The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-07 00:00:00

STEAM v. SAILING SHIPS.

There is, probably, no subject at this• moment
which excites so lively an interest in commercial
circles as the wonderful growth of the mercantile
steam marine, both here and in Europe, and the pos-
sible effects which that increase is destined to have
upon the traffic hitherto prosecuted by means of
sailing ships. The first steamship from England
arrived at this port on the 23d of April, 1838.
Since that period the trade has been gradually in-
creasing, and we find to-day, after a lapse of 20
years only, no fewer than 14 lines of steamers
ploughing the waters of the Atlantic, numbering
some 45'ships, of which 35 run out of the port of
New .York. We think it is safe to say that most of
these vessels have been, and are now run, at a po-
sitive profit, and that liberal as has been the patron-
age they have enjoyed, .there never has been, until
quite recently, any real apprehension that the
prospeaity of these steam•lines was eventually to
damage the shipping interest, which still depended
upon wind, weather, and canvas. In these latter
days,. however, the present depression in freights
is referred to by a certain class of theorists, as evi-
dence of the approaching subversion of sails to
steam. This is rather an ex:ravagant philosophy,
the conclusions of which are hardly .warranted by
the facts. The steamers plying between the United
States and the ports on the German Ocean have ex-
tended our commerce in that direction in a ratio
considerably in excess of the capacity of those
steamers to accommodate, and an increased number
of sailing ships have, consequently, been called to
relieve 'the surplus. There are scores of ships
'from* Bremen and Antwerp, and Hamburg, Am-
sterdam, and Rotterdam, lying at the docks
of New York to-day, where dozens would
not have been discovered about eight or
ten. years since. The steamers unquestionably have
deprived the London and Liverpool packets of much
of their former trade, but what is lost in this way,
it will be found has been more than made up in the
material increase of international commerce result-
ing from the speedier and more certain communi-
cations which those steamships have conferred
upon us. The causes of the present depression, in
our humble judgment, are traceable, in a g*at de-
gree, to the condition of things at the close of the
late war with Russia. The necessity of rapid com-
munication between British and French ports and
the Black Sea, for the transportation pf troops and
provisions for an army engaged in a contest which
it was believed would last for years, occasioned the
construction of an immense fleet of screw steamers
—a class of vessels which are run at a comparatively
reduced expense. An immense number of these
vessels were pressed into the service. The French
and British Governments chartered them at a hand-
some advance, in some cases, even upon the origi-
nal cost. The shipyards of England, for a period
of nine months, had as much as they could do to
supply the demand for this description of vessels.
The result is known ; the war came to an end with
the fall of Sebastopol, quite unexpectedly. The
charters of the vessels in question, for the most
part, expired with the war, and the consequence
was, on their simultaneous return home, the Bri-
tish ports were supplied with a superabundance of
tonnage. The superior advantages which the pro-
peller had to offer to the merchant, in the shape of
quick voyages and a rate of freight quite as low as
the packets, at once gave steam the preference, and
that preference steamers have had ever since. In
mercantile operations, as in most other branches of
business, time is money, and time gained by the
screw over sails is the real key to the great de-
pression which hns, by these processes, overtaken
the sailing vessels. It does not follow, however,
that this depression is to be everlasting, but it does
follow that, if those whose interests are mostly
bound up in the sailing vessels would but adapt
themselves to the novel circumstances which sur-
round them, a great step will have been taken to
overtake the profits of which the steam engine bids
fair to deprive them. If the propellers can afford
to carry passengers and freight from Europe to the
United States as cheaply as the sailing vessels, it is
preposterous to maintain a competition with them.
Steam is sure to beat. Even the poor emigrant will
prefer a vessel that will convey him to America in
fifteen or eighteen days, to one which may be a
month or more on the passage. Exporters and im-
porters will consult their interest in the same way.
If, then, we had a proprietary interest in the
packet service, seeing that tliese propellers are a
fixed fact, and cannot be reasoned or argued off
the high seas, we should at once consider why our
true policy did not consist in hauling our most ex-
pensive vessels off the old beaten tracks now mono-
polised, or likely to be monopolised, by the fleeter
and cheaper propellers, and sending them off on
longer voyages, where there is no competition as
yet. What should we lose in surrendering the
carrying trade with Great Britain, if we should
open up a new trade with the remoter ports of the
Mediterranean, the, East Indies, and South Ame-
rica ? On long voyages our new enemy, the pro-
peller, can hardly compete with us. His voracious
appetite for coal alone would eat up his profits, and
until some new discovery is made to enable him to
perform a voyage of more than 3,000 miles in ex-
tent, without deranging his complicated machinery,
the sailing ship will continue to have the field,
in a good degree, to itself.—New York Shipping
List.

IREL 4 ND.

DUBLIN, TUESDAY.
TUE EPISCOPAL CRUSADE.

The Northern Whig, in the course of a vigorous
defence of the National system of education from
the attack of the prelates, finds one excuse for their
conduct in the long course of persecution endured
by the Irish Romanistss" the remnants of which
still darken the minds of the priesthood."
.The
Whig says :
"In this enlightened town of Belfast we have
incumbents of the Establishment delivering what
they are pleased to call Lenten lectures at certain
seasons of the year, these compositions being,
generally, the bitterest possible tirades against
the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church. Then,
again,' wo frequently see placarded on the wall
the, announcements of ' sermons to be preached and
collections made on behalf of missions 'to the
Romish population of the west of Ireland.' This
is not only very insulting towards the members of
the. Church of Rome but it positively savours of
something approaching to impertinence on the part
of those over-zealous philanthropists who engage in
such' pious absurdities When Protestant Ministeri
of those sects most addicted to hunting down prose-
lytes find not a single member of their own Church
out of the fold, when their houses of worship are
full to the last available sitting, and, when their
people arc so far converted as to equal the heathen
in outward morality during the six working days
of the week, then, but not till then, would they be
justified in riding about, lasso in hand, for the pur-
pose of carrying off from the faith-of their fathers
the worshippers connected with the Church of the
City on the Seven Hills."