and Gibraltar, touching at Vigo, O Porto, Lisbon, and Cadiz.

It would hardly be expected that the lines of this country should run at cheaper rates than those of Great Britain, as the prime cost of ships and their repairs, fuel, wages, insurance, etc., are much cheaper there, and as they have more paying freights, in their manufactured goods. It only explains to us, what has alway seemed a mystery; that while the regular companies in England were making money, nearly all of those in the United States not only had not made money, but were embarra.s.sed more or less, and were selling their stocks at sixty to eighty cents on the dollar.

It is pleasing and instructive to examine the steam mail service of Great Britain, and see the gradual, unfaltering progress that she has made from year to year, since 1833; increasing the mail facilities and the sums paid for them by constant accretion based on system, rather than by any spasmodic legislation, or the ruling caprices of the moment. These improvements have not come all in a ma.s.s, or in any one year. Neither have they been abandoned at times of financial embarra.s.sment, or commercial depression. At such periods they have been as regularly fostered as in the times of the most flush prosperity; and have ever been properly considered one of the prime agents and necessities for restoring commerce to its normal condition and a safe equilibrium. The transmarine service, which cost but 583,793, or $2,918,965, per annum until 1850,[G] now costs 1,062,797, or $5,333,985; within a fraction of double the sum. While the increase has not been slow, it has been steady and systematic, just as it was necessary to meet the wants of British commerce throughout the world. The language of the Hon. Senator Rusk on this subject, in his Report made to the Senate, Sep. 18th, 1850, found in Senate Ex. Doc. No. 50, 1st Session of 32d Congress, in Special Rep.

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

[G] See Second Report, Steam Communication with India, 1851. Appendix, page 419.

"The importance of the steam mail service, when considered with reference to the convenience which it affords to the social intercourse of the country, is as nothing when compared with its vast bearing upon the commerce of the world. Wherever facilities of rapid travel exist, trade will be found with its attendant wealth. Of the truth of this proposition, no country, perhaps, affords a more forcible ill.u.s.tration than Great Britain, as none has ever availed itself, to so great an extent, of the benefits of easy and rapid intercommunication between the various portions of her almost boundless empire. The commercial history of England has shown that mail facilities have uniformly gone hand in hand with the extension of trade; and wherever British subjects are found forming communities, there do we find the hand of the government busy in supplying the means of easy and safe communication with the mother country. With a view to this, we have beheld England increasing her steam marine at an enormous expense, and sustaining packet lines connecting with every quarter of the globe, even in cases where any _immediate_ and _direct_ remuneration was out of the question. The great object in view was, to draw together the portions of an empire upon which the sun never sets, and the martial airs of which encircle the globe, and to make British subjects who dwell in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and even Oceanica, all feel alike that they are Britons."

The Hon. Thomas Butler King, formerly Chairman of the Naval Committee, in a speech in the House, 19th July, 1848, said on this subject:

"In the year 1840 a contract was made by the Admiralty with the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, at two hundred and forty thousand pounds sterling, or one million two hundred thousand dollars per annum, for fourteen steamers to carry the mails from Southampton to the West-Indies, the ports of Mexico in the Gulf, and to New-Orleans, Mobile, Savannah, and Charleston. These ships are of the largest cla.s.s, and are to conform in all respects, concerning size and adaptation to the purposes of war, to the conditions prescribed in the Cunard contracts. They are to make twenty-four voyages or forty-eight trips a year, leaving and returning to Southampton semi-monthly.

"Another contract has recently been entered into, as I am informed, for two ships to run between Bermuda and New-York. The West-India line, in consequence of some disasters during the first years of its service, was relieved from touching at the ports of the United States; but in the spring of last year it was required to resume its communication with New-Orleans, and is at any time liable to be required to touch at the other ports on our coast which I have named. Thus it will be perceived that this system of mail steam-packet service is so arranged as not only to communicate with Canada and the West-Indies, the ports on the Spanish Main and the Gulf coast of Mexico, but also to touch at every important port in the United States, from Boston to New-Orleans.

"These three lines employ twenty-five steamers of the largest and most efficient description, where familiarity with our seaports and the whole extent of our coast would render them the most formidable enemies in time of war. It is scarcely possible to imagine a system more skillfully devised to bring down upon us, at any given point, and at any unexpected moment, the whole force of British power. More especially is this true with respect to our _southern_ coast, where the great number of accessible and unprotected harbors, both on the Atlantic and the Gulf, would render such incursions comparatively safe to them, and terrible to us. And when we reflect that the design of this system is, that it shall draw the means of its support from our own commerce and intercourse, we should surely have been wanting in the duty we owed to ourselves and to our country, if we had failed to adopt measures towards the establishment of such an American system of Atlantic steam navigation as would compete successfully with it."

Previous to the renewal of the several foreign mail contracts, in 1850, the Treasury ordered, 26th April, 1849, the formation of a Committee in these words: "_Ordered_, that a Select Committee be appointed to inquire into the CONTRACT PACKET SERVICE." That Committee was composed of Sir James Hogg, Mr. Cardwell, Sir Wm. Clay, Mr.

Cowper, Mr. Alderman Thompson, Mr. Fitz Roy, Mr. Hastie, Mr. Mangles, Mr. Thomas Baring, Mr. Bankes, Mr. William Brown, Mr. Childers, Mr.

Wilc.o.x, Mr. Crogan, and Mr. Henley. Mr. Elliot was added in the place of Mr. Baring. The Committee sat seventeen days, and examined fifteen witnesses under oath, many of these being commanders in the Navy, Secretaries, Presidents, and engineers of the Companies, and other eminent men in steam. Mr. Cunard was among the witnesses. After taking evidence and papers extending over about seven hundred and eighty-three octavo pages, they said in their report, after recommending that great care should be exercised in making all future contracts:

"1. That so far as the Committee are able to judge, from the evidence they have taken, it appears that the mails are conveyed at a less cost by Hired Packets than by Her Majesty's Vessels.

"2. That some of the existing Contracts have been put up to public tender, and some arranged by private negotiation; and that a very large sum beyond what is received from postage is paid on some of the lines; but considering that at the time these contracts were arranged the success of these large undertakings was uncertain, Your Committee see no reason to think that better terms could have been obtained for the public."

This investigation was made to enable the Government to proceed intelligently with the many contracts which were to expire in 1850; and its immediate consequence was, not only the renewal of all the old contracts with the same parties at the same or larger pay, but the establishment of several new services.

The British system had operated to the very highest satisfaction of the public and the Government for twenty years, until 1853, as it has done ever since; but at that time it was put to a second and very severe test. It had been suggested, probably by the Lords of the Admiralty, who had to pay the bills from the Naval fund, that the packet system was too costly, and should be remodelled, and perhaps reduced. Complaint was thus made to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who, in a Treasury Minute, dated March 1, 1853, says:

"Important as it is to secure rapid and certain communication with the remote dependencies of this country, and with other distant states, for national purposes, it is doubtless, under all common circ.u.mstances, from commercial considerations that such facility of correspondence derives its highest value."

"Her Majesty's Government conceive the time to have arrived when the entire charge of the packet service should be deliberately examined and reviewed, with joint reference to the questions--how far the purposes with which the present system was begun have been accomplished--how far the total amount of service rendered to the State is adequate to the total annual expense--how far there may be cause for a more than commonly jealous and scrupulous consideration of such further schemes of extension of the system as particular interests or parties may press, or even such as public objects may recommend from time to time; lastly, how far, on account of the early period at which certain of the contracts are terminable, or on account of requisitions put in by the contractors themselves for the modification of the terms, or for any other reason, it may be prudent to entertain the question of any revision of those terms, or of laying down any prospective rules with regard to them; such only, of course, as may comport with the equitable as well as the legal rights of the parties, and may avoid any disappointment to the just expectations of those cla.s.ses who may have felt a peculiar interest in the establishment and extension of these great lines of communication."

After remarking that some of the vessels of some few Companies were unfit for purposes of war, the "Minute of the Treasury," in instructing the Committee, further says:

"At the same time, it is not to be conceived that, on account of this failure in a portion of the design, the country has cause to regret having paid a larger price than was intended to be paid simply for the establishment of these n.o.ble chains of communication, which well nigh embrace the world. The organization of a complete postal system upon the ocean, with absolute fixity of departures, and a general approach to certainty in arrivals, was a great problem, of high interest and benefit, not to England only, but to all civilized countries; and this problem may now be said to have been solved by England, for the advantage of mankind at large. It was to all appearance altogether beyond the reach of merely commercial enterprise; and if the price paid has been high, the object has been worthy, and the success for all essential purposes complete."

As a consequence of this "Minute," the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury appointed a Committee, consisting of Viscount Canning, Post Master General of Great Britain, as President; Hon. Wm.

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

Northcote, Bart.; and Mr. R. Madox Bromley, Secretary to the Board of Audit. The Committee organized, examined the Evidence and Report of the Committee of 1849, also the three large volumes of Evidence and Report taken by the Committee in 1851 on "Steam Communication with India and Australia," and the many elaborate doc.u.ments of this cla.s.s published by the Admiralty. After discussing thoroughly all of the political, financial, commercial, ethical, and social questions connected with rapid steam mail communication, they made an elaborate and detailed examination of all the contracts existing with the Government, and of the affairs of the various companies, with a view to deciding whether the ocean mail service should be abridged, or continued, or extended. They reported to both Houses of Parliament, July 8th, 1853. The conclusion of the Committee was, not only that the present service was demanded by every interest of the country and should be sustained, but that it should be judiciously extended, so as to meet all of the wants of the British public of whatever cla.s.s. As elsewhere remarked, the new line established last year to Australia and India, at a cost of $925,000 per annum, for seven years, was a legitimate result of that test and that report, made in the most searching manner by the very ablest men of the kingdom; and this, notwithstanding the reports purposely circulated in this country every few years that Great Britain intends abandoning her steam mail system.

She will abandon that system, as her practice plainly indicates, only when her people shall have discovered some means of making and preserving wealth without effort, enterprise, commerce, or manufactures. (_See page 99, Mr. Atherton's Reply._) The Report says:

"Before the application of steam to the propulsion of ships, the contracts were often made for short periods, the Government being able to find, among the vessels already employed in trade, some of speed sufficient for the purpose; but when it became requisite to dispatch the mails by steam, the ordinary supply of trading vessels would no longer suffice, and the Government had to call into existence a new cla.s.s of packets.

"The postal service between England and the adjacent sh.o.r.es of Ireland, France, and Belgium, was at first performed by steam packets belonging to the Crown; but for the longer voyages it was thought better to induce commercial companies to build steamers; and with that view the contracts were at first made for periods which, unless previously terminated by failure to fulfill their engagements, would secure to the company the full benefit of their original outlay, by continuing the employment of their vessels until they might be expected to require extensive repairs, or to become unfit for continued service. In 1837 steam communication was created with Portugal and Gibraltar; in 1840 with Egypt, with the West-Indies, and with North-America.