It thus becomes abundantly evident from the Reports of Parliamentary Committees, from the "Acts of Parliament," and from the practice of the Admiralty and Post Office Departments, as well as from the unvarying experiences of twenty-four years, that the steam mail packet system of Great Britain was primarily adopted, and ever since sustained as the choicest means of giving to that nation the irresistible control of the world. Watching this system from the germ to its present maturity, we have seen the overshadowing tree reach higher and higher, and the circle of each year's growth expand more and more, until the outer ring now embraces the whole civilized and savage world. An additional evidence of this arrives this very day. The Atlantic brings intelligence (New-York papers, Nov. 22d) that Great Britain has just completed another mail contract, by which the Peninsular and Oriental Company are to run a third semi-monthly service to India and China; so that the Government and people of Great Britain shall have a weekly communication with those regions, while we have none except through them, although we are many thousand miles nearer to those countries.
It has been said that we should not attempt to run the postal and commercial race with Great Britain. Why not? Because she has many colonies, and must needs keep up communication with them. And why have steam instead of sail to them? Because steam is the means of more readily controlling them. Grant it; and for the very same reason we wish steam with all the world; not that we may control the world, for this is costly and unremunerative, as Great Britain finds; but to conform it, and especially to control its commerce. Great Britain has possessions in the West-Indies; but they are of the most insignificant importance when compared with the trade of the many islands and countries near them, which she does not possess, and with the Central American, Californian, Mexican, Peruvian, Chilian, New-Granadian, Venezuelan, and Spanish markets, which she controls and uses. So with India and the Mauritius. It is a matter of sore satisfaction that she is compelled to govern them as a means of reaching their rich trade, which, however rich, is far less important than that of China for which she so strives. So also with Canada. She was told some years since that, if she wished to secede from the Kingdom, because the Government would not assist in building a certain railroad, she might go, and carry peace, also, with her. The Government would scout the idea of running the Cunard line to Canada alone, and would not touch even at Halifax, except that the ships are compelled to go in sight of the place; as the "great circle" on which they sail nearly cuts the city. Great Britain runs that line because her trade with the United States requires it. That trade is worth to her every year twenty of her Canadas, as that of the West-Indies is worth a dozen of all the possessions which she has there. As to running the race of commerce with her, it is simply a sine qua non, on which there is no difference of opinion among Americans who love their country.
SECTION X.
THE MAIL LINES OF THE UNITED STATES.
THE MAIL LINES OF THE UNITED STATES: THE HAVRE AND BREMEN, THE PIONEERS: THE BREMEN SERVICE RECENTLY GIVEN TO MR. VANDERBILT: BOTH LINES RUN ON THE GROSS RECEIPTS: THE CALIFORNIA LINES: WONDROUS DEVELOPMENT OF OUR PACIFIC POSSESSIONS: THE PACIFIC MAIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY: ITS HISTORY, SERVICES, LARGE MATERIEL, AND USEFULNESS: THE UNITED STATES MAIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY: ITS RAMIFIED AND LARGE EXTRA SERVICE: EFFECT UPON THE COMMERCE OF THE GULF: ITS HEAVY LOSSES, AND NEW SHIPS: STEAMSHIP STOCKS GENERALLY AVOIDED: CONSTANTLY FAR BELOW PAR: THE COLLINS LINE: A COMPARISON WITH THE CUNARD: ITS SOURCES OF HEAVY OUTLAY, AND ITS ENTERPRISE: THE AMERICAN MARINE DISASTERS COULD NOT HAVE BEEN PREVENTED BY HUMAN FORESIGHT: THE VANDERBILT BREMEN LINE.
It is not my intention to notice the various lines in detail, or in any wise become their apologist, eulogist, or prosecutor. As a general thing they have discharged their obligations to the Government and the people in the most creditable manner; in a much better manner than could have been expected of them, considering the novelty of such enterprises in this country and our total want of experience either in steamship building or ocean steam navigation. It is a cause of great gratulation and satisfaction that springing into the great arena of the mail and passenger strife at a single bound, our steamers at once took the lead in the race, and have ever since distanced those of the whole world in speed, comfort, general accommodations, and cheap transit. This may be asserted as a rule without a single exception. The Collins steamers and the steamer "Vanderbilt" have beaten the Cunarders by nearly a day and a half on the average voyages; the Havre and Bremen steamers make just the same time as the Cunarders; and the California steamers of both lines have signally beaten those of all the English lines in the West-Indies, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific and Indian oceans. Indeed the triumphs of our steamers generally and specially have been so decided in every valuable point that we have great reason to be proud of the attainments to which the legislation of 1846 and '47 led. We have nothing to record to the credit of our legislation since that period.
The Havre and Bremen services were the first established in the United States; and as the pioneers in our mail steamshipping they have both proven themselves valuable to the country. The Bremen line went into the hands of Mr. Vanderbilt during the present year, on the expiration of the old contract; the "Ocean Steam Navigation Company" being unwilling to attempt the performance of the service on the small mail pay of the gross ocean and inland postages, even with their old ships. Mr. Vanderbilt having three ships wholly out of employment, determined to try the service. How far it will prove remunerative we shall not be able to determine until the steamers shall have run through one or two winters as well as summers.
The Havre service was continued in the old hands. Mr. Livingston had two fine new ships, which had been running but little over one year, and which, adapted specially to the mail, passenger, and transport trade of France, could not easily be withdrawn from the business for which they were built; while it would have been quite impossible to find for them employment in any other trade. He, consequently, made a temporary arrangement with the Department for one year, agreeing to transport the mails, as during the old contract, for the gross ocean and inland postages. With this small remuneration the Havre line gets a smaller pay than any other running; but one dollar per mile. The Company have deserved well of the Government for their untiring efforts to perform their contract; one of the greatest sacrifices being the necessity of building two costly new steamers just as their contract was about to expire. They suffered most severely from disaster. Both of their fine and fast steamers, the "Franklin" and the "Humboldt," were lost; and they were compelled to supply their places by chartering at exorbitantly high prices, until they built the two excellent vessels now running, the "Arago" and "Fulton." These two steamers run probably more cheaply than any ever built in any country; otherwise, being as large as they are, about twenty-six hundred tons each, they could by no means live on the small mail pay now given them. It may be that both these and the Vanderbilt Bremen steamers are losing money; although the latter vessels are much smaller, and have the advantage of an immense emigrant trade. I have no means of knowing the position of affairs in either company.
But no loss to the Havre Company has ever been so great as that of its late President, Mr. Mortimer Livingston. An honorable and just man in his dealings, both with individuals and the Government, he eschewed every attempt by which some sought to pervert and deprave the legislation of the country, and presented all of his views in steamshipping on high, honorable, and tenable grounds. He pursued the profession in an enlarged spirit of enterprise, and was not unmindful of his duties to his country, while he endeavored to establish legitimate trade and preserve a profitable private business which had been well founded long before the introduction of ocean steam. He was a worthy and most honorable gentleman, and is a loss to the whole public.
Prominent among the steamship enterprises of the country stand the two lines which connect the Atlantic and Gulf seaboard with our large and rich possessions in the Pacific, California, and Oregon. Established at a time when California was held by military government, and when Oregon was a wild untamed wilderness, these lines became the means of developing the richest portion of the American continent, and binding the far distant western world in close connection with the old confederacy, notwithstanding the mighty Cordilleras and Rocky Mountains which rose like forbidding barriers between them. Important as these possessions were, naturally and geographically, they acquired a new interest about the time that the Pacific and the Aspinwall Steamship Companies were established. The contracts which were made with these companies would certainly have ruined them but for the discovery of gold in California. This opened a new and brilliant field of effort, and the opportunities offered by these companies soon determined tens of thousands of our hardy and enterprising countrymen to enter and develop it.