The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-06 00:00:00

FRENCH MAILS BY BOULOGNE

AND CALAIS.

The projected removal of the night mail between
London and Paris to the route via Calais, and the delay
that will consequently ensue in the delivery at Paris of
all letters posted at London between 10 A.N. and 6 P.M.,
that is, of nine-tenths of all the letters between the
capitals, has excited so much comment in mercantile
circles, that we believe our readers will be glad to have
the question put before them as it stands at present.
Up till January, 1847 there was only one post a day
between France and England, and the dispatches, leav-
ing each capital in the evening to arrive the morning
after the next, took the longer route via Calais. The
steamers of the French Post-office took the bags from
Calais to Dover, and returned empty; those of the Eng-
lish Post-office from Dover to Calais, and also returned
empty. Enough time was left at Dover and Calais for
the mail steamers to vary their departures with the tide;
and the use of boats for landing or shipping the bags at
low water was ever hardly necessary.
This arrangement was easy enough for the two Go-
vernments; but the post was so long in its transit, that
private expresses, by the shorter route through Bou-
logne, regularly anticipated it every day; and at last the
general outcry against it was so loud that a new postal
treaty, to come into operation on the Ist of January, 1848,
was signed in December, 1847.
. .

By this treaty it was stipulated that there should be
two posts a day between London and Paris, instead of
one ; a day mail through Calais, and a quick night mail
leaving each capital. to arrive early the next morning
by the more expedious route through Boulogne. The
packets of the French Post-office undertook to convey
the mails between Dover and Calais; those of the Eng-
lish Post• office, from their greater power and efficiency,
were charged with the service between Dover and Bou-
logne; certainly the more onerous of the two, from the
passages being always made at night, and the little time
allowed for delays, rendering the use of boats to em-
bark or land the mails in Dover or Boulogne-roads fre-
quently necessary,
This arrangement has now been in operation for a
year, and has worked completely to the satisfaction of
the public in London and Paris. Occasional delays have
taken place in the conveyance of letters by both routes ;
but, on the whole, great regularity has been attained ;
and while this is of comparatively small consequence,
for the few letters dispatched from each capital early in
the morning via Calais, the benefit of the Boulogne
route, in insuring the delivery before the commencement
of business of letters pasted the evening before, has been
very much felt.
The public, therefore, have no interest in the question
beyond that of maintaining the present arrangement.
Our Government, on the other hand, has a separate in-
terest not to be alone charged with the night service be-
tween Dover and Boulogne, without receiving some
compensation for the more onerous nature of it. On this
account Lord Clanricarde went to Paris a fortnight since,
with a view of negotiating an equal division of the
Calais and Boulogne stations between the packets of the
two Governments. The then Director of the French
Post-office declined acceding to such an arrangement, on
the ground of the inefficiency of the French mail-packets
for a night-service ; and it appears that on the failure of
the proposal to work the two services jointly, the
English Government determined to remove their packets
to Calais.

What possible advantages they could hope to gain by
such a change it is difficult to see. The onerous nature
of the Boulogne service is occasioned by the passages
being always made at night, and the occasional necessity
of taking or landing the mails while laying off in tho
roads. The same difficulties will be experienced in a
night service at Calais; and the public will lose more
than two hours, in consequence of the mails being again
conveyed by the route 66i miles longer in distance, by
Calais. Letters will arrive at Paris in the middle of the
business-part of the day, too late for anything to be
done before the time of posting for the return mail, and
the public mail will again be constantly anticipated by
expresses. Under these circumstances, it is not won-
derful that the proposed change has caused great dis-
content in London and Paris, and that great efforts are
being made to prevent its bei❑g put into execution.
We learn that the present Director-General of the
French Post-office is fully aware of the importance to
the interests of both countries, of continuing to adopt the
Boulogne route for the conveyance of the mails. ; and
that he has already concluded an arrangement with the
Amiens and Boulogne Railway Company, to take the
mails between Boulogne and Paris, by express train, in
5i hours. As 15i are allowed for the whole transit from
Paris to London, and the mails are conveyed between
Dover and London in 24, this will leave 7i for the sea-
passage, and as the time required to cross is only two,
the departures of the steamers may be varied with the
tide within a range of 5i hours, and the use of boats at
low water altogether obviated at Boulogne. At Dover
it will be much less frequently necessary to employ them
than at present; and as they are there maintained by a
special pilot establishment, paid by both Governments,
while at Boulogne the crews of the steamers have to do
this duty, it will not be of so much consequence if the
tide is occasionally missed there, as long as it is made
to serve always at Boulogne.
Thus the great difficulty of the night service through
Boulogne will be overcome; and the French Govern-
ment are prepared, if our Government still continue ex-
clusively to work the Boulogne station, to pay one-half
the additional expenses of agencies, pilotage, Sze., result-
ing from the two services taking different routes, in
order that the quicker one, via Boulogne, may still be
maintained for the night mail.
From this it appears that it now rests with our Post-
office authorities to meet the views of the present French
Director-General, and maintain the Boulogne route for
the night mail between London and Paris; and we
should imagine that the offers of the French Post-office,
to which we have above alluded, will remove all the ob-
stacles that have arisen to prevent the continuance of an
arrangement so entirely satisfactory to the public in.
terests as that for the conveyance of the mails between
London and Paris has been during th• past year.—
Chronicle.

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