The Express.
London, England, 1849-03-07 00:00:00

wttisb it is imattuany fay lb. toptais N kniith.—Lards'
report, 8,561 NSAM.
For these we aid IL pr tnn to Mr. MINTURN%
estimate, aa that the American ship stands at 161.
per tan.

We tarn now to the evidence of Mr. MoltZT
WlGlLtit, one of onr largest skip-owners. He says :
Of coarse the Mt of • skip will &pod very meek upon
the time, the eireasesteoess radar which It is built, and
therefore it will very iron about 221. 10s. to 251. we any
take ar averap of 24!. I mean equipped mad ready for esa
es a first elms twelve yeen' 2nd Report,
6017.

Bo far, therefore, it appears that' the English ship
*oda W. pir ton more than the American.
But as the Amercan ship would only be classed
10 years A 1 at Lloyd's, and a pound is estimated as
the difference in value for each year, we must add
V. per ton to the American ship that, we may com-
pare it on opal roofing with the English. lheir
respective prices would then stand:

Amnion LIT per tan.
English. £24 per ton.

Minna against the English £7 per tea.
•
T.
An. true that Mr. Wst. TtIDALe, another of our
largest first-glass shipowners, and owning himself
some four or five and twen vessels, gives about 191.
ty_
per ton as the cost of our best ships. Mr. BRIGGS
(p. 377) values a 12 years' ship, Sunderland-built
(and there are none better), at 181. Mr. Yours o gives
the cost of a ship of his built at Whitehaven at
211 17a. (p. 488), and she belonged to a new order, I
being set down as a 13 yeas?' ship. And Captain
BRIGGS, an American, exansmed before the Com-
mons, rap the present cost of building a ship in the
United btates is 201. per ton, and she would only
stand 10 years A 1.
We, however, pan by these little differences of
opinion, and take the statements respectively of
Messrs. WIGRANI and MINIVAN, Making the English
abip dearer by 71. a ton than the American.
Mr. ?Litman says (third rep. Lords, 8,898) :
The .sly item is ship-building which, to my knowledge,
is cheaper is America than England, is wood ; and, this lon
ships boa is Now 'York, has is bear heavy transportation,
much of the timber bring brought by sea from Virginia and
Florida, and the plank from Lake Erie, a distance of 600
77is tress is imported from England, mod pays a cliO.of
305., besides the expense of importation. The sheathing
copper/tows from England. The copper from which the bolts
are manufactured pays a duty of ph: per Cent. CePPer
highm. Man sn England. sails ors alnfost en-
tirely/mess England.
. .

On this point Capt. Balsas states :
That the vessels engaged in the trade between thiseonntry
and the United States get all their sails from bore ; seldom
or never are well made in the United States, and there is a
dui on naval of 23 per cent. ad valorem. Canvas and
cor are fully 10 per mat. dearer in the United States
than a England, and the wood is nearly es expensive.
"And," says Mr. MINTURN. "wages are nearly
do v 146." At length, therefore, we are out of our diffi-
culty. The mystery of cheap ship building is cleared
up before us. It is only needful to ship in London or
Liverpool the iron, copper, cordage, chains, and sails,
and as there is not much difference in the voyages to
New York from England, and to New York from
Virginia and Florida, and as English oak is besides
the best, and will gain the ship two years more on
the first letter (us well as other advantages), it may
to as well to ship the timber too, and the needful
number of alights and riggers and all other crafts-
men.

There remains only to cress the Atlantic, le pay 30
per cent. on the iron, 5 per cent. on the copper bolts,
•'25 per cent. on the canvas, 23 per cent. on doll'''. and
cables, double the wages of all the workmen, and, if
there be truth in evidence, such is the magic of the
doubled wages of New York, that you'll sail your
first class craft away at 71. per ton less oast than if
you had built her in the Humber, Thames, or Mersey,
or anywhere in merry England, though it be the
world's warehouse and workshop of all the raw mate
rials for building ships.