Viâ MARSEILLES.

OUTWARDS.INWARDS.
Date. Boxes.Date. Boxes.
January3125January338
”10122”1080
”18114”1822
”26374”2625
February4114February445
”11168”1181
”1899”1841
”26340”2650
March498March434
”11161”1181
”1896”1851
”26323”2622

The returns, viâ Marseilles, do not separate the numbers of boxes to and from Australia, from those for the Mediterranean, India, and China, but the great difference between the number of boxes despatched outwards on the 26th of each month, and the number received inwards on the 10th of each month, will show approximately what is the number of boxes attributable to Australia. Outwards, it would be about 240; inwards, about 40.

But this is certain, that during the three first months of 1867 no less than 6,288 boxes (or at the rate of 25,152 boxes per annum) were despatched outwards, and 1,675 boxes (or at the rate of 8,980 per annum) were received inwards. Total outwards and inwards for three months, 8,533, or at the rate of 34,132 boxes per annum. Taking each box at the weight of 30 kilogrammes (which is below their weight taken all round) it follows that the gross weight of the Eastern mails per annum is 1,024,000 kilogrammes, or about 1,100 tons. By ship-board measurement it would be about 2,300,000 kilogrammes, or 2,550 tons.

There are two important subjects which it appears to me should at once be impressed upon the minds of the members of the Italian Government. The first is, the probable very early completion of the Mont Cenis Railway on Mr. Fell’s system, and the second, the notice given at the end of last year by the British Government to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, to terminate its existing Mediterranean contracts on the 31st of January, 1868, and the advertisement which it has since issued, inviting parties to tender for these services, dating from the 1st day of the ensuing month—that is from the first of February, 1868. This advertisement contains, for the first time, an intimation that the British Post Office is desirous of establishing an ocean contract service between Brindisi and Alexandria, in addition to its existing services between Southampton and Alexandria, and between Marseilles and Alexandria.

As regards the Mont Cenis Railway, the testimony of the various Imperial and Royal Commissioners who were present at the trials on the experimental line above Lanslebourg, made in 1865, is so uniformly in favour of the system, that we have simply to look forward to its opening as the commencement of a revolution, not only as regards railway construction in mountainous districts, but also as leading to the most important results, in connection with the transport of the Anglo-Eastern mails.

The two kingdoms most deeply interested in the success of the system are, undoubtedly, England and Italy, the former, because, by means of the railway the transport of the fast mails can, according to the testimony of Captain Tyler, of Her Britannic Majesty’s Royal Engineers, and the Commissioners of the British Government, at the trials on the Mont Cenis, be effected between London and Alexandria, in thirty-nine hours less time than viâ Marseilles. Italy becomes, by means of this railway, a route hitherto undeveloped, and it can be brought into active operation not only for mail transport, but also for that of passengers; and no doubt, eventually, for that of light goods, and of specie also.

The advertisement of the British Government leads to the inference that it desires the conveyance of the fast mails,—that is the mails that now take the route viâ Marseilles—by way of Brindisi, as soon as all the arrangements for their transit are completed. It is to be feared, however, that the French Post Office, instigated no doubt by the Paris, Lyons and Mediterranean Railway Company, whose interests are concentrated at Marseilles, and who has no love whatever for the Mont Cenis Railway, will offer all the opposition in its power to the divergence from Marseilles to Brindisi taking place. In the first instance the department gave assurances that it would not only not put obstacles in the way of the British Government making the transfer, but would co-operate with it and assist it whenever required to do so. But in December last, the Marquis de Moustier, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, addressed to Earl Cowley, the British Ambassador at Paris, a despatch which contained a memorandum from the French Post Office, the object of which was to show that the Brindisi route would only save ten hours over that viâ Marseilles, for mails from England, and would not effect any saving for mails coming from Egypt towards England. The memorandum contains several errors of fact, the most conspicuous of which is that the calculations are the same as were brought forward by the department when the Ferrovia Meridionale was only opened as far as Ancona, whereas it is now extended to Brindisi, 559 kilometres farther southwards, and therefore that much the nearer to Alexandria.

I have reason also to know that the French Government expressed, in December last, to the British Government, its willingness to reduce its present transit rate for British correspondence to and from India, China, Australia, &c., one-half, provided the fast mails continued to be conveyed viâ Marseilles, and that they be not deviated to Brindisi.