The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-18 00:00:00

EVENING EDITION.

STEAM COMMUNICATION.

The subject of steam communication, and the
glaring defects of the present limited scale on which
it is conducted in India, are exciting daily more at-
tention in that country, and the result promises to be
that the improvements neglected or refused by the
authorities here will be taken in hand by individual
enterprise. A great meeting was held in Calcutta
early in October, called by a requisition having 725
signatures attached, to take into consideration the
whole question of steam communication as it exists
and as it ought to be carried on, at which a petition
was, after some discussion, resolved upon to the Pre-
sident of the Council and Deputy-Governor, which
i contains a remarkable exposure of the grievances to
which Calcutta has been subjected under the pre-
sent system more peculiarly, although other parts
of India, with Bombay itself, have suffered more
for less from the same causes. Some of the
cases cited have been more or less alluded to under
MI this head on various occasions, but a recapitulation
of the leading particulars, with other facts not be-
fore so well known, may be adverted to, as embodied
in the petition itself, from which the utter inade-
quacy of the steam accommodation at Bombay may
be safely inferred. Thus, on the sth of May
last, the steamer Hugh Lindsay, with the overland
mails of the 16th of April, had to put back ; they
were subsequently forwarded by the Berenice,
37 days after the last date advertised for letters
leaving Calcutta. On the Ist of August the Zeno-
bia steamer left Bombay without the Calcutta mail
of the 17th of July, which was the date notified for
its transmission to Bombay. The letters were then
sent by the Berenice, which did not leave until the
13th of September, that is-58 days after the
latest date of letters from Calcutta. The same
steamer left Bombay without the Calcutta mails
of the 26th and 27th of August, although
' those dates were advertised by the Postmaster-
General of Calcutta as being in time. They did
not, therefore, leave Bombay until October, or
upwards of 40 days after the date of the letters in
~ 3,073 covers" from Calcutta. These were the
outgoing failures or blunders only of the present
defective system, as complained of ; but the incom-
ing despatch was not less irregular or inconvenient.
The mail from England by the Red Sea was landed
at Bombay on the 20th of March, but was not all
delivered in Calcutta until the 4th of April, or 15
days after reaching Bombay. The mail which got
to Bombay on the sth of May was not delivered in
Calcutta in less than 16 days afterwards. The
mail of the 21 st of June was not received in Cal-
cutta before the expiration of 17 days, that of
the 27th of June not until 18 days afterwards ; the
receipt of that of the 27th of July was not com-
pleted in less than 21 days, and that of the Gzh of
September until 26 days at Calcutta after its arrival
at Bombay. These mishaps occurred in the present
year, but various others similar were detailed of
1637 and 1838, of which one instance may suffice
as an example of all. In June, IS3S, a notice was
issued at Bombay that the Atalanta would leave
on the 3d of July for the Persian Gulf. The
Calcutta mail for this opportunity reached Bombay
on the 29_h of June, four days before the adver-
tised time. The mail was detained nevertheless
until the departure of the Berenice, on the 12th
of September, or 89 days after its despatch
from Calcutta. The covers on this occasion,
amounting to 2,666, did not reach London till
135 days after leaving Calcutta, a length of
time equal to the whole of a slow voyage by sea.
Such and several more proofs of mismanagement
and casualties susceptible of easy prevention are
embodied in the petition, and constitute a formi-
dable catalogue of grievances more particularly '
affecting the presidencies of Calcutta and Madras,
although Bombay itself is but indifferently served
by the inefficiency of the present means of steam
conveyance.

In conclusion, the community of Calcutta express
their opinion, and advert to the recognition of V.s
correctness in certain declarations of the Lords of
the Treasury and the Board of Control, that nothiAg
short of a direct communication by steam can be: of
advantage, or remedy the evils complained of ;
xto-
thing more was required for the accomplishment of
this object than " steam-vessels of a power land
capacity which should insure their mahing a. Jeer-
tam and speedy voyage between Bombay atnd
Aden ; between Calcutta, Madras, Point de
Galle, and Aden ; and between Aden and
Suez, at all seasons of the year." It is ob-
served that " such steam-vessels, the property of
private companies, now traverse the Atlantic, lie-
:
tween Great Britain and the United States, win-
ter and summer, with a speed and regularity which
leave nothing to be desired ;" and it is urged upon
the President of the Council to make such repre-
sentations on the subject, on the part of the Su-
preme Government of India, as should induce the
Court of Directors to " close with the proposition"
submitted to them and approved by the Govern-
ment at home, by " Mr. T. A. Curtis, of London,
on behalf of a Joint-stock Company," which is
under " pledges, and pledges to be prescribed by
Parliament, prepared " to carry out the views thus
explained.

In the course of the meeting it was poposed to
raise a subscription at once, and build one steam-
vessel, which might be done for 60,0001., and so
prove the merits and the profit of steam navigation
direct without reference to the tardy action of the
authorities at home. And this, it was contended,
might be effected without damage to the " compre-
hensive scheme " advocated in the petition.—
Times.

FUTURE CAPACITY OF THE

STATE OF NEW YORK.

(From a Letter on the Commercial Relations of Great
Britain with the United States. By a Citizen of New
Yo r k . )

All that remains unpaid of the original loans is in-
cluded in the first-named sum of ten millions and a
quarter, forming a part of the forty-three millions, and
i is fully provided for by the Canal Fund now in the
Treasury, or safely invested awaiting the maturity of
the debt, when it will be applied to its discharge. As I
cannot here have access to documents, and write alto-
gether from recollection, I may not be exact, but I
believe this portion to be about five millions, or half the
present liabilities of the State. But whatever be its
amount, it is provided for without resort to either new
loans or taxation. If the additional debt be ever created,
the money raised will not, as such loans too frequently
are, be wasted in unproductive wars, but will be ex-
pended on new canals and railroads, or employed in en-
larging the Erie Canal ; the great thoroughfare of the
State, and the outlet of the west—the channel through
which flows to the Atlantic markets the surplus pro-
ducts of the labour of more than six millions of people,
possessing the largest and richest portion of our ter-
ritory, and probably the most fertile region of the same
extent in the world. The capacity of this already
great work will be increased fourfold, and the revenue
in even a greater proportion. Every dollar borrowed
and expended instead of increasing the burthens of the
State, if not immediately, will ere long contribute to
swell the receipts of the treasury ; and if a deficit exist
' at all, it will be but for a short period, and must soon
disappear before the rapid accumulations which the new
energies infused into trade by such expenditures have
heretofore always caused. That taxation will ever be
necessary no one acquainted with the actual resources
of the State can be made to believe. But if it should
be,
and to the whole amount of the assumed debt, a few facts will show how different even in that ease
1"
would be its real operat. f-rom that stated in the
article under examination.
The State of New York is now estimated to contain
three millions of inhabitants, and twenty-one dollars
per head, man, woman, and child, would give sixty-
three millions. Here then would be a surplus of some
twenty
millions, without taking into account the Canal
Fund already mentioned, and some minor means of pay-
ment. What may be the value of the taxable property
in the entire estate I am unable to say, but that of the
city of New York alone was within the last year at the
assessed rates, (always below the real value,) about
three hundred millions of dollars. The
City has gene.
nerally numbered one-tenth of' the inhabitants of the
State, and although it is not pretended that wealth is in
the same proportion, the fact may yet enable us to form
some estimate of what a tax of eight per cent. upon
the vast aggregate would produce, and serve also to
guide us in our judgment of the value of statements
put forth with so little regard to accuracy, and of con-
clusions drawn from assumed facts contradicted by all
previous experience.
To enable the British public to form an opinion for
themselves of the security in property which the State
of New York offers to her creditors, I will add, that
she is the absolute owner of nearly seven hundred miles
of finished canals in full and successful operation ; thg
gross revenue of one of wilier), about halt the length of
the whole, at the present very reduced rates of tolls, exceeds a million and a hair per annum,—that she has '
mortgages for loans made to private companies to aid in
constructing canals and railroads for nearly five mil-
lions,—that her bait springs would be a cheap purchase
at ten millions of dollars,—that she has her Canal .
Fund in cash, and safe investments to half the amount 1

of her existing debt, (itself but about ten millions,)—
that she has lands and other property to a large amount,
with an unlimited power of taxation •ver countless
millions ; and better than all else, the whole is guarded
and secured in its just application, by a faith that has
never faltered, and until now has never been suspec ed.