The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-14 00:00:00

APRIL 14, 1846.

PRICE SD.

Ostend. Indeed, there seemed to be a hearty and
general feeling to promote in every possible way the
liberal policy of the South-Eastern Company.
Mr. Macgregor, the chairman of the company, in
speaking to the toast of the evening—viz., "Prosperity
,to the South-Eastern Railway Company," which was
enthusiastically responded to—expressed his deep sense
of the very kind and hospitable manner in which the
authorities and inhabitants of Ramsgate had received the
directors of the company. He observed that the proper
policy of a railway company was to identify its interests
with those of the public. This the South Eastern di-
rectors had endeavoured to do ; and he assured the au-
thorities and inhabitants of Ramsgate that the South-
Eastern Company would do all it possibly could to make
available, both for the benefit of the town as well as for
that of the public, the advantages which the magnificent
harbour of Rawsgate presented to those proceeding from
L-,ndon to the north of Europe. In truth, it was the
desire of the company to render the passage between
London and Ostend as regular as the journey by the
mail coach.

Viscount Torrington also addressed the company in an
exaellot.t speech, and pointed out the advantages which
the• South-Eastern Company's projects for accommodat-
ing Tient with railway communication have over those
promoted by what are termed the " independent" North
Kent schemes. In fact, he said, he had heard it very
pithily remarked that the latter (Vignoles') line might
be likened to the clothes bought at'a slop-shop, while
those promoted by the South-Eastern Company—viz.,
by Mr. Robert Stephenson, were, as every one could sce,
clothes that bad been cleverly measured for, and fitted
admirably. . _

During the evening the healths of Mr. Cubitt, jun.
and Mr. Ford, the resident engineer of the branch lin,:
were proposed and drank with all the honours.
The dinner was substantial and well served, and the
evening passed off in a manner as creditable to the good
sense and hospitality of the authorities and people of
Ramsgate as it must have been gratifying to the directors
of the company.
The special train left Ramsgate at ten o'clock last
night, and arrived at the Bricklayers' Arms a little
before two o'clock, having been detained a considerable
time by the usual goods trains.
We cannot close this brief notice of the celebration of
the opening of this branch line without tendering our
thanks to the Chairman, Mr. James Macgregor, the
Chairman of the Company, for the courtesy we, in
common with the rest of the press, received at his hands;
We have also to thank Mr. Merry, the superintendent
of the line, for the kind assistance he has always betri
and is ever ready to afford to the members of the press
when travelling by special train.

ROUTE TO THE WEST INDIES.

naeToHr
colonies,Et two
Eo Darti
articles, written
rOwi
tFittehnTHbytEhme
cwronetsatineldTudo:
Sin,—ln the course of the year 1842, The Sun'
Se,UcpiVa
01
riitnsg at=
tention to the advantages of communicating with our
South America, through the United States. The'
plan I entertained and described was this:—Thq
mails, including passengers, letters, and commu-,'
nication of all kinds for the whole of our West'
India colonies for Mexico by Vera Cruz, and all the
adjacent coast of America, north and south, should bo
sent from England by the steamers which now ply be-
tween Liverpool and Boston. Having, by concentrating
all the communications with the whole American conti-
nent on this one line, brought to it a great increase of
business, it might be profitable to send a steamer from
Liverpool once a week, instead of once a month or once
a fortnight. From Boston it was proposed that all the
communications should be forwarded, either by steamers
or rail, as the communication is carried on in the United
States, to New York, and from thence to Savannah, or
Georgia, or some other extreme point in the United
States, to which there is now a rapid communication.
There the mails, it was proposed, should be by steamers,
communicating with Vera Cruz, Jamaica, the rest of
the West India colonies, and carried to their respective
destinations. That is a brief outline of the plan then
suggested, which was noticed, though not with much
approbation, by the Liverpool Times and some other
papers. Each of the many days that has since elapsed,
has brought with it for me its own thoughts and its
own avocations, and they had almost washed out
of my mind all remembrance of my scheme. It
was with no little surprise and satisfaction,
therefore, that I saw, by the last arrival front
the West Indies, that a plan in principle similar to
mine has been adopted, and recommended to the public,
in much greater detail than I had entered into, by Mr.
M'Geachy, of Jamaica, a gentleman who appears to be
well acquainted with the. localities, appliance, and cone
veniences of the islands and countries around the gulf
of Mexico. His plan, us I find it, which you published
in extenso in The Sun on Saturday, a part of which
I hope I may repeat in this.
" Mr. M'Geachy proposes to vary the present route
between Jamaica and Great Britain by a diversion through
the United States and Halifax, so nevertheless as to re,
duce the period of communication to a maximum speed
of 14 days. He proposes, if we rightly comprehend his
plans, to make Montego Bay the station for the steam-
ers which are to be the medium of communication be-
tween the island and Great Britain. The mails, and
passengers of course, would he transmitted by the rail-
way now in course of pr(jection, from Kingston to
Montego Bay, and a steamer would bear them thence
to Batabano in the island of Cuba, from which a commu-
nication by railway is already established to Havannah.
Another line of steamers stationed at the latter port,
would take up the line of communication to Tampa Bay,
in the alte of Florida, and railways between that place
and Charleston, New York, and Boston, to St. John's,'
New Brunswick, would be met by steamers at the latter
place, which, plying between that port and the western
coast of Nova Scotia, would convey the mails and pas!
sengers to.the terminus of a railway concluding at Hali-
fax, from whence they would be embarked for Bantry
Bay, in Ireland, which Mr. M‘Geacby proposes as the
British packet station.
" Mr. M'Geachy estimates the time expended in this
route at 14 days 5 hours between Kingston (Jamaica)
and Ireland, thus :
From Kingston to the west end of Jamaica,
say Montego bay, by the projected railway . 5 hrs.
To Batabano by steamer

Batabano to Havannah, by railway 2 do.
Havannah to Tampa Bay, by steamer 44 do.
Tampa Bay to New York, by railway 3O do.

Jamaica to New York ...
New York to Halifax..

Jamaica to llalifax ...

125 do.
24 do.

149 do.

Or 6 clays 5 hrs.
Halifax to Bantry Bay, or Valentia 8 days

Jamaica to Ireland l4 days 5 hrs.

" The selection of Tampa Bay, as the place of arrival
of the steamers, appears to be particularly advantageous
for a company projected to carry out Mr. M'Geachy's
plan. The very great importance of the cities of New
Orleans and Mobile, as seats of commerce profitable as
well to the United States as to European nations, is too
well known to require observation from us. At present
the means of communication between these cities and the
principal commercial towns on the eastern coast of Ame-
rica are extremely defective ; indeed, a sea voyage
between New York and New Orleans is at present an
undertaking equal to a passago across the Atlantic.
Tampa Bay would be comparatively but a few hours
steaming from the mouth of the Mississipi, and the pro-
jected railroad would take the New Orleans merchant to
New York in thirty hours."
Mr. M.Geachy's plan is much more extensive than
mine, and contemplates new railways and different
packet stations in Europe, which mine proposed to pro-
pel by those which are already in existence, believing
that one present attainable improvement will lead on to
others. Of Tampa Bay and the railroad hence to Npw
York, I know nothing; nor should I presume to sug-
gest any improvement or project to the wide. awake
Americans, whose spirit of enterprise needs no stimulus
nor directions from us, but I know that already there
exists, as you may read in Mr. Lyall's travels iu the
United States (one of the best works that has been
published on that country), a complete railway com-
munication from Boston to Savannah, and it may
be expected with proper arrangements that the
distance between Boston, with which our Liverpool
steamers now communicate, and seine southern point
of Florida or Georgia, with the railways now existing
in the United States, should be easily accomplished in
three days. In twelve days the steamers now pass be-
tween Liverpool and Boston, and supposing, with Mr.
M'Geachy, that from this southern point Jamaica
might be reached in ninety hours, or, say four
days,' it is lear that,' without any very ex-
tensive change, but simply substituting compara-
tively small steamers between Florida or Georgia,
and Jamaica, having only voyages of four or five
days to make, for the great steamers which can cross the
ocean from Southampton to the West Indies, London,
and Jamaica may at once be brought within twenty or
twenty-one days of each other, instead of twenty-eight,
as by the expensive plan of communication now in use
under the management of the Royal Mail Packet Com -
pany. Mr. M'Geachy, much more sanguine and hotter
acquainted with the subject than I am, says Jamaica may
be reached in fourteen days, or shortening the time by
one-half. Of course by this route the Bahama Islands,
Cuba, St. Domingo, &c., would be reached in a propor-
tionably still shorter time, but the scheme would not be
so advantageous in reducing the time in which England
can communicate with Antigua, Barbadoes, &c. As
steam-packets are not calculated to carry very large
cargoes, and it has always appeared to me preposterous
to run two series of such packets, chiefly adapted for pas-
. sengers, across the Atlantic, one going from Southampt.oon
round by the Madeira or the Azores to obtain a suppol)ogf
coal in order to reach the West Indies, and the otliertgindi
er
straight to Halifax and Boston. The selat, voyage,_
Madeira, is
the most favourable circumstances, round by
twice as long, and the travelling by b
r.eto exists
saa
Savan-
nah, three times as rapid as the
United States being chiefly performed railyieitrlh,ArliosauL(al tetleaansyt
Ecknawith the many man look at a chart, remembering
t
present a railway
England to Jamaica,
tbieorrii ntiOna' thatstL
Bostonath e
an
ntt
db ad-
vantages,
a ntdh
eo musthgihs
short
houaomrt ri
communication
telvbeaaoenfyrdsaost: I,r voyage
ter the longer route
ll
by lAcleirA 1.124 Antigue.