The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-09-02 00:00:00

STEAM NAVIGATION.

(From yesterday's Times.)
Allusion was made, a very short time back, under this
head, to the discouraging situation of the various projects
connected with steam navigation across the Atlantic, since
they appear to be hastening at an accelerated pace towards
final abandonment and ruin. The refitting of the ominous
" ten-gun" brigs by the admiralty is talked of, to supply the
place of the steam-vessels of the West India Mail Packet
Company ; the Great Western Steam-ship Company, trad-
ing between Bristol and New York, are stated publicly to be
in such pecuniary difficulty as to be compelled to bring the
whole concern to an early close ; and the North American
Mail Company, the only party now left to prosecute the enter-
prise of steam communication with:America, are appealing
to Government and to the trading interest to afford them a
more efficient support, without which they also must throw
up their contract, and that rapid and safe mode of intercourse
be finally relinquished'
.It will be quite apparent from the previous history of the
last named company, that they must form the chief depend-
ence of the two countries in this respect, and that if they
cannot succeed none can. It is stated to be composed of
about 30 proprietors only, and to differ from joint stock con-
cerns generally in confiding the whole management to two
individuals, Mr. G. Burns, of Glasgow, and Mr. David
Maciver, of Liverpool, who are the individuals recognized by
Government as the contractors. Though usually termed
" Cunard's line," after Mr. Cunard, of Halifax, that gentle-
man is only one of the general proprietors. On the 4th of
July. 1840, they commenced the first voyage of the contract
service of carrying the American mails, for which the Go-
vernment was under agreement to pay £60,000 per annum,
but within nine months the managi-g partners made the
mortifying discovery that the undertaking was a losing one,
and that the whole capital they had embarked in it must
be sacrificed unless they could obtain some further
assistance from Government. On the representation they
made, a rehearing of the case was permitted, and after a most
rigid investigation into their affairs, in the course of which it
was proved, though they carried a great number tif pa ssengers
and light cargo besides, that their receipts could not cover
the expenditure, an addition of £20,000 a year was conse-
quently made to their allowance from the Government.
With this advantage, they were encouraged to struggle on
since that period with this undertaking, but still find, with
their large capital of £300,000, and the intelligence and indus-
try brought to bear its employments, and returns no profit.
These statements are denied, it should be observed. from a
publication at Liverpool, apparently under the influence of
the parties engaged in this undertaking, but there is no reason
for believing that it has given an untrue or an exaggerated
account of their situation, which, if they did, would be easly
exposed and re-act upon themselves, and hence it may be
admitted that the manner in which their appeals is to be dis-
posed of has become a public question.
After making this admission, however, the mode of dealing
with it is by no means rendered so clear by the parties them-
selves as it ought to he in such a case. They advert vaguely
to possible attemps at competition with them, based upon the
wreck of other undertakings, and seek, perhaps too eagerly,
to establish what ought to be self-evident, after the ex-
perience acquired under their own contract, that no under-
taking for steam conveyance across the Atlantic can suc-
ceed, unless united with the service of the Government
in the transport of the mails. Any department of the
Government, to which in regular course their appeal
ougth to be made in a direct manner, would require
some better guide, and demand of the complainants
not only an exposition of the grievances under which they la-
boured, but some specific suggestions of such a remedy as they
themselvesfeel to be applicable to theirsituation. If the terms
of their contract are still too low, let them state what ought
to be a matter of no difficulty after the long experience they
have gained, what terms they do require to work the con-
tract with that advantage to themselves to which they are
honourably entitled, and the question would then speedily
be brought to some issue. The government cannot, and the
public will not, through indolence and inattention to such
matters generally, do anything to keep off that rivalry which
the North American Mail Company seem to dread, and
which, if their position is a sound one, they ought as little
to apprehend as the Bank of England or the East India
Company the puny attempts of any petty trading corpora-
tion.
The contract with this company has been impugned on the
ground that it is a monopoly, and bad in principle, and
that the management of such an undertaking should devolve
upon the government itself, at whatever loss, as one
means, among others, of gradually creating an efficient
steam naval force; but we should prefer leaving this in pri-
vate hands to those of the Admiralty or any other public de-
partment. The dangerous and laborious service in which
they are to be employed secures a supply of vessels of the
best class and upon the best principles ; and, therefore, leay.
ing all other advantages out of the question, we should be
glad, not only to see the North American Company secured
in permanence to the public service, but an attempt made
to re-organise on better principles, and under more prudent
management, that West India Company of which the ruin is
pronounced to be all but certain. To return to the old
vicious system of the West India packets and ten-gun brigs
is a misfortune : to recede from the great project for a com-
munication by steam with America, so long successfully
worked, and to the future success of which the want of
money is the only impediment, is a national disgrace. Fu-
ture improvements in this navigation may render that pro-
fitable hereafter which is not so at present ; but if the chain
is once broken, any attempts of that kind will be without a
motive.

THE POTTERS Rzors..—Tne Staffordshire Advertiser
has the following estimate of the loss occasioned by the des-
truction of property during the riots in the Potteries :
" We have made some inquiry as to the estimated amount of
damage, but find that accurate estimates have not been pre-
pared. The following are rough calculations, but will be
very far from the exact amounts when computed. At Mr.
Parker's (Albion House), where the destruction of property
was complete, and where very little property was got away
before the rioters began, and not even the plate was saved,
the loss is estimated at from £4,000 to £5,000. At the Rev.,
E. Aitkens's, the loss is estimated at £2,000. Mr. Aitken
was more fortunate than his neighbour Mr. Parker, as he
was able to secure his own plate, and also the communion
plate, which was in the house at the time. The worthy
clergyman also managed to send away several manuscripts, a
few of his books, and part of his clothes ; and since the des-
truction, some of his books and a few other articles have
been restored. At Mr. Rose's, Penkhull, the loss cannot be
less than from £7OO to £800; and at Mr. Allin's, Great
Fenton, we learn it is something less than £4OO. At Dr.
Vale's, of Longton, where a fine library was partly destroyed
and partly stolen, and where the spoliation of property was
carried as far as possible, and the house greatly injured by
fire and the merciless hands of the mob, the damage cannot,
we should think, be much short of £1,500. Putting these
sums together, and making a proportionate addition for the
damage done at Mr. Mason's, Mr. Forrester's, and at the
various other places described in our last, the total damage
done appears to be about £lO,OOO. The loss will have to be
made good by the hundred.

of Ireland,
At the meeting of the Irish Repeal Association, on Mon-
`lay,
nothing y, Mr. Burke, a working-man, moved the adoption of an
address from the Repeal Board of Trade to the Teetotallers
withg b._. calling. upon them to pledge themselves to use
some
absentees rtess.itiandtsiehsnttiple.isa.nlurefalacntudr;esfo;
rawndhastutplipfroerrteendcethweams
thereotion
He contended that there were Irish
between a man in
articles and a Dublin purchasing foreign manufactured
thing? They had personmany
anresiding .in London doing the same
room with English hat!' pretended patriots coming to that
their heads ; and he had seen
persons frothing out of the
die for Ireland, who no longermouth, and saying they would
There were three millionstcrdescended to visit them.
during the year ; which, if manufacturedsimported into Ireland
employ 18 000
emp ,and in Ireland, would
workmen, give wages to the amount of
£350,000 a-year. Every shopkeeper's till
chant's counter was now a means of dra.and every mer-
chant's
; and while the produce of the solnwgasheland of her
by steamers, these vessels come back freighted - carried away
with manufac-
tured articles, which served to complete the national
' ' the people of work. Was it not a shame onal ruin by
depriving to men
tion, that even to supply the Irish Teetollars with m d,i.,z-
-c200,000 had been expended in Birmingham, which eo
a'
not to have gone ont of the country ? The motion cartwasu
vied. Mr. O'Connell read a communication from ?d Slums,r.
of the Complete Suffrage Association, approving of the offer
of the Repeal Association to unite with that body in order
to effect their common object—an extension of the suffrage.