The Sun.
London, England, 1850-05-06 00:00:00

STEAM COMMUNICATION WITH
BRAZIL, MEXICO, THE WEST INDIES, AND
THE PACIFIC,

SOUTHAMPTON, MAY 4.—We are enabled to an-
nounce that her Majesty's Government have just
concluded the long-pending negotiations for a re-
organization and improvement of steam communica-
tion with the West Indies and the Pacific, and for the
establishment of steam communication with the Bra-
zils and Rio Plata.

The arrangement and details of this important and
gigantic scheme have, for many months, occupied the
earnest attention of the Lords of the Admiralty, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer,. and some other heads
of departments. The fullest consideration has been
given to the various plans submitted to the Govern-
ment, and extensive inquiries have been instituted,
not only into the relative merits of the different
schemes and routes proposed for adoption, but also
into the comparative claims, whether political or
commercial, of the numerous colonies and states that
have to be embraced by a plan that must provide re-
gular and rapid communication to and from Buenos
Ayres and Brazil on the one hand, and the West
India mail route on the other, including all the Bri•
tish and foreign colonies, from Guiana to Jamaica,
from Venezuela and Spanish America to the Gulf of
Mexico, and from Chili to California on the Pacific
side, in all numbering upwards of sixty ports of call,
all of which it is necessary to accommodate with a
direct and accelerated method of communication to
and from Europe. .

The result of all these deliberations and inquiries
has been the adoption of a plain principle as a basis
for the plan of operations, to the practical effect that
the most important places must be provided with the
most direct communication, and that the smaller, or
relatively less important states or islands, must be
served by means of supplementary or branch lines of
. steamers, running conjunction with a main line of
trunk communication.

Amongst other plans submitted to the Government,
and very strongly urged by interested parties, was
one for diverting the whole of the mail service and
traffic to New York. The advocates of this pros
posal, which has been pressed most forcibly upon the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, but very properly
ignored, argued that, because mails from Chagres,
Jamaica, and Havannah have been for the past year
received and transmitted via the United States much
more quickly than by the existing West India
steamers, in consequence of the superior speed of the
British and North American mails ; that there-
fore such a route must of necessity be the best
for the permanent track of the whole of the
mails from the West Indies and South America.
It is true that from those three points mails can
occasionally be received considerably in advance of
the present West India steam-ships, but this simply
arises from two...prominent causes (now about to be
obviated), etre of which is the devious route pursued
by the steamers engaged in conveying the West India
mails, and the vexatious stoppages at numerous ports;
the other, the insufficient speed of the vessels them-
selves that perform the Atlantic voyages. A propo-
sition was made to the Government for carrying a
fortnightly mail to and from Chagres and New York,
for 100,0001. per annum, but the Government dis-
covered that if such a line were acceded to it would
only accomplish a small portion of the great scheme,
as it would leave totally unprovided all the smaller
West India islands, British Guiana, Venezuela,
Mexico, esntral America, and other places, which
would, from their geographical position, if placed in
conjunction with the New York line, be seriously
prejudiced both in time and distance ; that it would,
moreover, involve the necessity of entering into ano-
ther large contract with another company, and that
the cost of the combined Dian would infinitely exceed
that of a direct and independent line such as is to be
placed in operation, while at the same time a vast
numbei of places would not be so well served as at
present.
Independently of these considerations of mere ex-
pense, others of a more serious nature intervened to
prevent the consummation of such a plan, which it
was foreseen by the Government would have the im-
mediate effect of diverting to and concentrating at
New York the whole of the commercial traffic be•
tween Europe and South America, the ultimate ten-
dency of which would be highly disadvantageous to
the commerce of this country. Instead, therefore,
of making New York the half-way house for Euro-
pean intercourse with the New World, a great steam-
bridge is now to be thrown across the ocean from
Southampton to Panama, and this must become the
common highway from Europe to South America
and the West Indies ; thus preserving intact the
natural and legitimate track of British commercial
and political supremacy.
If ships of equal or superior speed to those now
plying between Liverpool and New York, such
for example as the Canada and Europa, be used in
running from Southampton to Chagres, and if a
perfectly straight course be adopted with
judicious intercolonial routes for the branch
steamers, it will be a geographical fact that
mails will be transmitted with far greater ce-
lerity than by way of the United States; and with
regard to passengers, it is clear that all travellers
would prefer the direct course to one so circuitous as
New York, involving, amongst other disadvantages,
the necessity for additional transhipments and deten-
tion, and the prejudice' effect (particularly in the
winter months) attendant upon the sudden changes
from the heats of the torrid zone to the intense cold
generally experienced in New York, Boston, and
Halifax. With merchandise and specie also from the
Pacific the detention at New York would prove in-
convenient to shippers, in addition to the traversing
of an excess in distance of from 600 to 700 miles over
the straight course to England from the Isthmus of
Panama.

Regarding the West India mails, it is unnecessary
for us to give in detail the full particulars of the ar-
rangements that have been entered into. On Decem-
ber full e x pboys i titohne of
Royalthe
routes
,plvaospt
proposed to
towethegave a
Government
Mail Steam-packet Company, contrasting
in time that might be effected over the complicated
routes of the old contract. Suffice it to say, that
these routes have been accepted by the Lords
of the Admiralty, and that they are to be tra-
versed both out and home under the new plan. The
main line steamer, after leaving Southampton, will
proceed direct to St. Thome ' Thomas's, s, performing the voyage
in twelve days. At that island three branch steamers
will be in waiting to receive mails,
one to convey them
to Hevannah and the Gulf of Mexico, a second to
Porto Rico, Hayti, Jamaica, San Jago de Cuba, Hon-
duras, Nicaragua, &c. ; the third to the 'Windward
and Leeward Islands, terminating at Demerara. After
thus transferring the mails for those places, the At •
lantie steamers will ,stert direct for Chagres, on the
Isthmus of Panama, there to disembark the Pacific
mails for transmission to the west coast of America.
Homeward, the method adopted will be precisely
the same, and the Chagres steamer will find at St.
Thomas's the branch steamers from the three pre •
viously mentioned points, the departure of which will
be so arranged that they shall always (excepting in
case of accident) be waiting in the harbour of St.
Thomas's for the arrival of the large ship having on
board the Pacific mails.
Generally speaking, an accelerated communication
of from 12 to 16 days will be guaranted to all the
ports by this arrangement. Taking Valparaiso as the
extreme point, a saving will thence be effected of about
20 days, the distance being performed in 40 to 43
days against 60 to 63, as at present. To Chagres the
voyage will occupy only 18 or 19 days against 32 or
84, as at present ; Jamaica will be reached in 16 or 17
days.; the Gulf of Mexico in 22 or 20 days ; Havan-
nah in 15 or 16 days ; Guiana in 19 to 21 days, and
the intermediate islands in proportion.
To correspond with these arrangements on the
Pacific side, we believe it is the intention of the Ad-
miralty to agree with the Pacific Steam Navigation
Company for a fortnightly mail to and from 'Valpa-
raiso and Panama, in place of the present monthly
steamer. This alteration will be bailed with great
satisfaction by the merchants in that quarter of the
world, and will doubtless have the effect of preventing
the Americans from running their projected line of
steamers from Panama to Valparaiso.
In the article of the 10th December, before alluded
to, our readers will remember we stated that it was
in contemplation to substitute a tri- weekly communi-
cation for the fortnightly mail now established.
While strongly reprobating the retrograde policy of
thus curtailing the number of communications with
the West Indies, we explained that, so far as Central
America and the Pacific ports were concerned, the
mails to those parts of the world would necessarily be
increased in frequency, because to them a mail is only
now made up once a month. We are, however, happy
to learn that the three-weekly plan has not been
abandoned, and that a fortnightly communication is
to be kept up with the whole of the West Indies and
the Pacific. To Mexico and Havannah a monthly
mail will be dispatched the same as at present.
Bermuda will be entirely omitted as a place of call,
and this objectionable and dangerous route, which has
uniformly caused the greatest discontent and produced
most of the irregularity of the mails, will be abolished,
Mobile, likewise, will no longer be touched by these
steam-vessels.
With reference to Brazil, a monthly mail, with an
independent line of packets, is to be established. The
route, both outwards and homewards. is to be the
same as mentioned on the 24th of December last.
Starting from Southampton, the steamers will pro-
ceed to Funchal (Madeira), Santa Cruz (Teneriffe),
Porto Prays (Cape Verdes), Pernambuco, Behia,
and Rio Janeiro. From Rio Janeiro there will be a
branch packet to Montevideo and Buenos Ayres.
The Admiralty have not, we believe, sanctioned the
proposed touching at Lisbon, and thus the advantage of
the trafic between Portugal and the Brazilian em-
pire will be lost to the contractors. For many
reasons this decision is to be regretted, because the
communications might have secured the whole of the

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