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

, MIS •1.3

ROUTE _TO TILE WEST INDIES.

•
civilisation, and tending to secure the peace df the
Thanking you, Sir, for the readiness you have ever
shown to promote all similar improvements, and for your
expressed intention of inserting this communication,
1 remain, your obedient servant,
THOMAS HODGSKIN.

one exception, closely -to the Tegend on which thet,piece•
professes to be baSed. It opens with a corps of fairies,
presided over by Robin Goodfello‘ii Mar-
shall), deliberating what is to be done for the
cochlcalmuscelsed;
isitorkiisng
posed on the itthattitants of Coventry, by I-4-
,otric, the
Earl of Mereia, and lord of the manor, would be no bid
the
elt repeal after
of some discussion,
thepoll-tax im-
posed
for the relief of their protoges. Accordingly
it is resolved that the female poeulation Of the ag-
grieved city shallr he instigated to make a movement
against the obnoxious impost. We art- then led to the
gland baronial hall of the Lord of Niercia, wherein
Lady Godiva (Mrs. Fo,brokv), who is mom,ntarily ex-
pecting the return of her liege lord from the warS, is
waited upon by a deputation from the United Female
Association, headed by Mrs. Mildred (Ntss Emma
Stanley), wife of Peeping Tom, praying that Lr'dY
100
diva would us- her interest to get the law abrog A d, in
furtherance or which they present her with a n'""-t."
petition. The lady promiSe,, her itifluenee, her lord r-•lnrns,
and having been sucee,sful in hiscatnpaigu,he holds g ra;
jollifinttion or banquet, at which, ge ting rather heady
from the excess of his potations, Godiva takes advantage
0# the opportunity and urges the petition of the femam
r-formers of Coventry. Its lordship, who thinks in the
miin with the Duke of Newcastle, that a " man may do
what he likes with his own," nevertheless, being watm
with wine, is disposed for once to yield a little, but it is
only on condition that his good lady parades the city in
the manner described by the legend. Site consents, much
to the surf rise of Leofric, who expected he might make a
show of generosity without giving the substance. A pro-
companies the orphan; and this treacherous design is
also defeated. Ttie orphan establishes her claim, her
persecutors are detected, and she relvards her gallant
deliverer with her hand. The minor personages are
also rendered happy, the slighted .I.latifole transferring
her affections to an amorous tradesman, Sansonet,

-TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR.—In the course of the year 1842, The Sun
contained one or two articles, written by me, calling at-
tention to the advantages of communicating with our
Vest India colonies, and with the ports of
South America, through the United States. The
plan I entertained and described was this:—The
'mails, includit;g 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 he
nt from England by the steamers which now ply be-
tween Liverpool and Boston. Having, by concentrating
all the communications with the whole Alnl'lletin 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 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, i r some other extreme point in the Unit, d
States, to which there is now a rapid communication.
'cher, the mails, it was proposed, should be by steamt.rs.
communicating with Vera Cruz, Jamaica, the rest of
the West India colonies, and carried to their respective
cl-stinati ,ns. That is a brief outline of the plan then
.-tig4ested, which was noticed, th ugh not with much
approbation, by the Liverpool Timts and some other
papers, Each of the many days that has since elaped,
has brought with it for me its own thoughts and its
own avocations, and Lief had almost washed out
of my mind all remembrance of my scheme.
was with no little surprise and satisfaction,
therefore, that I saw, by the last arrival fromt
the West Indies, that a plan in principle similar to
mine has been adopted, and recommended to the public,
isti.:nGetiacchhgy. of Jamaica,reaterdetail than I had entered into, by Mr.
a gentleman who appears to be
well acquainted with the localities, appliance, and con-
veniences of the islands and countries around the gulf

COURT CIRCULAR.
~,,,WkllN:nSaoiaringYloisnyae pony
pe
hQa
euteoei Pr
thisa morinniFie,
gAlbert
.
1.. the afternoon his R,,yal Highness Prince Albert
drove her Majesty out in a pony phaeton, followed in a
pony landau and four by the Lady in Waiting and the
two Maids of Honour. The Equerries in Waiting to
her Majesty and Prince Albert attended on horseback.
The Prince of Wales, the Prince Alfred, the Prin-
e,,s Royal, and the Fri c..-ss Alice took their u,tial
walking and piny exerci,e in the grounds adjacet.t.to
the Castle this forenoon. Their Royal Highnesses took
a carriage airing in the afternoon, accornpalied by the
Do,,ager Lady Lyttelton.
The Royal dinner party at the Castle this evening will
ineutle her R .yal Highness the Duchess of Kent, the
Earl and Countess, of 11.,me, Lady Augusta Brune,
Baroness de Speth, and Colonel M`Douall (2d Life
Goarrt•).
The band of the Grenadier Guards attends in the
Castle du, it g dinner.
Her Majesty's private band afterwards attends.

Ilia Serene Highness the hereditary Prince of Saxe
Meiningen, attended by Captain Taylor and Baron de
Reitz,”istein, went to Kew on Sunday, and dined with
their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cam-
bridge. Yesterday morning the hereditary Prince, at-
tended by the Earl of Sheffield, Captain Taylor, and the
Baron de Reitzenstein, left town by tue Great Western
Railway for the Slough station, to attend the hunt. His
Serene Highness Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar was
also present at the hunt.
Dispatches were received yesterdaY, at the Colonial-
office, from the Governor of Mid Mauritius.

(Wright), by whom they are ardently responded to;
and Marcel obtaining the hand of her sister Agatha
(Miss E. Chaplin), to whom he had long been attached.
The acting of those whose names we have mentioned, as
well as of Bedford, who, in the character of a .conjugal
lover, rather too much addicted to the bottle, kept the
house literally in a roar, tended considerably to the
success of the piece, which, though not very naliel in
Vat, was by no means destitute of merit. Some of
the scenes were extremely pathetic, and there was suf-
ficient incident to give it vitality. The title was
rather infercitnus, for the plot of the plebe was
based on the designs of Rollin and Delamere;
and the respective specimens of industry and indolence
were only mere 'Teats in working out the pie Ce. In a
word, the piece was not forme" to illustrate the moral
which its title would I. ad us to suppose. Peter W
was the next piece. This was a revival of an extrava-
ganza based upon the nursery tale of the same name,
with which, no d nibt, our readers are well acquainted.
It perhaps, whether we regard the performers or the
scenery, was never put forward in a more attractive
form. The principal characters were su,tained by.
Messrs. Bedford and Munyard, Miss Taylor, Mrs. Har-
rison, and Miss Emma Harding, who, in the part of
Colombat the CLVI, sustained regal character with
all the mock dignity that belongs to it in the piece,
Some of the scenes were admirably exeeuted, and r. fleet
considerable nie,it on the artists, Messrs.:Pitt and John.
stone. Both these pieces were announced for repetition
every evening until further notice, which was received
with loud applause by a crowded house. The evening's
entertainment concluded with the hemourous farce of
Did you ever send your Wife to Camberwell? The cast
was the same as before, with the exception of Miss
Woolgar, as Mrs. Honey bun, whose place was ably sup-
plied by Miss Emma Harding, who is every day de-
servedly becoming a greater favourite with the public.

)f Mexico. His plan, Its I find it, which you published
in extensu in The Sun on Saturday, a part of which

THE THEATRES.
DRURY-LA iv g.

I hope I may repeat in this.
Mr. M'Oeachy proposes to vary the present route
bi.twecn Jamaica and Great Britain by a diversion through

The opera of the Crusaders vvas performed at this
theatre last night, for the 34th time, and, from the re-
ception it met with from a crowded house, it does not
'rem to have lost one particle of its interest since the
first night of its performance. The spirited lessee of this
establishment exercised a sound discretion in deter-
mining on its repetition, in preference to some new
Easter offering, as he thereby affords an opportunity to
hundreds who visit the metropolis at this joyous season
of the year of witnessing the performance of an opera
full of histrionic interest, splendid scenery, delightful
singing, and enchanting music. On the first night of
the performance of this opera we gave it deserved praise,
and on a second visit our first impression of its merits
are not only strengthened but fortified. We are happy
to see that our opinions are those also entertained by the
publie—if we may be allowed to judge from the best of
all criterions, the patrona to they bestow upon it. The
excellent singing of Miss Romer, Miss Rainforth,
and Messrs. Harrison, Borrani, and Stretton, called
forth loud and continued plaudits. The entertainments
of the evening were concluded by the revival of the ce-
lebrated ballet d'action of 1 'erouse, or the Desolate Island.
The scenery of the piece reflects great bredit on Grieve
and his assistants ; and the excellent acting of Wieland
as Champanze cannot too highly appreciated ;as an
imitator of the monkey species, he is unsurpassed and
unsurpassable. We perceive by the bill that it is the
intervion of the lessee on Thursday next to produce, for
the first time at this theatre, Auber's opera of The:Crown
Jewels, when the fascinating Thillon will make her first
appearance in her original character of Catarina.

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 be transmitted by the rail-
way now in course of projection, from Kingston to
Montego Riy, and a steamer would bear them thence
to Batabano in the island of Cuba, from which a commu-
nication by railway is already e,tabli,hed to Havannah.
Another line of steamers stationed at the latter port,
would take up the line of communication to Tampa Bay.
in the Stute of Florida, and railways between t7iat place
and Cha, lesion, 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'Geachy 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
Havannah to Tampa Bay, by steamer 44 do.
Tampa Bay to New York, by

Jamaica to New York
New York to Halifax..

125 do.
24 do.

Jamaica to Halifax

149 do.

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

Jamaica to Ireland ... 14 days 5 brs.

" The selection of Tampa Bay, as the place of arrival
of the steamers, appears to be particularly advarvage,
for a company projected to carry out Mr. M•Greachy'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
weal known to require observation from us. At present
the means ot 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 passage 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 New
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 in 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 some southern point
of Florida or Georgia, with the railways now existing
in the United States, should be easily accomplished in
three days. Lt twelve days the st, amers 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 fie), very ex-
tensive change, but simply substituting compare
Lively small steamers between Florida or George,
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. WI ieachy, much more sanguine and better
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 prepor•
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 Southampton
round by the Madeira or the Azores to obtain a supply of
coal in order to reach the West Indies, and the other going.
straight to Halifax and Boston. The sea voyage, and, r
the most favourable circumstances, round by Madeira, is
twice as long, and the travelling by land through the
United States being chiefly performed by rail, is at least
three times as rapid as the voyage by steamer. Let any
man look at a chart, remembering that there exists at
present a railway communication from Boston to Savan-
nah, and he must at once be struck with the many ad-
vantages
and
disAsnhtoirgtura7te froth England to Jamaica,
fxn 1 all the-neighbouring islands, over the longer route
by Madeira of
what can be do
Now that the plan has been taken up, at the other end
whatever that Reilly"'
dope
who sees what is going on,
as it were, by a
might be'
suc-
cess, and and
inthe West Indies, I have no doubt
it the elements of complete suc-
advantages. The
carried
mercantile, and social
be made through anifT out with great pecuniary,
umcations with our colonies would
great objection
to it is that our co
communication
foreign state. But since I broached
the subject the tiFation between England and her
Indian Empire has wonderfully in im-
portance, and almost as wonderfully us rapidly. This
import ant communication however, is carried on
through at least two
ptpd(i)tsieectitltate,,, France and Egypt,
rfoor,..gn.ih rough Austria.mustpass
through half-u-dozendnce with
tections may be made—l hold. tatthese.re Whatever oujee-
ones—to tratt.rnitting our correspondence are no legitimate
South
America and our West India colonies
l
the
United States,
apply at least with equal fttbhie"eoLit4h
witting our Indian correspondence through Franceantr:;
Austria and Egypt. All these objections are, then f .re
practically answered by that tra nsin;—s.on, and there is
now no need of any arguments
to refute the apprehen-
sions of conveying our mails and passengers from the
most northern to the most southern part of th.-
United States. The distance will not be
much
greater than from
Marseilles to Calais. I believe
I conveyed as through
that they would be as sae y
less
interruptedly, and
France, and even more safely,
notch more expeditiously . On both England aid the
United States the plan would confer
great advantages.
d of uti-
The communication would be an additional bon
lity and peace. Whatever might have peen thought a
few months ago of some braggadocios in American tour-
nals and Congress, it is now abundantly plain
that the
bulk of the Americans desire peace with England as ar-
dently as we desire peace with the United States. Let
us help this brotherly mutual desire by increasing the
accommodation which we can mutually afford ; and as
Mr. M'Geachy's plan would do this, it would promote
both the pecuniary and political welfare of the United
States.
That our advantage—the advantage of our merchants,
our Government, aed all our people—would be promoted
by this plan there cannot be a doubt. They could save,
at the very least a week, perhaps a fortnight, in reach-
ing ,Jamaica and most of the adjacent colonies. It
would increase their trade both with the United
States ai=d with Europe. Having more speedy informa-
tion, they could at all times adjust with greater accu-
racy than at present the supply to the demand. Our
West India proprietors complain ; let them facilitate
communication with Europe and North Africa, and half
their complaints will be removed. The trade of the
Americans, both with Europe and all the southern
world, would be much extaried by the same means.
Independently of the steamers visiting their harbours,
and the increased traffic along these rails and coasts, the
existence of those would necessarily carry with them a
tot responding increase of trade between North and
South America. They would be benefited probably
even more than we should, and in proportion to the be-
nefits they derive from our communications with nor
colonies through their country would he their unwilling-
ness to interrupt it. Besides the pecuniary and teprean
Llie7 advantages of Mr. M•Geachy's plan, or any plan. it
would have, like all successful schemes for extending
communication, the still greater advantage of promoting

THEI SUN, LONDON', TUESDAY M_ORN'iNG,APRIL 14, 1946.

to its original state. A pretty-scenibeff. et is then produced
bya star, opening and revealing a iine bustof Shakepeare
amid the 'usual ,:e.2oinpanitnents of -red. red and blue fire.
It would be l;ardly lair to conclude ‘Aithout salting that
the actors su,tained the parts alloted to them with much
power and ability. As to the scc:nery, it was in general
superior to what is found in min ,r theatres.