The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-02 00:00:00

THE MILITIA..

Eight more regiments of ntilitia are about to be em-
bodied for permanent duty.
On Monday a presentation of colours from the ladies
of Somerset was made by Lady Paulett, on the Hoe, to
the First Somerset Regiment of Militia, now quartered
in the Citadel, Plymouth, and commanded by Viscount
Hinton, her ladyship's son.

The remains of Quartermaster Moore, 3d battalion
Royal Artillery, were interred in St. Thomas's church-
yard, Woolwich, yesterday, with military honours.

THE ARMY IN THE EAST.—Yesterday, a very inte
resting lecture was delivered at the Polytechnic Institu-
tion, Regent-street, on a new hospital tent designed for
the army engaged in the present war, and for other
general purposes. The lecture, which way delivered by
Mr. Johns, was attended by a large number of military
and other gentlemen.
MASTER BAKERS' PENSION SOCIETY.--Last night the
22d anniversary of this society was celebrated by a din-
ner at the Freemasons' Tavern, which Was very nume-
rously attended; Mr. Podger, of the firm of Kidd and
Podger, millers, Isleworth, presided, and was supported
by most of the eminent millers and master bakers of the
metropolis and its vicinity.
GENERAL DOMESTIC SERVANTS' BENEVOLENT INSTITII.
TION.—N esterday afternoon a meeting of the Governors
and Committee of Management of the above institution
was held at their offices, in Sackville-street,
The annual report was highly gratulatory. Her Majesty
and Prince Albert had become patrons, and the institu-
tion now numbers upwards of 7,000 members, and has
a permanent invested fund of several thousand pounds.
Twenty-four pensioners are now receiving relief from its
funds ; nineteen having 15/., and five 201. per annum.
Temporary assistance has also been given in a number of
cases of urgent distress. The qualification of member-
ship to this excellent institution, as a resource in old age
and infirmities, is the annual payment of the small BUM
of from Zs. to 10s,, according to age,

" TO TIE AIGHT RON. THE POIITMASI'ER-GENERAL.
" My Lord,---The arduous contest with Russia in which
this country is engaged has for the last few months in-
duced the committee of this association to abstain from
pressing the iruprovement of Australian postal communi-
cation on iter Majesty's Government ; though silent, they
have, he,wever, not, censnd to lament that the executive,
distmcted by exterior events, was unable to devote its
attention to the organisation of postal arrangements more
in unison with the material interests of the, empire and, of
Australia. Influenced by the nature of the advices re-
cently received from the colonies, the committee now feel
it their duty to express to you, the views of the colonists ;
and at the same tithe they desire to point out to you how,
in their judgment, the postal* grievances complained of
may to some extent be remedied, without prejudice to the
present demands of. the public service. '
" The committee will premise their plaserrvations by
freely admitting that, since your lOrdship's accession to
office, several improvements have been effected in the tran-
sit of Austrian letters, amongst which they willingly
class the abolition, at the commencement' f this year, of
the sailing-packet system, which had totally disorganised
the correspondence of the colonies, as also the recent reduc-

tion in the rates of colonial postage. Much, however, re,
mains yet to be done ; for the- service, as at present con-
ducted, must be viewed by every unprejudiced person to
be far inferior to that on all other existing steam routes,
and especially as far as regards the Cape line, to be essen-
tially deficient in the two main attributes of postal transit
speed and regulatity.
" Recent letters received by the committee describe the
-colonists as not only dissatisfied, but highly irritated at
the results of the existing mail system ; and some indivi-
dual; it appears; had even gone the length of, discussing
the possibility of obtaining, through America, postal facili-
ties so lance sought in vain at the• hands of the mother
country. 'One of the latest newspapers asserts, that the
question of steam communication had long constituted a
rankling sore' throughout the Australian colonies. The
journal using this very strong expression is the well-known
leading paper of the southern hemisphere—the ably-con-
ducted Melbourne Argus, a copy of which, under date 21st
July last, accompanies this letter for your lordship's pe-
rusal. The writer asserts facts, many of which admit of
no denial. He states that the communication is infrequent
and slowly performed ' • that while even China, which im-
ports of British manufactures but 2,000,000%, enjoys a fort-
nightly steam communication at a speed of ten miles per
hour, Victoria, which imports the astonishing quantity of
20,000,0001. of goods, is consigned to a slow, irregular,
and ill-organised monthly mail service,
of which the fol-
lowing are the distinguishing features :--
" 1. That the transit of the mails from England to
Melbourne, by the overland Indian route, now occupies
on an average 70 days and a half, being conveyed at the
rate of six miles per hour, whereas, if forwarded at the
same speed as letters are carried on the India and China
line, viz., at ten miles per hour, they would easily reach
Melbourne in 45 days.
" 2. That the line via the Cape of Good Hope is for
postal purposes a nullity—the average passage having been
proved to be 81 days.
" 3. That this last-mentioned line is highly irregular;
a circumstance not only proved by the passages, but strik-
ingly exemplified by the fact, that in July last, the home.-
ward steamers of both lines, instead of sailing each a month
apart, both started within two days of each ether—the
Indian steamer sailing as usual on her appointed day, the
other vessel nearly a rponth after.

" 4. That under these circumstances Australia may be
said to possess virtually only one " effective and reliable"
mail communication with England, once every alternate
month, rid India.'
" Such is the tone assumed by the public journals ; nor
are the remarks of private individuals less stringent. Con.
trasting the policy of America to her gold states with that
of England towards her gold colonies, with bitterness of
feeling the Australians observe, that California had barely
been taken possession of when the United States brought
her within 24 days' sail of New York, by organising, at
the public cost, a steam line, with an average speed of 11
knots, from the shores of America to Panama, and thence
to San Francisco, a distance of upwards of 6,000 miles.
The Australian gold fields, they say, have, however, now
been discovered four years. In wealth, in their influence
on commerce and civilisation, they have far out-stripped
California ; yet not even ordinary exertions have been
made by England to approximate herself by steam to these
—these most valuable colonies she ever yet possessed.
They assert that she sails her fast mail steamers once a
fortnight to India, to America, to the West Indies, to the
Brazils, and even to China—in short, to every quarter of
the globe—butthat Australia is forgotten. Last year, the
colonial postages amounted to a sum more than sufficient to
cover the expense of the most approved steam line, yet the
proeeedg were appropriated to generalßritish revenue,while
the mails were conveyed chiefly by cheap, but tardy, sail-
ing vessels. This year a steam transit, as slow as it is
irregular, as unsatisfactory as it is unworthy the policy, of
a great commercial country, dissevors Australia from Eng-
land. The colonists ask each other the grounds of this
treatment, which they term ' unmerited contempt and
neglect.' Referring also to a solemn promise, given eight
years ago for the establishment of a regular monthly steam
line, they allege that the present steam transit not only
involves a breach of that promise, but is in itself a signal
instance of Imperial mismanagement of their affairs.
" If, my lord, these allegations are in part only well
founded, is it matter of surprise the Australian journalists
should term the steam question a rankling sere?' Is it
to be wondered at that the colonists should look te• foreign
countries for assistance, and assert that they are treated
with ' neglect and contempt ?' The committee, on their
part, have felt they would not be discharging their duty,
if, under the influenco of false delicacy, they concealed
from you the sentiments of their Australian fellow-citi-
zens ; they have, therefore, candidly expressed to you what
has been stated to them in the hope that you would your-
self inquire into the facts of the case, and thus be enabled
to see that the grievances complained of demand early re-
dress. How this, in their judgment, may for the present
be best afforded they now proceed to detail to you.

" By the printed documents enumerated in the margin
and accompanying this letter, you will perceive how con
tinned have been the efforts of the committee to induce her
Majesty's Government to concede to Australia the same
postal facilities extended to every other dependency of the
Crown. These facilities may row shortly be summed up
as follows, viz.:—
" 1. The establishment of the same semi-monthly postal
communication already conceded to other comparatively
unimportant parts of the empire.
" 2. The introduction into the service of that regularity,
the entire absence of which is now so justly complained of.
"3. The acceleration of the present speed of the mail-
steamers from eight and a half nautical miles to the usual
contract rate of ten knots per hour.
"4. The adoption of a direct course, and the abandon-
ment of those unnecessary deviations which so much pro-
tract the arrival of the mails at their destinations.
"The printed papers referred to attest that the equity
of these claims has been fully admitted by the country ;
that their validity has been affirmed by the press, by influ-
ential public meetings, and by the leading commercial
towns of this country. It is not, however, the desire of
the body I represent to press you to make concessions
at a moment when we feel that our doing so might, by
diminishing the steam-power of the nation, in any way
militate against the prosecution of that righteous war
England has engaged in. Deeply sympathising with the
mother country in efforts to repel the barbarism of the
north, Australia is too patriotic not freely to bring
her quota of sacrifice to the national cause, and she
waives for the present what is most important and most
dear to her—her right to frequent communication with the
parent state. We do not, therefore, ask you to establish
at present, what the commerce, the wealth, and the postal
revenue of Australia entitles her to—a semi-monthly com-
munication—but we entreat you to improve, so far as you
can, our present steam line, and to commence by snaking
it regular.
" This, in our opinion, can only be done by discontinu-
ing to forward the mails via the Cape of Good Hope. That
lino, in the hands of the enterprising company who conduct
it, is not without its merits, and we by no means advocate
its suppression. It is adapted for passengers, and may be
fitting for they conveyance of the heavier portions of the
mails—always unusually heavy ; but being devoid of regu-
larity, it has proved itself unsuited for the general pur-
poses of correspondence, and it is in this respect, as the
colonists justly term it, a nullity. To establish an effec-
tive and reliable' monthly communication, we respectfully
suggest that the mails bo despatched monthly, instead of
lA-monthly, via India ; and if you ask us where ships are
now to be found without prejudice to the public for this
service, we reply that the relative imports of China and
Victoria, referred to by the Melbourne journalists, point
at once to the source whence steam power may be taken
without detriment to the country.
" China, importing not quite 2,000,0001. of British goods,
has a fortnightly communication, although a monthly line
would be ample for the wants of her trade. We segg,
therefore, that the China semi-monthly line be made a
monthly one, and that the ships thus set free be employed
in giving a regular monthly communication to colonies,
which, by the paper herewith enclosed, you will see im-
ported last year, from England alone, goods of the astonish-
ing value of 14,506,532/.
" From the paper we refer to, it appears that the export
of British manufacture to Australia exceeded last year
our average exports to the United-States by 1,500,000/. ;
that it more than doubled our exports to India and Ger-
many ; that it was six times greater than our exports to
France and the West Indies ; and seven times in excess of
our exports to China. To your lordship, as a statesman,
these facts will be more convincing than any arguments
we could use ; they will prove to you that Australia is
now the best market for English produce, and that a
grave responsibility must attach to permitting such
colonies to continue in that state of isolation from England
to which they aro now consigned- We therefore respect-
fully suggest, that unless you should find that better ar-
rangements can bo effected, the snail ships employed in
the China fortnightly line be for the present transferred to
the Australian service. That this can take place with ad-
vantage to the interests of the empire is abundantly proved
by the relative value of the British imports of the two
countries concerned. The distances, on the other hand, of
the two lines—viz., between Galle and Melbourne and be-
tween Calcutta and Hong Kong, being not dissimilar, it is
assumed that the same number of ships which perform the
one voyage, will also be able to effect the other.
" Last, but not least, we would urge you respectfully
but earnestly to accelerate the speed of the Judo-Australian
steamers from 8 to 10 knots per hour. In an age when emi-
nent engineers and shipbuilders come before a committee of
the House of Commons (Holyhead and Kingston, 1853), and
talk of 23 miles per hour as a speed easily attainable, it is
but little to ask that, on what is virtually the most im-
portant steam lino of the country, the usual contract this
of 10 miles per hour should be maintained. That this
speed was not originally stipulated for is one out of many
practical proofs how little attention previous administra-
tions have devoted to Australian affairs. We find, how-
ever, that although an error has been committed in this
respect, you have the power to rectify the mistake, for we
are informed that, under the contract with the Peninsular
and Oriental Company, it is competent for you at any time
to direct that association to increase the speed of their yes.