The Sun.
London, England, 1852-05-19 00:00:00

SEA-BORNE MAILS.

When the new oc_an mail contracts into which the
Government has recently entered come into opera-
tion, the whole cost to the nation for conveying
its sea-borne correspondence will amount to nearly
a million sterling per annum. The ocean mail
packet lines served by this country will then be
about 60,000 miles in length; and the number of miles
which the British mail packets will traverse annually
will be nearly 2,500,000 miles. The number of letters
which these packets will carry in the course of a year,
at the present postal packet rates, will be about thirty
millions.
The relative importance of different parts of the world
with this country may be estimated by the frequency of
the mail packet communication with them. Thus, the
communication with France will be twice daily ; with
Belgium, once daily ; with Holland and Hamburgb,
twice weekly ; with America, weekly ; with the East
Indies and the Peninsula, three times monthly ; with
the Cape of Good Hope, five times every two months ;
with the West Indies, China, the west coast of Africa,
Central America, Chili, Peru, and the Spanish Main,
twice monthly ; and with Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and
Buenos Ayres, monthly.
The principal steam-packet companies who have con-
tracts with the Government are: the Pacific, the British
and American, the West India, and the Peninsular and
Oriental Companies.
The Pacific Steam Navigation Company has hitherto
confined its operations to the south-western coast of
America, between Panama and Valparaiso. It will most
probably extend its enterprise to California, and mate-
rially assist in the navigation of the pacific Ocean, and
in establishing a western communication wlth Australia.
The British and American Seam Packet Company is
distinguished for the success with which it has navi-
gated the North Atlantic Ocean. • It has been in ad-
vance of all the other steam-packet companies, as far as
the perfection of its vessels is concerned; and in taking
immediate advantage of every discovery in the improve-
ment of steamers. Its ship-building career has been
ono continued triumph, each_ of its packets having sur-
passed its predecessor in magnitude and speed. The
operations of this company have consisted &most ex-
clusively in running packets between England and the
United States, and British North America. W hen
California was discovered, it was expected that the
.Britiale and American Company would have extended
vs enterprise southward from Nev York, in order to
share the immense traffic that would arise on that route.
It has not, however, seen fit to du so, and has allowed
the American people to monopolise the whole of the
sea traffic between New York and San Francisco.

Tae Royal West India Mail Packet Company differs
from all other companies in having commenced its exis-
tence as a great company, ddin undertaking. at the
outset of its career a vast tan
packet scheme. It has
tbseenanmormeaugnnflofirctuaantatoecetehaannlaalill
the other companies put :I'
this
some company,
great
Slates, discovery. in
ieandititegfiether, having lost, in the
somaeet of steamers, the space of 10 years,
de-
struction of which has causedthe most terrible
0 history
first
m aoi
lf
and heartrending calamities recorded in
ocean navigatiar. It is singular that frinemththe
there would
packet scheme, projected by
seem to have been anticipated
the Pacific in connexion with the ISuited
comprehended a communication between the elute
Gulf and Nsw York. It is curious to observe, also, the
changes which this company s mail route scheme has
undergone. In the first instance, of so little importance
were the North and South American ports in the
Pacific considered, that Chagres was never visited until
the northern Antilles had been served, and then only
by a branch steamer, once a month, from Jamaica.
As for Grey Town, it was not even mentioned in
their scheme. Now, however, there is a direct com-
munication between England, and Chagres, and
Grey Town, 0803 every fourteen days. The great policy
of the Royal Mail Company, at prelneat, is to prevent
the riches and traffic, originating on the eastern shores
of the Pacific, from passing to this country by way of
Nave York; and to draw it to England, by a direct
north-easterly course, from tho la.hmns of Panama.
To accomplish this gigantic steamers are running
between St. Thomas and their home station; the num-
ber of inter-colonial packets of the company is to be
augmented, and its trade with Mex;cO to ba partially
sacrificed.
_ Tao Peninsular and Oriental Company was the most
inetl:dfeiteas facilitiesfoorftrade
and
insignificant of all the packet companies, and has become
the greatest of any. It first posses ed, as a ford n
Packet company, taco or three steamers only, whigola
emplaned in coasting in the Bay of Biscay.
and it note possesses a fleet of which a nation might
'2 proud. its fleet will consist of
acre.a.raaaot _
()steam:ors, which will cover a sea and
naitai;'a-isilisncool3;ll4:,3s:,niay.oofewmilmosolltihns length. The operations
be interfer have been spreading eastward with
with Australis, i'
reeati-vv,li ity. The company has now secured the
Prinaiaal t
tohf the eastern world, which will scarcely
and most , even when a western communication
ocean to crose
poptilosnestablished. Trading with the richest
, have on the glebe, with no great
the
weal, made the Peninsular and Oriental
The mail ate;,,z;till.e:vki:vator
thiest and most fortunate steam-
Company
packet company i,
etfincial tracesatefutB
serviceld. of this country is one
, and will leave more last-
loaf g i
andts e r
bo.
most us greatness than any menu-
celebrated nations of anti-
msnt exiating p f
its
vecitil4!-ltsb;efeoxrtebnyded over the world; and the fame
of England will rest on commercevibajaand not on conquest.
I,lw that if a uniform foreign
in amount, prepaid by
scam
voT:hPrle;rea cant
comesbu 9ffip
el c'iu
dea c e o f th i s Present caargcs the
p a
were substituted for the
of letters a year
tboaatitlyr:onebraeaesderefdrommditiboiusEt,y
vr&iiitihtioGuntesontry would pro-
gig:l:ince of the intro-
I a c )13
' million; a n
a f
ea wdd3Fears
et correspondenceianaal
hcoauventry
ex-
pense to the Goverlat.
of
firatthiohn
boofntnhteryaeiniannariepaosesdtagfreomthe9o
and even if it. had,an inn;
letters a
year to 400 millionistet.
conveyance withoutofincrease
the
"u" such since,
commercethe p
bby hadpbs
tnoteag could
ermassefase in
would the
havell beezrisotfed letters;fo r
its
assistance of railroads. Thus the cause
affirded facilities for its existence.
.In like manner the
extension of railway and steam navigation all over the
woili increases foreign trade and international inter-
course, and this extension would cause a vast addition
of our foreign correspondence, and would afford the
rcquisite facilities for its conveyance and existence.
It is the peculiar privilege of England to be the ocean
mail carriers for almost the whole world. Her mail
packet system extends, in Europe and Africa, from