The Sun.
London, England, 1851-09-17 00:00:00

WEDNESDAY

EVENING, SEPTEM


ITHE CAPE MAILS.
The speed with which the passage hence to the
Cape and back has been accomplished by the steamers
of the General Screw Steam Shipping Company is
highly creditable to the agents end officers in its em-
ploy. We have now had a trial of their capabilities
for seven months, and without one exception the
vessels have all done their duty well. None, how-
ever, exceeded the Hellespont in the expedition
with which she has performed her voyages, and
the passage she has just terminated, as well as the
one which she previously made, must be
considered as stamping her with the character
of a first-rate boat, and one in which the ad-
vantages of the principle of screw propulsion are con-
clusively exhibited. From an examination of her
dates both outward and homeward we observe that
from Plymouth to St. Vincent she occupied eleven
days, from that port to Sierra Leone little more than
five days, from Sierra Leone to the Cape a space of
twenty-two days, altogether thirty-eight days—her
former voyage was effected in forty-one days. The
difference is partly to be accounted for by the fact
that her stoppages outward on this occasion
were not more than a few hours, whereas they
amounted to much more on her first voyage.
She remained at the Cape seven days and
fifteen hours, being detained by the tempes-
tuous weather for twelve hours, and three hours at
the request of the Colonial Secretary at Cape Town,
who had received important documents from the in-
terior and desired to include them in the dispatches.
From the Cape to Sierra Leone she occupied fifteen
days, and was detained there by the Governor, who
had not his dispatches prepared. In consequence of
this delay, which, although to be regretted, was
perhaps unavoidable on the part of the Governor,
the Hellespont, when she arrived at St. Vincent,
found the Brazil mail packet Tay coaling, and was
again delayed above twenty-eight hours. From Sierra
Leone to St. Vincent she occupied seven days, and she
ran the distance from the latter place to Plymouth
in fourteen days. Her homeward voyage exclusive
of stoppages was performed in thirty-six days—her
previous voyage occupied a day less. We may, there-
fore, conclude, that the average time in which this
fine ship will perform the passage will be 74 days, a
period extraordinarily short, and we congratulate the
General Steam Shipping Company on having so
nearly attained their object in respect of speed. The
mails which the Hellespont brought were both large
and diversified, for, besides the ordinary bags from
the Cape and the intermediate stations, she
brought correspondence from most of the
vessels on the coast. At the time the packet ar-
rived the Bristol mail train, which goes on to London,
was about to start, and it was detained that the mails
might be placed in it and sent on. Through some
delay, however, it was found necessary to dispatch
the train before the mails could be brought to the
station, and they were consequently conveyed to the
Plymouth Post-office. We regret very much not to
be able to add that they were sorted. But no
such thing was attempted, the bags lay unopened
in the office for six hours, and were then sent
off to London by the mail train of the Tuesday
evening, and in consequence, the papers and letters
from the Cape and for this town did not arrive here till
Thursday morning---45 hours after they were landed
at Plymouth—and those for the north of England
could not be sent on their destination until 12 or 15
hours after they might have been. The injustice of
this kind of procedure we have before alluded to, as
we consider it one injurious to the interests of the
post, and slighting its capabilities, as well as not
affording to the inhabitants of the place the earliest
intelligence of the welfare of their friends, for which all
who have any abroad in the places in question feel
much anxiety. The hardship in the present case is all
the more severe from the fact, to which we referred
above, that correspondence from vessels on the African
station was in the mail. It was well known that in
this locality numbers reside who have friends and
near relatives engaged in her Majesty's service in that
part of the world, and that they should be kept so
long without the letters which might shortly after the
arrival of the mail have been distributed among them
is shameful—we can give it no other epithet. The
present, too, is an instance of the extent of the evil, for
had the letters been delivered here, as they ought to
have been, on Tuesday evening, the parties interested
would have had an opportunity of replying to them
and sending their letters by the Virago, which sailed
from this port for the Coast of Africa on Thursday ;
by the arrangement which was carried out that op-
portunity was entirely lost. The evil to which we
are attempting to draw attention is one of a very
serious nature, and which deserves strenuous efforts
to obviate. We have heard it stated that the nee

mail packet will bring home separate bags from the
Cape for Plymouth. This, if the report be correct,
will only partially meet the difficulty, for in such
cases as that of the ships' letters there would be the
same delay as before. For our parts, we cannot un-
derstand, if Southampton is thought worthy being
intrusted with the general sorting of the mails that
arrive at that port—and if at Falmouth there was also
an establishment for the same purpose at the time the
packets put in there—why Plymouth should not have
its post-office made available for the business of sort-

ingthe whole mail and sending the bags on to their
several destinations at the earliest opportunity ; nor
shall we be satisfied until this object—as important to
the manufacturing di-itricts as to our own immediate

neighbourhood—be accomplithed.—Plymouth

COLONIAL MAIL STEAM-SHIPS.
The anticipations expressed by several witnesses
examined before Lord Jocelyn's Committee, last
session, as regarded the efficiency of the screw-
propeller, and its adoption in ocean steamers, appear
to be in course of early realisation. We are informed
that at this moment in the Clyde alone above 17,000
tons of steam-shipping, both in wood and iron, are
under construction, the greater part of which will be
fitted with the screw. It is also understood that the
building yards of the Thames are more actively em-
ployed than they have been for many years, and that
the most eminent shipwrights and engineers have
orders so numerous that it w ill require many months
before they can be executed. Extensive engagements
have, we believe, been entered into by the Peninsular
and Oriental, the General Screw, the Pacific, and
West India Mail Steam Companies respectively, for
building large steamers of a capacity and power
superior to any yet employed ; nor should we omit
to mention that the South American Steam Navi-
gatior(urCompany (whose projection we lately
mentioned to run three large iron steamers be-
tween Liverpool and Rio ana the Plate) are ad-
vancing most vigorously under their charter; so
that we hope before long the spirit of rivalry
excited :by American competition will exhibit its
beneficial effects in the character of our steam
marine. Another incentive to this desideratum will
be found in the Australian and African mails now
called for by Governments; but to the terms of these,
or rather of the former, we must solicit attention in
some little detail. For the fourth time the form of adver-
tising for tenders for the conveyance of the Australian
mails has been exhibited by the Admiralty, but whether
with a bond fide view of carrying out the undertaking,
or as a repetition of an old ruse to cajole for a while
longer the unfortunate colonists, we are! at a loss to
conjecture. The advertisement in the present instance
presents a novel feature in requiring the service to be
performed either " in continuation of the existing line
between England and the Cape, or for a new line extend-
ing the whole way from England to Sydney ;" where as
in all previous cases tenders were invited in connexion
with the overland and Indian route. The change, no
doubt, has been produced in consequence of the re-
port of Lord Jocelyn's Committee, by whom, as is
already known, the route via the Cape of Good Hope
was specially recommended ; and it is expected, as a
matter of course, that the general Screw Steam Navi-
gation Company will obtain the contract. The Admi-
ralty notice to which we allude is alike worthy of the
quarter from which it has emanated and of the lay
lordling who superintends the steam-packet branch of
the department. Where it intends to be particular it
is simply vague, and where it should be explanatory
it is guilty of omission. There is not a single
provision which indicates the means by which
the mails are to be delivered at or received
from Van Diemen's Land, New Zealand, or Swan
River, and the rapidly-thriving settlement of More-
ton Bay is equally left out of consideration. We
cannot imagine any escape for such an oversight, un-
less it be in contemplation to provide for the mail ser-
vice to New Zealand and Moreton Bay by a supple-
mental line via Panama, and which the recent de-
monstration through the lake of Nicaragua would
seem to suggest. It is, however, almost idle to spe-
culate as to the ultimate scope or result of the Admi-
ralty scheme, as we are informed it is in a course of
alteration almost daily; and the officials at Somerset-
house honestly warn all applicants that the proposed
arrangements may receive further and probably im-
portant modifications. We shall, however, watch the
process. and see how far the public interests may be
affected, either injuriously or otherwise, by changes
which can only emanate from ignorance or caprice.—
Liverpool Albion.

.E.NCROACHME.NTS IN ST. PAIVCRAS.
A Correspondent of the Builder says--I beg to call
your attention to the New-road and City-road, from
Trinity Church eastward. For many yearn past I have
observed with great regret the progressive encroachments
on the gardens in front of the houses, particularly in
those parts near the end of Tottenbam.c3urt-read, by
the erection of shops, &c., close upon the footway; so
that this once open thoroughfare is now contracted into
the dimensions of au ordinary street; excluding in a
great degree the air and view, and destroying its proper
and distinguishing character as a kind of Boulevard.
The increasing value of the frontage for the purposes of
trade is obviously the inducement to these erections, and
it would be useless to urge against this private advan-
tage the consideration of the public good: I had, there-
fore, observed and deplored the growth of this evil as un-
youtr9llable, and without remedy. I was ourprised,

however, to find that it has been contemplated and pro-
vided for by express legislation. The Act 7 Geo. 4, for
consolidating the metropolitan roads, distinctly prohibits
the erection of any building within " fifty feet of the
New-road," or within " forty feet of the City-road, on
any new foundation." Unfortunately-, a subsequent Act
transters the management of these roads to the parishes
through which they pass, since which this salutary pro-
vision has become a dead letter. . Some years
ego it NV S proposed to buy up and remo►e the public-
house which projects so awkwardly at the corner of the
New-road and Hampstead-road; but now it is become
only one or part of a mass of obstructions, too large to
be bought, and being illegal, ought no longer to be tole-
rated. I hope that you will assist in arousing the public
to the assertion of their rights: the❑ I have no doubt
that they will prevail against the apathy or prirate in-
terests of the local authorities.