The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-15 00:00:00

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[PRICE SD.

to he made in the numb9r et
.1 Arsenal. About 100, two? d-
.einents, are to be dispensed with
)f March and June next.

STEAM COMMUNICATION WITH
AUSTRALIA.
The project of steam communication with our
Australian colonies has opened a discussion of re-
markable interest and extent. One-half the globe
has to be circumnavigated, and the question is what
direction this course should take—whether ships
leaving England should sail east or sail west. In the
considerations suggested by the inquiry are included,
first, the actual distance between the several depend-
encies of the British empire; secondly, the character
of the countries to be traversed or connected by the
various routes ; and thirdly, the general capabilities
of t-,teatn. ships as hitherto ascertained. The easteen
route to Australia may either follow the old track
round the C of Good Hope or the new passage
by the Mediterranean and Red Sets • the western
strikes right across the Atlantic and South Pacific
Oceans through the Isthmus of Panama. Thus the
competing routes to Sydney may be respectively
described as via Panama, via the Clot., or via Suez
and Singapore, and the advantages cf each will be
found plainly stated in a letter which we publish this
morning.
The distance from London to Sydney by the first
of the routes above mentioned is 12,902 railer, by the
second 12,870 miles, and by the third either 11,710 or
13,288 miles, according as the eastern or western pas-
sage is taken from Purt Essington round the coast
f Australia. Cceteris paribus, the shortest of these
lines would of course be the most eligible, but in point
of fact there are so many considerations which take
precedence of simple mileage that the distances may
be almost reckoned as equal. The next question then
arising is, that of the degrees of practicability which
the routes may be severally found to possess, for seas
must not be considered merely as so many leagues of
water when they have to be traversed by steam-ships.
The powers of a steamer depend upon her capacities for
carrying fuel—capacities of course very limited, for in
proportion to the tonnage and stowage of the vessel
must be the power of her engines, and the daily
consumption of coal. Speaking in round numbers,
we may say, perhaps, that 3,000 miles is as long a
stage as a paddle-wheel steamer can be expected to
accomplish with certainty and regularity, until some
substitute has been discovered for the coal-fuel now in
use ; and although screw-steamers can be more eco-
nomically worked, yet what is saved in consumption
is lost in speed. In a line of steam communication,
therefore, it is necessary to have coaling-harbours at
intervals of not less, say, than 3,000 miles. Our
ships make the run of the Atlantic (2,6C0 miles)
readily enough ; but this may be taken as nearly
the maximum performance on which it is quite
safe to calculate. Now, the Panama route to
Australia is divided into two distinct parts—that
across the Atlantic from London to Chagres, and
that across the Pacific from Panama to Sydney.
Tne former of these is already accomplished by our
West Indian steamers, but the latter has never yet
been tried, and when we come to examine its practi-
cability we find serious obstacles of the character we
have been describing. The whole distance from
Sydney to Panama is not less than 7,800 miles, and
though this is broken by the Gallapagos islands off
the American coast, by Tahiti in mid voyage, and by
New Zealand at the other end, yet the second of
these stages is nearly 3,600 miles long—a distance
which would, to say the least, throw great uncer-
tainty on the voyage. Again, when we turn to the
third point cf consideration—the countries to be con-
nected by the line, we find no conspicuous advan-
tages promised by the Pacific route. Up to the
Isthmus of Panama, it is true, the proposed line
might produce the most desirable effect of improving
our communication with the West Indies, and of in-
troducing a new- and splendid class of steamers upon
a field where our carrying traffic is likely to be
stoutly contested ; but after the isthmus has been
passed these advantages abruptly terminate, for there
neither is nor is likely to be any commercial inter-
course between Australia and the western coast of
America ; so that Sydney would, by this line, be
simply connected with London, and nothing more.
The same remarks will apply in some degree to
the route by the Cape of Good
,llope, which is both
circuitous and unproductive, and even from the Mau-
ritius to Swan River is a dead run of 3,400 miles.
Supposing, however, what is not improbable, that these
difficulties of steaming may be hereafter surmounted
by the advance of science, yet there will still remain
the objections derivable from the unprofitable cha-
racter of the conrexions into which Australia would
thus be drawn. The natural relations of these colo-
nies are with India and the Archipelago, and it is
this consideration which gives the chief superiority
to the route by Suez and Singapore, for this will con-
nect Sydney not only with London, but with Bata-
via, Colombo, Bimhay, end Alen. It was with a
view to this natural ,intercourse between India and
Australia that the survey of the Torres Straits has
been prosecuted with so much zeal. Our settle-
ments in this enormous tract ff territory lie almost
wholly on its southern coast, so that the circumnavi-
gation of Australia itself forms no inconsiderable
portion of the whole enterprise. In point of fact,
our steam communication by this route has actually
advanced to a point within about 2,000 miles of
Australia, Port E sington being only 1,600 miles'
run from Batavia', and B itavia being only 480
from Singapore. Taking Aden, however, as the
starting-point, there are no fewer than five routes
by which Australia could thence he reached by
steam, and of these the best, in our opinion, is that
via Ceylon, Singapore, Port Essington, and Torres
Straits. Sydney would thus be brought within about
11,700 miles of London—a distance only twice that
between London and Bombay ; whereas, according
to the present arrangements Australia may be prac-
tically considered at least four times as far off as
India. A proportionate result would be obtained if
Adelaide or Port Philip were made the point of com-
munication, in which case the western passage might
be taken from Port Essington ; and we may convey
perhaps a good idea of the immense circuit of this
island-continent by stating that the distance between
the Swan River settlement on its western, and
Sydney on its south-eastern coast, is only 300 miles
less than the distance between London and Halifax.
Whichever point, however, may be taken, we have
no hesitation in concluding that the com-
mercial relations induced or confirmed by
the route should determine its selection, for
the difference of a few hundred miles cannot be
weighed against the advantages which might be
gained or lost by a judicious or injudicious connexion.
We may here observe too, that while the Panama
route is directed to Sydney and the eastern coast
exclusively, that by the Archipelago, offers the
facility, of diverging lines from Batavia, which is
about equidistant both from Swan River and Port
Essington. Beyond doubt, it is highly desirable that
our communication with the West Indies and the Gulf
of Mexico should be placed on an improved footing
before a more spirited competitor appears on the field,
but this object is surely important enough to be pro-
moted on its own grounds, without being discussed
as a subsidiary consideration in the question of the
route to Australia, which should be determined not
e
obynlythbeyinttheerefsatisrorfeqoutihreermentsof
dependencies the
00l or ninyo
settlementsirtey
s enl i;
a butrl
and naturally connected with it than our
in the Caribbean Sea.—Times.

MERTHYR. --- ATTEMPTED MURDER.— Late on
Wednfsday night, a diabolical attempt at murder was
made at Aberdare. It appears that, for sum- time past,
the greater number of the sea-coal men, at Cadlys and
other works, have struck for an advance of wages.
Some, who thought better of the matter, continued to
work, despite the threats of the others. Owing to these
threats, which the colliers so often receive as they leave
work, there is a vast amount of ill feeling existing be-
tween the two parties. On Wednesday night the house
of William Jenkins, Mill-street, was visited by, it is
supposed, a gang of the " strikers." The first notice
given of there being any one outside, was a stone thrown
he
with considerable violence at the door, evidently
hfoort
was
purpose of attracting the attention of Jenkins, wthen in bed, and getting him to the wint)ewd.ow,
luckily
Immedi-
ately after a shot was fired through h
Thoeuse, that their deed
by the silence maintained in the
though
every
escaping the intended victim.
was accomplished, decamped; and exe-
rtion.l2 miscreants,tew thinking
our police force to find out
yet been obtained of them.
has since been made by
ses, some slugs with which
have been loaded, were found in the bed-
()thee fmucitelliztl,onfothcelupethemasi
the gun must fewof
and within a inches the head of Jenkins.
Vhsrte'ecolliers are now under examination for having
h
reatened other colliers, as they were leaving work, with
severet punishment, if they continued working. Unless
some agreement is made between masters and men, we
are afraid t`iis occurrence will be but the prelude to
others. 201. has been offered for the apprehension of
the misguided men who committed this outrage, but up
to the present time no arrest has taken place.—
Cambrian.

i The Ma• pais of Lansdowne will entertain at
dinner on the 30th nst Ant, the day before the meeting
of Parliament, at his residence in Berkele) -square' the
several members of the House of Lords connected with
the Government, and the mover and seconder of the
address in the Upper House. Lord John Russell will
entertain at his official residence in Downing-street, on
the same day, the mover and seconder of the address in
the Commons, and the several members of the Lower
House filling offices in his Administration.
THE TRANSIT TRADE WITH AMERICA. The
steam-ship Commodore, arrived at the port of Liverpool
from Havre, has brought the large number of 442 pack-
agessilks,B4c for" immediate portion of her cargo, which are
intended shipment to the United
of
solely
States of America. These large arrivals of French
manufactures in transitu to the United States of America,
are, as may be' readily expected. owing to the facilities
now afforded, by the removal cf the restriction by the
American Government, for the importation of foreign
goods into the portsof the United States in British ships.