The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-11-19 00:00:00

THE WEST INDIA MAIL STATION

Amongst the most important sins of omission attributable
to the Council of Liverpool, under whig domination, we can-
not but regard the want of energy which it has manifested in
not pressing more urgently upon government the claims of
our port to be selected as the point for the despatch of the
West India mail. Deeply interested as are the people of Li-
verpool in West India property and in West India trade ;
deeply interested, in fact, as is the whole of the north of
England, and the manufacturing districts especially, in the
selection of Liverpool as the West India mail station :
possessing as we do the advantages of central position, as
regards alike England, Ireland, and Scotland, and furnished
with railway and steam communications with all the principal
seats of commerce in the empire is abundantly sur-
prising that, before a committee, appointed to investigate
and decide upon so important a subject as the locality of this
station, the claims of our port should hare been advocated
with an energy so little commensurate with the magnitude of
the object to be attained, if it may not even be said to have
been overlooked altogether.

We have already, by the excellent management of the
North American line of mail steamers, the fact established
that in a nautical view no port can be preferable to Liverpool
for the purposes required by government and the commerce
of the empire ; and we are confident that were the selection
of a port left to nautical men, or to the owners of the
packets themselves, no other port than Liverpool could be
selected. No other port concentrates so great a portion of
the freight that would pass to and from the West Indies, or
so great a portion of the mercantile correspondence; and
although, perhaps for the government and the south of
England correspondence, a few hours, in tinie, might be
saved by the selection of one of the southern ports contem-
plated, and principally insisted upon, as eligible, before the
committee, yet we are satisfied that a perusal of its Report
and of the Evidence taken before it, will satisfy any impartial
mind that the claims of Liverpool need only to have been
prominently placed before it, and backed by the exertion of
such influence as the corporation could have commanded, to
have been at once, and fully established.
That such is the case we purpose briefly to show from
documents, furnished to the committee by Mr. Srow, a
superintendent of the mail coach department in the General
Post-office; and before proceeding to do this we may re-
mark, that the whole of the evidence of this gentleman,
(whose authority must be deemed unquestionable,) has evi-
dently a bearing towards the adoption of Liverpool as the
port, possessing the greatest amount of facilities, to the
Post-office establishment itself, and to the whole empire.
" Whether the mail is established by a short land carriage or
a long land carriage," remarks this gentleman, " is a matter
of indifference to the Post-office." And again, although he
admits that " he is not prepared to say that LIVERPOOL is
the best port for the whole empire," he adds that " taking
Glasgow, on the one hand, and Birmingham, Manchester,
and Leeds, with the Railway communication, now all the
way to Hull and Newcastle, and Dublin and Belfast on the
other, there is no question that letters from the north would
reach LIVERPOOL quicker than any other town, but whether
it is the best port for the packets, I am not prepared to
state ; it appears to me to be a nautical question." In de-
livering this opinion, it must be borne in mind that the ex-
amination to which lie was subjected, was aimed to establish
the claims of one or other of the southern ports ; for, al-
though one of the members for Liverpool—Mr. Cresswell—
was upon the committee, it is notorious that his hands were
never efficiently strengthened, and the claims of Liverpool
prominently put forward by the council, which ought to have
taken the initiative in a question so important to the inter-
ests of the town.

The following is a Statement of the: Time that would be re
quired for the Conveyance of the West India Mails from
London to the following Ports.

a. st
To Falmouth via Devonport
... 25 0
Ditto via Launceston
Dartmouth .
Plymouth • l6 15
Southampton

Portsmouth
Bristol, railroad the whole distance.
Liverpool, ditto

Waterford

3 5
10 0
36 0

By this it will be seen, that so far as London and the go-
vernment are concerned, only three ports, viz., Southamp-
ton, Portsmouth, and Bristol, and these by but a few hours,
are more favourable than our own. Whether the interests of
London and the south of England are alone to be con-
sulted upon a national commercial question, we leave our
readers to determine. By another statement, however,
which we give below, the advantages offered by Liverpool to
the bulk of our correspondence with the West Indies, viz.,
that from the manufacturing districts of the north of Eng_
land—(and it must be borne in mind that wills respect to
freight, the bulk of the exports likely to be sent by steamers
will consist of valuable manufactured articles from Man-
chester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Nottingham, &c., for which
Liverpool is decidedly a more natural port than any we have
named) will be still more apparent.
Statement of the Time that would be required for the con-
veyance of the West India Mails from Glasgow, Liverpool.
Manchester, Leeds, and Birmingham, to the following
Ports.

From From From From 1:rom
Liver- Mauches-
Leeds. Birmingham.
Glasgow • pool. ter.

H. M. H. M. H. M.
31 20 34 45 26 35
26 30 26 55 18 45
26 45 27 10 19 0
33 40 34 5 25 56
36 30 36 55 28 46
14 30 14 55 6 43
1 15 10 40 4 15
28 15 37 10 31 15