The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-12 00:00:00

i

THE WESTERN ROUTE TO CHINA.

--.4b,.„_____.,

Suez, and there, in truth, he has a " fine time."
The vilest of hotels—the worst of fare—and the

greatest extortion are crammed into his twenty-four
hours of life in Egypt. The new hotel at Cairo,
however, has introduced a change in this respect,
as also at Galle. Still he does land and see some-
thing, and, if he likes, he can stop and see more.
Cairo, the Pyramids, and the old ruins, within a
short distance, are sights, yet this is but little to
the marvels of nature on view between Sandy Hook
and the Golden Gate. We anticipate that the open-
ing of the Pacific Railway will lead to the " grand
tour," being the tour of the world. A New Yorker
who desires to complete bis education by foreign
travel will hereafter take his passage to England,
pass through France, Germany, Italy, Greece, and
Turkey if he likes, land at Alexandria, and after
" doing" the Nile proceed to Bombay, by rail to
Allahabad, whence he can visit Lucknow, Agra, and
Delhi; penetrate into the Hitninalayah, proceed by
rail to Calcutta, sail to Hongkong, Shanghai, branch
to Peking if be has the fancy, Japan, land iu his
own country at San Francisco, visit the Yo Semite,
and the Mammoth Grove, Nevada—the city of
the Mormons, and on home ; this will be the tour
of the future varied from the trunk line of travel

to suit the time, the taste, and the purse of indi-
_

viduals. For the man of business, however, to
Hongkong, or anywhere cast of that colony, the
Western is the route, and no false statements or

detraction will change the fact. Without fear of
contradiction, we maintain that by next midsummer
travellers to China will find the way by New York
quicker, cheaper, and more comfortable, offering
that variety which amuses and instructs the mind,
as well as that equable temperature most conducive
to health of body. These reasonF, we contend in
a general way, show the superiority of the Western
over the Eastern highroad, and they are not such as
can be explained away or contradicted.--Anglo-
American Times.

DUNVILLE and Co., Belfast, are the largest
holders of Whisky in the world. Their Old Irish Whisky is re-
commended by the medical profession in preference to French
Brandy. Supplied in casks and cases for home use or exports
tion. Quotations on application to Messrs. Dunville and Co.,
Belfast; or 4, Beaufort-buildings, Strand,,London W.C.—[Ad
vertiscment.

We conclude that the Peninsular and Oriental
Company have taken alarm, from the correction in
the Times of last Monday of the former comparison
which appeared in its City Article between the
time by the Eastern route and the Western route
to Hongkong. The difference, according to the
New York papers, was 15 days to Japan in favour of
the way by the Pacific Railroad, and we maintain
that the figure is under the mark. The Peninsular
and Oriental Company make their time 41 days
from London to Hongkong, to Shanghai 46, and to
Yokohama 52, and as 37 is the outside estimate by
the other road to Yokohama the difference is clearly
15 days. When the San Francisco road gets into
working order the time will be reduced, as this
estimate is high. On the contrary, the figures now
put forward by the Peninsular and Oriental Com-
pany are under the mark, 44 days being a very good
passage from Southampton to Hongkong, and the
time-books of the company make it still longer.
Indeed we cannot reconcile how they can assert 41
days as their time from London to Hongkong, when
their own table shows that a vessel leaving Southam-
pton on the 4th January arrives at Hongkong on the
23d February, and at Shanghai on the Ist March.
This for mid-winter, and for mid-summer the vessel
which leaves on the 4th July is due at Hongkong
on the 23d August, and at Shanghai on the 30th.
The transhipments by the Eastern Road are three,
the one at Alexandria, the other at Suez, and the
third at Galle ; whereas by the Western way they
are but two, at New York and at San Francisco.
Nor does this represent all, for the nature of the
transfer is a material point when passengers, and
luggage, and valuables, or bulky goods, are consi-
dered. Not at one of these Oriental ports does the
vessel lay alongside a wharf, the means of commu-
nication being by boats or small steamers. If Suez
in this respect is very bad, Galle is worse in another,
for there the communication depends on the regu-
larity of another line; the passengers having the
double risk of break down. Not only is the difference
in time to any_port in Japan, to Shanghai, or north
of it in China, greatly in favour of the Western road,
but the cost is less. The expense to Yokohama,
booking from Southampton now, via New York,
and thence by Panama to San Francisco, is £ll5,
and from Liverpool £108; to Hongkong from South-
ampton £125, and from Liverpool a few pounds
leas. The Peninsular and Oriental Company's
rates are upwards of £125 to Hongkong, and £135
to Shanghai, and some £2O more to Yokohama.
But the difference in cost will be much greater when
the Union Pacific Railroad opens. We have then
the time, the transhipments, and the cost in favour
of the Western highway, but some other material
questions still enter into the calculation—health,
comfort, and safety. As regards health, the route
varies little from one parallel, and that the most
temperate of the globe. The fleets between Eu-
rope and New York are the finest in the world,
the leading place among steampacket companies
being conceded to the Cunard. Although the first
established, no accident involving the loss of a pas-
senger has ever happened to one of their vessels, and
such accidents are sigularly rare in anyof these fleets.
The vessels on the other side from San Francisco to
China are four of them, each of 5,000 tons ; and of
three others the lowest tonnage is 3,000, all being
the largest side-wheel vessels afloat, and beautifully
fitted for the carriage of passengers. Between New
York and San Francisco the trains will be supplied
with sleeping cars, and along the line grand hotels will
quickly spring up. But it must be admitted that
while we can speak positively about the health and
comfort by this route we have no such security for
safety, as railway travelling in the United States
has lately bleu conducted in so happy-go-lucky a
manner as not to inspire Europeans with confidence.
Those who have travelled in the Peninsular and
Oriental Company's, or any other steamers, east of
Suez, will bear us out when we say that the con-
trast in comfort between the Mediterranean and the
Red Sea equals the contrast in climate. At one
bound, from everything being good, everything be-
comes bad ; where comfort is moat required, as in
the vile climate of the Red &.a, that comfort is least
obtainable. Tough starved fowls, things with legs
but without wings, curious in colour and strange to
the palate of those unacquainted with Indian mour-
ghees, take the place of the plump birds in the Com-
pany's Mediterranean steamers. More quaint still,
as specimens of the animal creation, are the sheep.
Hot beer or tepid sherry, distilled, as the saying is,
in the boilers of the company's vessels, is a poor sub-
stitute for the iced liquors on the otherside. The but-
ter has to be caught as it runs from the table.
From the former ample space, the Marseilles and the
Southampton passengers being huddled into the
same vessel on reaching Suez, there is a crush ; the
waiters look washed out, which is more than the
limp linen does. There is an exhausted air pervad-
ing the ship, which even affects the vessel, for the
twelve knots of the Mediterranean are reduced to
eight or nine in the Red Sea. To the youngsters on
the way to take up appointments in India (in their
imagination the laud of luxury) the shock is dread-
ful; there is an Indian odour—an Indian lassitude
—and Indian sickliness about the steamer which
transfer the passenger instantaneously from Europe
to Asia. Henceforth there is but little change
for the better ; indeed, after the monsoon has
set in, the change is only for the worse, and on leav-
the stifling heat of the Red Sea, the voyage
to Japan becoming a severe trial. The China
seas are dangerous to a great degree, although
the Peninsular and Oriental Company, through
the admirable way in which their vessels are of -
ficered and fitted out, have been fortunate in
escaping casualties. Thus for health and com-
fort the_Western route has great advantages, which
will increase with time; and if the Pacific Railway can
work the trains with ordinary safety, the superiority
of security to life and limb will also be with it. The
comparison, however, does not stop here. A tra-
veller will see more in crossing the American Con-
tinent than he could possibly hope to do by the
Eastern route. To touch at Gibraltar, Malta, at
Aden, Galle, and Singapore, is most unsatisfactory,
for the tourist only sees the vessel begrimed with
coal dust, ranges of houses ashore, and vessels in
the harbour. He lands to cross the Isthmus of