According to the calculations of Captain Tyler, the fast mails can be conveyed from London to Brindisi, viâ Mont Cenis, in sixty-nine hours. That is to say, a letter posted in London on the evening of the 11th of a month would arrive in Brindisi at 5·30 p.m. on the evening of the 14th; allowing two hours for placing the mails on board the steamer, she would start at 7·30 p.m., and at the existing contract rate of ten knots an hour, she would reach Alexandria in eighty-three hours; that is at 6·30 a.m. on the 18th. If the Simplon line were opened, the mails would be conveyed in, at least, three hours less time; making the arrival at Brindisi 3·30 a.m. Thus, the total distance would be accomplished in 151 hours, or six days seven hours; showing a saving over the Marseilles route of forty-two hours.
If the French Government would enter into an agreement for carrying the Heavy Mails, through French territory by ordinary trains, they could be conveyed between London and Alexandria in seven days nineteen hours; or six hours less time than at present, viâ Marseilles: in other words, these mails need not be despatched from London until thirty-six hours before the departure of the fast mails.
But if the adoption of the route, viâ Ostend, Belgium, and Rhenish Germany, be unavoidable, it will then be necessary to despatch the heavy mails twenty-four hours earlier than if they were transmitted viâ France. Still this despatch will only be two days and a half earlier than the despatch of the fast mails, instead of being eight or nine days, which would be the case if the heavy mails still continued to be despatched viâ Southampton.
The progress of the heavy mails by ordinary trains viâ Ostend, &c., would be as follows:—Despatched from London on the morning of the 9th of a month, they would reach Basle on the evening of the 10th. At present there is no night mail trains on the Swiss railways, but they will be established before the opening of the Simplon Railway. They would thus reach Lausanne very early on the morning of the 11th. The distance from Lausanne to Milan, is 351 kilometres, of which, 77 would constitute the passage across the mountain; allowing five hours for it, and nine for the remaining 234, the train would arrive at Milan two hours before departure of the 9·10 p.m. train southwards; leaving Bologna at 3·40 on the morning of the 12th, the mails would, at the latest, arrive at Brindisi at noon on the 13th. Thus, the whole journey from London to Brindisi would be performed in 101 hours, or four days five hours, and the heavy mails would be there 29 hours in advance of the light mails despatched on the evening of the 11th.
The following table will show at one view the distances (given in kilometres) and the times occupied, or to be occupied in the several routes between London and Alexandria.
| Viâ. | Land. | Water. | Total. | Time. | |
| Kilos. | Kilos. | Kilos. | D. | H. | |
| Southampton | 130 | 5,588 | 5,718 | 15 | 0 |
| Marseilles | 1,416 | 2,835 | 4,251 | 8 | 1 |
| Brindisi[160] | |||||
| Fast mails | 2,470 | 1,629 | 4,099 | 6 | 7 |
| Heavy mails viâ France | .. | .. | .. | 7 | 19 |
| Heavy mails viâ Belgium | 2,833 | .. | 4,462 | 8 | 19 |
It is a well established maxim with all Post Office authorities to prefer land to water service for conveyance of mails; but especially so, when the land service can be effected by railway. There are two reasons for this preference; the first is, the greater certainty of land over water conveyance; and the second is that mails carried by railways, are conveyed at a rate of speed never less than double, and frequently it is three times greater than that of even the quickest water conveyance.
Viewed in that light, it will be seen by the above table what advantages the Brindisi route to Alexandria affords over all others. The direct route is not only 152 kilometers shorter than that viâ Marseilles; but, whereas the sea voyage of the latter route is 2,835 kilometers, that viâ Brindisi is only 1,629, showing a difference in favour of Brindisi, of 1,206 kilometers; again, the Marseilles route, has only an advantage of 211 kilometers in point of length over that viâ Belgium; but the sea passage is still in favour of the latter by 1,206 kilometers. If the routes viâ Southampton and Brindisi be compared, the difference exhibited will be still more striking, and the effect is, that a journey which can be accomplished in six days seven hours, viâ Brindisi takes nearly twice and a half as long by the other route.
I therefore consider that great efforts should be made both by Italy and by England, to accomplish the conveyance of the heavy Eastern Mails viâ Brindisi. Even if Italy made apparent sacrifices—that is, if she carried those mails along her railways at the rate charged for merchandise, it would be worth her while to do so. She would thereby not only secure a passenger traffic such as she does not possess at present, nor can she ever possess, unless with such apparent sacrifices, but she will thereby make Brindisi the Great European Terminal Port for all Eastern Postal and Passenger Traffic.