The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-12-30
[ From he Lirerpool Post Of Dec. 81

AFRICAN STEAMSHIP CoMPANY.-The half-yearl
meeting of proprietors in this company was he
last Thursday, at their office, No. 3 Mincng Ian
London, Mr.. p. d. Hadow, the chairman of I'll
Board of Directors, presiding.
From the revenue account it appeared that I'll
gross income of the company from freight, passae
money, and postal services, for the six months en
ing 3lSt of October last, including Il balance
f3 Sl3 from last year, was $40 654; the tot
charges of all kinds revenue, including ii
transfer to reserve fund.- and the balance standin
at the debit of Heeva coal hulk, was f33 452, lea
ing an available balance of f7 POP
The Chairman remarked that although this con
pany had had many disappontments to strugg
with-althOugh its first sanguine expectations
traffic were not realized, and the subsidy it oi
tanned at first proved nsuficient-athough it ha
experienced more than the usual number of casua
ties and disasters, it satisfactory to be able no
to declare moderate dividend which had bee
honestly earned.
Mr.. Macgregor Laird, having been invited
give the meeting some information about We
Africa, said that one of the most gratifying sig
of improvement in that region the increasi1
movement of free laborers up and down the coas
The increase of the passenger traffic of this comb
ny's vessels was chiefly in second-class and del
passengers, from Sierra Leone to Lagos, and fro
Bonny and the palm oil rivers to Cape Pamas all
the kroo country. The number of these negro nd
Sengers, paying from five to ten dollars head h1
increased from 500 to 200 and he had no doubt
would soon be doubled. The Government tod
great interest in developing this trade, as we'll
in opening up regular intercourse with the ~
tives of the country along the tributaries of Il
Niger. This was shown to be their feeling by
letter of the Secretary to the Treasury, Mr.. Ham|
ton, written at the end of October, in reply to
memorial from the Manchester Cotton Supply a
sociaton. Mr.. Laird said he hoped at the next med
ing to be able to give some account of the progre
of the Niger Exploring Expedition, which he wi
now carrying out under a contract with Cover
ment. 1t was satisfactory to know that we had Nc
almost as regular communications with the interil
of Africa as ten or twelve years ago we h|
with Constantinople. Letters might be received
London in fifty days from Rabba, whence they h|
to be conveyed four hundred miles overland to II
port Of Lagos. The slave trade was so rapidly /
minishing, that he was happy to say it was now 4
most extinct in the Bights of Benin and Biafra,
might be said to be extinct there. The quantity
cotton shipped at Lagos this year for Mr. Clegg,
Manchester, would be about l 500 bales. The Nj
chester gentlemen had advanced money to or
cotton, and the ships Of this company, by affordi
means for the free Africans at Sierra Leone to
back to their native country, might be said to ha
created this trade. The Nun river was naviga
five or six hundred miles up for steamers drawi
eight feet of water, and a great development
trade might be expected there.
FOREIGN PosT OFFICES AND Our OwN.-Our Pt |
Office Department does not pay its own expenses
spite of all the pains taken to make it do so.
this respect it resembles those of continental II
rope, but falls short of the English system. Bel
we give the population, postal revenue and
md 1111nln Of lntF Id