Rambles on Railways

by Sir Cusack P. Roney

For these reasons I am sure that the Italian Government will see the necessity and importance of vigorous action; and vigour is all the more necessary, as the officers of the British Post Office have very frequently made the avowal that their leading principle in all their postal arrangements is to make each self supporting. Therefore, unless under compulsion to the contrary, they would probably accept such a proposal,—at all events I am convinced that they would, if they could. At the present time the British Government sustains a loss of about 1,000,000 francs (£40,000), a-year by its Anglo-Eastern mail services.

So far as regards the substitution of Brindisi for Marseilles in the conveyance of what are known in this country as “The Fast Eastern Mails.”

I now desire to approach a subject which I consider to be of at least equal interest and importance, both to Italy and to England, and I shall be much gratified if the Italian Government consider the suggestion I have to offer (which I may state is an original idea of my own), in the same light as I do. In order that I may make myself clearly understood, it will be necessary to go into rather lengthy details.

England has two rates of postage for the letter correspondence. Newspapers and printed matter, which are conveyed by her Anglo-Eastern Mails, by the Marseilles route, the letter postage rate for half ounce, or fifteen grammes, is 100 centimes (tenpence); newspapers thirty centimes (threepence) each. Book post sixty centimes (sixpence), per four ounces, or 120 grammes. By the mails which are conveyed viâ Southampton, the letter rate per half-ounce, or fifteen grammes, is sixty centimes (sixpence); newspapers twenty centimes (twopence) each. Book post forty centimes (fourpence) per four ounces or 120 grammes. It follows therefore that a great number of newspapers and all heavy letters are forwarded viâ Southampton.

At the commencement of the Overland Indian Mail Service, in consequence of the absence of railways in France, there was scarcely any difference between the time required to convey correspondence viâ Southampton and viâ Marseilles. But by degrees, as the railway system between Calais and Marseilles came into operation the time by that route diminished, and what, in 1840, was a journey of 120 hours, or five days, between London and Marseilles, has in recent years, for the Eastern mail service, been reduced to thirty-four hours.

The contract speed of the steam vessels that sail between Southampton and Alexandria is ten knots an hour, exclusive of the stoppages allowed by the British Post Office, at Malta and Gibraltar. The time, therefore, occupied in the passage between Southampton and Alexandria is fourteen days, and as the vessels are timed to arrive at the latter port, at least one day in advance of the steamer viâ Marseilles, the journey may be said to require fifteen days. As the mails conveyed by the steamers viâ Marseilles only requires eight days, it follows, in order that the mails viâ Southampton and viâ Marseilles be carried forward by the same steamer from Suez, that there shall be an interval of from 6½ to 7½ days between the time of posting a letter for the same destination in the east. Thus precisely the same occurs in the reverse direction, that is to say, if the writer of a letter in London wishes to forward it, on account of its comparatively cheap rate of postage, viâ Southampton so that it shall arrive in, say, Bombay, at the same time as a letter despatched viâ Marseilles on the evening of the 10th of the month, he must take care that it is posted in time for despatch by the morning mail of the 3rd; or if the writer of a letter in Bombay forward it for delivery in England viâ Southampton, he must be content that his correspondent receive it seven days later than if he sent it viâ Marseilles; as the usual time for a letter to be conveyed between London and Bombay viâ Marseilles, is twenty-one days, the letter if sent by the other route, is practically one-third longer on its journey. The comparative penalty in time is not so great for Calcutta and other places more distant than Bombay, but the absolute penalty is the same in all cases, a delay of six days and a half as a minimum, seven days and a half as a maximum.

When the Brindisi route is available for the mails now taken viâ Marseilles, the interval, in consequence of the saving of thirty-nine hours, between the despatch of the mails, viâ Brindisi and viâ Southampton, must never be less than eight days as a minimum, or more than nine days as a maximum. The consequence is, in my opinion, that arrangements must be made for conveying, by the Brindisi route, the great portion of the “Heavy,” or “Southampton Mails,” as well as the conveyance of the “Fast,” or the “Marseilles Mails.”

It can, however, only be accomplished by the countries interested consenting to take a transit rate, very different from that which is the ordinary transit rate for mail correspondence.

As long as the Mont Cenis Railway is the only railway open towards the western extremity of the Alps, France may refuse to agree to such an arrangement. There would then be no alternative but to continue the heavy mail service viâ Southampton, until the completion of the Simplon Railway would make both England and Italy independent of France. The reason is, that there would then be two routes between England and Italy, viâ the Simplon; one, undoubtedly the shorter, through Paris, Dijon, Pontarlier, and Lausanne, the other through Ostend, Belgium, Rhenish Germany, and Switzerland.

The distance from London to Brindisi, viâ Paris, Dijon, &c., would be 2,395 kilometers; viâ Ostend, Belgium, and Rhenish Germany, 2,758 kilometers. At the present time the fast mails are conveyed between London and Alexandria, viâ Marseilles, in 193 hours, or eight days one hour.