The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-15 00:00:00

THE SUN

LETTER TO THE RIGHT HON.
EARL GREY ON THE EXTENSION OF STEA
NAVIGATION FROM SINGAPORE TO PORT
JACKSON, AUSTRALIA.
My Lord,—On the 20th of May last, I had the honour to
address a letter to your Lodahip's predecessor in the Colonial
Office, the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone. on the subject inti-
mated in the title-page, and to which letter I received the
following reply i—
" Mr. W. E. Gladstone presents his compliments to Lieut.
;aghorn, and returns his best thanks for the pamphlet on
the extension of steam navigation from Singapore to Port
Jackson, which Lieut. Waghorn has been so good as to trans-
mit to him.
" Mr. W. E. Gladstone begs to assure Lieut. Waghorn
that he regards with a lively interest a propoeal, the effect of
which would be to diminish by one-half, for many important
purposes, the distance between the United Kingdom and the
Australian Colonies, and that it will be to him a matter of
sincere regret, if, upon examination of the charges attending
the execution of such a plan, those departments of the Go-
vernment which are peculiarly responsible in that respect,
shall arrive at the conclusion that the expenses are too heavy
to warrant any early attempt to give it effect.
" Colonial Office, May 28, 1846."
Since the date of the foregoing, the Sub-Committee of the
Association of Merchants, Bankers, Traders, and others, of
the city of London, interested in the extension of attain na-
vigation to Australia, have, as your Lordship is aware, laid
before vou an elaborate report descriptive of the various 1
routes for the proposed connexion of our Australian and New
Zealand dependencies with this country and India—analysing
the respective merits of each, and recommending to your
Lordship's notice the one first advocated by me, in conjunc-
tion with the gentlemen composing the Committee, and
whose names ark appended to this letter. In answer to that
report, your Lordship directed the annexed communication
to be made by the Under-Secretary for the Colonies, B.
Hawes, Esq., M P.:—
" Downing-street, November 3, 1846.
" Gentlemen,—l am directed by Earl Grey to acknowledge
the receipt of your letter of the 19th ultimo, enclosing the
report of a committee appointed by merchants, and others,
connected with the Australian Colonies, to examine into the
merits of the various routes by which a communication by
steam-vessels between those colonies and Great Britain
might be established ; and I am directed to acquaint you in
reply, that Lord Grey attaches the greatest importance to the
subject, but that the necessity of communicating with the
governors of the Australian Colonies must prevent any
definitive arrangement being made at present.
" I am, gentlemen, your most obedient servant,
" B. HAWES.
" Sir George Larpent, Bart ; lion. F. Scott, M.P."
My Lord, the incessant pressure on my time in organizing
the machinery for the transmission of the Overland Mails, in
the face of hitherto unattempted difficulties and with un-
exampled dispatch, as is not unknown to your Lordship, has
prevented me carrying out the intention I first conceived on
the perusal of Mr. Hawes' letter—namely, to entreat your
Lordship to allow me, with the greatest deference, but at the
same time with the utmost earnestness, to urge upon you at
once to lend your countenance to the great object of bringing
'sir Australian possessions within the sphere of those blessings
which steam enables us to confer upon nearly all our other
colonies. Believe me, my Lord, I speak after anxious and
careful reflection, when I venture to assure you that this
noble project may be advanced a long way towards maturity
before you can receive any reply from the Colonial Governors.
I well know the disposition that exists in the mercantile body
of London, and also in the large commercial and manufac-
turing towns of Great Britain, to draw Australia and New
Zealand into the closest proximity to the mother-country by
steam, within the shortest possible period. I know to what
extent that disposition may be made available, in seconding
whatever assistance the Government might be pleased to ex-
tend; and I know that, owing to various causes, such dispo-
sition will be materially damped and will not be easily
revived, should delay intervene in setting about the accom-
plishment of a purpose to whose importance your Lordship
bears witness.
Whatever may be your sense of that importsnce, it cannot
be exaggerated. lam well aware of your Lordship's in-
timacy with the condition, prospects, and requirements of our
colonies in every part of the globe ; but it cannot be supposed
that your Lordship should have bestowed on our Australian
territories in particular that minute practical observation
necessary to possess you of the full commercial and social de-
sirability, as well as the political value, of extending steam
navigation to those remote but important regions. I aria
sure, if I could prevail upon your Lordship to examine the
data adduced in the pamphlet addressed by me, on this subject,
to Mr. Gladstone, and if you would fortify, by inquiry, the
accuracy of the cakulations there's' made, and the reason-
ableness of the inferences drawn from those data, you would
be induced forthwith to advise the Crown to allow Australia
to participate in those advantages which so many other colo-
nies now enjoy, through the instrumentality of private steam
companies, who are assisted by public grants. It is in vain
to wait to know what the colonies wilt do. Be it much or
be it little, the most that could be hoped from them would
not be equivalent to the gain that would accrue from a
prompt decision on your Lordship's part to make a pecu-
niary grant, and leave the rest to the merchants of London.
I ask no more than that your Lordship should make such
offer as your own appreciation of the interests affected may
dictate, and as the precedent of state donations towards
steam communicatiosewith the West Indies, China, North
America, &c., may seem to you to justify. If that offer be
not met in a corresponding spirit by the gentlemen whose
Sub-Committee have already reported to you, and in whose
name I now speak, I am content to forfeit whatever slight
credit I may pretend to, as a promoter of rapid intercommu-
nication between England and the Eastern hemisphere, arid
to be accounted the visionary and the dreamer which so
many people were kind enough to pronounce me, when I first
undertook to carry the Government dispatches from Bombay
to London, through Central Europe, in the depth of a more
than Alpine winter, in one calendar month.
But my Lord, if you would impart full value to the offer
I solicit, let it, f pray you, be made at once. Notwithstand-
ing the various unusual claims on the national treasury at the
present moment, no wise economist can look at the popula-
tion, wealth, and hourly-increasing capabilities of our vast
colonies in the Pacific, without admitting that any reason-
able amount would be well laid out, that should bring them
and us within half, not to say one-third the distance, in
point of time, that now separates us, and must continue to
separate us, without the adoption of the plan already sub-
mitted to you.
I cannot think of Wing your Lordship's time by a reca-
pitulation here, however brief, of the pamphlet already
alluded to—and in which, I persuade myself, several points
tending to enhance the humble estimate of Australia,
formed by the general English public, were brought pro-
minently forward. But I will venture to make an extract,
in which a great deal of matter appears to me to be con-
centrated in a very small compass, strongly illustrative of
the merits of the project now being reinforced by me, with
all the energy I am master of.
The extract consists in a passage from a speech delivered
en Friday, the 17th of April, 1846, at the London Tavern
meeting, called by me, and at which Sir G. Larpent presided
—many leading London merchants interested in the colonies,
being present—most ably assisted by J. W. Sutherland,
Esq., together with the Hon. Francis Scott, M.P., the agent
for the colony of New South Wales—to whose indefatigable
labours, solidity of judgment, and unflagging zeal, no praise
of mine can do adequate justice, nor can his services to the
Australian colonies generally be possibly over-esti-
mated. The speaker I allude to was Mr. Mark Boyd,
of the eminent firm of Boyd, Brothers and Co., whose
intimate connexion with Australia,_ and the large possessions
of members of whose family at Boyd-Town, Two-fold Bay,
and in all parts of New South Wales, are well known to
every one acquainted with the colonies. But to those who
do not possess such knowledge, it will perhaps be sufficient
to say, that the speaker is brother to Mr. Benjamin Boyd,
chairman of the Pastoral Association of New South Wales,
member of the Legislative Council, &c. ; and a gentleman
who is not more esteemed for those private virtues which add
lustre to his well-acquired opulence, than for the public spi-
ritin which he to worthily exercises his great energies and in-
tellectual accomplishments. After citing many cogent facts,
as to the increase of letters and newspapers between Eng-
land and Australia, Hr. M. Boyd said :—"To attempt to define
a limit to the advantages which the introduction of steam
would afford Australia is impossible, but there can be no
question as to the following. It would facilitate the invest--
ment of capital for the gradual development of the bound-
less resources of Australia and New Zealand. It would
establish much greater confidence in all mercantile trans-
actions connected with the colony by preventing loss from
over-stocked markets, and also obviate the inconvenience
arising from the scarcity of supplies of European merchan-
dise. It would enable the merchants and shippers in the
ciliny duly to effect insurance of their ships and merchan-
dise in England. It would enable East India invalids either
to settle or recruit their health in that most congenial climate;
the distance to Swan River only occupying fourteen days, to
Sydney thirty. It would lead to a large emigration of a
highly respectable class of capitalists, with their wives and
families, who are at present deterred undertaking the voyage
from its tediousness. A steam communication would there-
fore be of incalculable advantage to the colony, both morally
and politically. It would greatly facilitate the pacification oi•
New Zealand, by affording the means of promptly introduce
ing the requisite precautionary measures sin case of need. It
beicofurther encouraging
tosAhefe,:rtsier:ert: Australian
employmentatho t
advantage, introductiono ft he
bnoyaf t
affordingt
vnative
wealthyp population.
would likewise produce the same effect as in Australia, by
tcot
inl ei.
tr
e,
Its a
fornwd the
hht
would
u asfteai
tl
apnrdestehnet
cPivaiclitlisacttiorandoefcathreriinet
aobni.tfaronitns
colonies,nsaof
of the islands in the Pacific Ocean. It would enable
promptly to anticipate and frustrate any attempts of foreign
aggression, either upon our settlements or trade in those seas,
It would accelerate the introduction of numerous necessary
reforms in the local governments of the Australian co-
lony, and permit public opinion in England to exert its
salutary influence on the acts of the colonial executives
arid aid in preventing the colonists suffering the most
grievous wrongs to which they are at present constantly sub-
jected. In conclusion, by the establishment of an Australian
steam communication, the entire link between Great Britain
and all the colonies will be complete, as well as those colo-
nies with each other respectively."
These are the heartfelt sentiments of a gentleman whose
house has been conspicuously engaged in Australian affairs
for many years. They are the result of a diversified experi-
ence of the wants of nearly all our settlements in the Pacific,
and of the important region of the Indian Archipelago, from
which such substantial advantages will be derived from our
increased propinquity between it and Australia, by the
steam communication recommended, and which becomes
of even greater importance, when we bear in mind
our invaluable new trading station of Labuan, on
the west coast of Borneo,—supplying, besides innumer-
able other advantages, inexhaustible quantities of coal.
When that communication shall have been established,
as at no distant day it must be, the Australian and New
Zealand colonies will
owe an inexpiable debt of gratitude to
the Messrs. Boyd for thei • r exertions in awakening public
opinion at home to our obligations
regarding those
great tri-
butaries to the extent and weight of the parent state. It
would be unjust
to withhold my testimony to the services of
the able coadjutor of Messrs.. Boyd—viz., Mr. Samuel Brown-
ing—Who, as a resident in Australia, and having visited
almost every part of the Indian Archipelago, China, lee. &c.,
has brought to the i
discusson in which the committee have
been engaged, a personal
fan raty with these localities, and
a comprehensive knowledge 1'
dealing
witnretof the most judicious mode of
eitose to the i:resent object, teat can-
not be too warmly c irinteitttea.
Sine* the date of Mr. Mark 13 yd's ,speech nothing has
occurred to diminish, but much to se
the value of
Australia to us, and to render more andi' rtaince,
lorAtedesirable the
means of speedy intercourse with her.
events in India have invested it with fresh importance
memorable
locale for the restoration of the shattered healthofaosuar
troops. Occurrences in New Zealand warn us, that
in no way can their repetition be more effectually
prevented, than by encouraging steam communication
between that colony and Australia, and between the
latter and England, so as to admit of the transmission
of instructions from the Home Government with the
least loss of time. The alteration in the laws affeeteio, the
importation of food opens the home market, tf, many
of the preductioes of Australia he-etolore. inadmissible
here ; and the exhaustless supplies of meat, in a pertanie
form, awl slam, d to hnbii,h
ant. .1.L.413 .:ants; that.
be brought hither, ia, alone, a consideration not to be
overlooked in seasons like the present, whose recurrence
may, unfortunately, at any time_be expected. The changes

that are being introduced into the colonial system of
administration, according to public report, . under the
auspices of your Lordship, must further increase the
desirability of learning the effect of these changes speedily
on such colonies as those more directly alluded to here; and,
above all, the new footing on which colonisation is apparently
about to be placed,
especially as regards emigration
Ire-
land, emphatically demands that Australia be no longer sub-
from Ire-
joscted to the hardship and injustice of being the only great
dependency of the Crown whose geographical remoteness is
no* virtually diminished by steam.
My Lord, I say that, if it were only on the score of the
value of the Australian settlements to England in respect to
future emigration, these settlements alone would be entitled
to the Government aid now sought at your bands. In my
letter to Mr. Gladstone, I said, "If I did not hope that these
remarks may come under general attention through the me-
dium of the press, which has already given an extended pub-
licity to the question of 'Steam to Australia, I should not
attempt to hint to a gentleman whose knowledge of public
affairs is as extensive as yours, any one of the various
momentous considerations embraced in the single word
Colonization,' as affected by Australia being brought one-
half nearer than it is to England. The distance diminished
one-half, and the improvement immediately created by that
diminution, Australia would become, as it ought, the focus
of all emigration from the United Kingdom. The ungrateful
soil and trying climate of our North American possessions
would no longer baffle the industry and exhaust the means
of our small farmers. The United States would no longer
absorb the skill of our mechanics, and leave them to learn that
the habits, the comforts, and the independence of an English
home, if poor even to poverty, may h unwisely exchanged
for affluence where these accessories are wanting. The Cape,
the West Indies, Etc., would no longer act as quicksands to
the industry that annually flows thither, where it is lost or
frustrated, because the locality is altogether unsuited to
such of our population as live by labour, for the most part,
out of doors. No, sir; emigration would flow to Australia,
where soil, and climate, and produce, and the currents of
traffic, and, in short, every circumstance an intending emi-
grant should take into account, invite him to settle, and
where nothing repels him, but the distance and the evils this
distance alone occasions. I repeat, that emigration, on the
largest scale, will find its way to Australia once steam is
established, and that the benefits to all parties will be im-
ltasrat, transpired
I pitrreudsttyoouimwpilalir be thoefir
im-
mense." If there were any truth in these remarks in May
opinionforc e atnhda t
anpoptlliicianbgi
iht
yas.o since r
my own part, I am more and more convinced of their
correctness the more I ponder upon the subject. I
am convinced, that the mere announcement of a monthly
steam communication being about to be established with
the Australian settlements, would, at once, turn the eyes
of the great bulk of intending emigrants in that direction.
I do not mean, of course, that emigrants would think of
proceeding there by steam. Comparatively few, and only
the more wealthy, would be able to do that; but the know •
ledge that the intercourse with the mother-country would be
doubled and trebled as compared with the existing state of
things—that a letter and its answer might be received in
London and at Sydney in less time than the letter alone now
takes to reach its destination—that, in fact, for all purposes
of correspondence and communication, Sydney and London
would be almost as near to each other as are London and
New York by the sailing packets ;—this knowledge, I say,
would remove nine-tenths of the objections new entertained

towards the Australian colonies.
I abstain from touching on the mercantile bearings of the
question ;—that is not my province; though I cannot help
reminding you that, but for Australia, all our manufacturers
of the west and north of England, who require fine wool,
would be totally dependent on the Germans for that commo-
dity at ruinous prices—not less than 100,000 bales having
been received from our southern colonies last year. It must
be sufficiently obvious to every one, that an immense impetus
would be communicated to the commerce of the settlements
by the more increased facilities for the merchants and traders

advising their agents of the state of the Australian markets,
and being advised in return of the state of the markets of the
world suited to the produce of the Pacific; for, it should be
remembered, that it is not the English markets only which
steam would bring closer to these colonies, but the markets of
the whole Chinese and eastern seas,from Bong-Kong,Calcutta,
and Ceylon, to the southern extremity of New Guinea. On
these points I would take the liberty of referring you to my
previous pamphlet, and to the map accompanying it. I
take for granted, my Lord, that you have no hesita-
tion whatever to admit the easy practicability of the plan
therein laid down, confirmed as it has been by the careful
and volum nous report of the sub-committee. 'l'be sum and
substance of it is—to place adequate steamers, at Singapore,
to proceed with mails, passengers, and valuable goods to
Port Essington, through Torres Straits, to Wednesday Island.
and so to Sydney—the nature of the navigation, coaling
depots, kc., being detailed in the former pamphlet, and ample
references given to the authorities from whose official reports
my calculations have bean compiled, and especially from the
surveys of the Beagle, conducted by that most able navigator,
Captain Stokes, RN., to whose exertion and intelligence all
connected with this project are deeply indebted. To make
this invaluable extension to the ends of the earth as it were
—to perfect that system which I have been the humble in-
strument of carrying so for as Singapore—to belt the world
with steam, and consummate the great design of which the
Overland Route to India is a part, the sum of 100,0001. per
annum only is required,—a sum very much less than one-
half of what Government now gives towards steam navi-
gation with our West India Colonies, and a little more than
one-halt that already given annually for the same object in
connexion with Singapore and China.
I have said to Mr. Gladstone, and I now earnestly repeat
to your Lordship, that for the Government to work out this
great undertaking in a manner worthy of it, and wortby of
the objects involved, there should be no niggardly econo-
mizing attempted at the outset, as that, before long, would
prove as bad, or worse, than the most reckless extravagance.
Government should make their offer (through me) to the
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, and if
an exorbitant price be asked, I am perfectly confident that,
with a grant from the Crown, a monthly steam communica-
tion between Sydney and Singapore, and vice versa, may be
entered upon by a private company of merchants, which
would be forthcoming in the city of London in two or three
months, provided your Lordship will at once assure Sir George
Larpent and the committee, that the Crown is ready to afford
such pecuniary succour as the Australian Colonies are entitled
to expect. lam certain that the offer of 100,0001. would in-
stantly call forth all needful energies in the city ; and for
that sum, I repeat, in my former words, you bring into com-
parative contiguity with England a region far more in want
than any other of the harmonizing and moral influences thus
to be imparted ;—a region that would repay the generosity
and care of the mother country with ten times the good t o
be expected elsewhere ;—a region that has long cried aloud
against our mismangement and neglect, and which accom-
panies those cries with the bitter and costly fruits which never
fail to spring from the discontent that is produced by a sense
of indifference at the bands of England.
It would be easy, my Lord, to extend these observations
to an almost indefinite length ; and it would not be a little
gratifying t 9 me to lay fully before you the results of my
experience, in the prosecution of the Overland Route, as to
the vast benefits which I clearly foresee are springing up for
England in her relationship with Central Europe through
our adoption of that channel in reaching the East. It is
because steam to Australia is part and parcel of the Over-
land design that I advocate it. But vain would be my ad-
vocacy if the merits of the case did not fully sustain the
prayer of this my petition to you, that you will not delay an
hour in saying to Sir G. Larpent and the Committee,—
" Gentlemen, draw on her Majesty's Treasury for 100,000/.
a-year, and place Sydney and London as near together as
the existing machinery of the Overland Route will permit,
availing yourselves of every possible improvement to in-
crease their proximity." Do this, my Lord, and you will
at once effect a most beneficial revolution throughout an im-
mense extent of our colonian empire, and lay the founda-
tion of a prosperity in the New World which the future his-
torian of the present Administration cannot' fail to record to
your enduring honour.
The cost is as nothing compared with the certain and the
la.ting advantages that must immediately spring from it.
Knowing what I do from my own observation of the ener-
gies that France is putting forth—seeing the immense, but
at the same time sagacious, expenditure she is incurring in
perfecting her steam mails and packets, and accelerating her
intercourse in every direction, and by every possible means—
labouring, in shert, to become, as it were, the highway of
all intercommunication between all other countries; I am
quite sure I do not speak extravagantly when I say that
she would gladly devote a million per annum, had she such
colonies as ours in the Pacific, to secure the benefits which
we may now secure by one-tenth of that outlay, which would
diminish yearly after a brief time, owing to the increased
traffic on the route rendering the Government bounty less
and less necessary.
Trusting that the deficiencies of this hasty appeal to your
Lordship will, in some respects, be found compensated for in my
letter to your predecessor in the Colonial-office,—again en-
treating you to believe that much of the value of the grant
applied for will depend on the quickness of its bestowal, and
begging that you will on that head take the opinion of the
Lords of the Admiralty, upon whose co-operation I am war-
ranted in fully calculating, I have the honour to remain.
my Lord, your Lordship's most obedient servant,
'IIIOMAS,WAGHORN, Lieut. R.N.
Cornhill, Feb. 10, 1847.

MAILS DUE ON SATURDAY.—The following is a list
alphabetically of the mails due on Saturday at the General
Post-office, viz.. English, Scotch, and Welsh, 73 :—Aberga-
venny,Aberystwith ,Amersham, Battle, Bilston, Blackburn,
Brecknock, Bishopscastle, Burford, Burney, Bridport, Bridg-
end, Cardigan, Carmarthen, Cardiff, Coleford, Chepstow,
fLHO
iroadnywdheoesr
rat ,de
y,,11, lasa n Hereford,eeu
all ;11,r 0
Lo. ranindrioepnae
bnt
re,
ri
:ii
giLiegi
,phh-LooWi
Criekswell, Clitheroe, Cowbridge, Eastbourne, Hay, Haver-
kan:drol I
dobb, High-Wycombe,
yi 11
a, un
MerthyrbgssPdoi cukt ,
Tydvil, Milford, Monmouth, Norbeth, Neath, Northleacb,
Nuneham, Newtown, Newport(Salop), Newport(Monmouth),
Oawestry, Peterstield, Picketing, Pembroke, Presteign,
Rhayader, Ross, St. Clears, S':oken Church, St. Lronarda,
Swansea, Shiffnall, Shrewsbury, Salisbury, Shaftesbury,
Tetsworth, Tenby, Thame, Tairoach, Usk, Uskfield, Whitby,
Limeiric ikia,raNbeowrrg3,
h, marllig o '
hasW a
nutt:; r f
S
Wheatley, Wednesbury,Welshoool, and Wellington (Salop).
Irish mails, 9, viz. :—Belfast , Derry, Drogheda, Galway,
o r d
arrived,an and
makinglirexforda
i total
addi-
tionof
eighty-three mails due at eleve n o'clock.
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN TURKEY.—The cor-
respondent of a French paper es writfrom Constantinople on
the 20th ult.:—The Sultan Y '`
eerday presided at a sitting
of the Supreme Council of7ustric, all the Ministers and
high functionaries being presents
pro-
posed a measure which will produceihe Sultan himself
a great sensation in
Europe, namely to issue an ordors nn
of the slave market. This is not aiocdeee(i for the suppression
slavery altogether, but it is a finstep
tt towards ar 8
suppression
Ir'essil of
The
Koran, it is true, admits of slay, ry,, but it is one't. in to-
lerance, for it at the same time recommends the
enfran-
chisement of slaves as a meritork-,us action ; and the richMussulmans, at their great famil y festivals, or before set-
ting out on a long journey, and, indeed, at any important
event of their lives, believe they cannot do anything more
agreeable to God than to give a : slave his freedom. The ob-
stacles to general emancipation a rise rather from the customs
and manners of the Turks than . from religious prejudices;
and from the mement the Sult an sets the example it will
meet with ready imitation. TI se Bey of Tunis has already
abolished slavery in his Regenc. y, and Ibrahim Pacha, on his
return from Europe, gave freed, sta to all his slaves, without
either of these acts producing 1.111: least mark of disapproba- 1
tool in the sti,sulmso states. Ali the se• rid koews that in '
these states the slaves orm a pt..rt of the fmnily to which
they belong,
and that many reach important stations.
Two of the present Ministers of the Sultan, Kosrew Pacha
and Hafiz Pacha, are treed slaves, 0 o were the late Gov nor
of Trebisond, son-in-law of Sultan Mahmoud, Halil Pacha,
Mehemet. Reschid Pacha, Command er-in-Chief of the army
of Arabia, and many others. The n tother
of the Sultan and
all his wives were Circassian or Gs orgi n
a slaves who have
been enfranchised. The whole qu e. itions turns on this point,
'
hat no man can hold a right over the freedom of a fellow-
creature."
Lieutenant-Colonel Ratclif re, K.H., late of the
Enniskillen Dragoons and 2d Drag oons, (lied on the
nth inst
He entered the service 88 Cornet in 1811, was prOmoted to
a I,ieutenancy in .1812, to a Cap' tiacy
1
in 1827, a Majority,
in 1832, and to a tieutenant-Colt .nelcy in 1837. He ,erved
in the Peninso;s with the 2d DTI' VOUS, from acme 1911, to
1 the end of the war, in 1614, incl ,nding the ba4les of Sala-
i mauca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, and T btlouse.