ACCELERATION OF THE INDIAN MAIL.
IN proportion to the growing importance of our Indian empire and Eastern trade, the desire of more frequent and speedy intercourse with India increases. At present a general "pressure from without" is brought to bear upon the Government and East India Company by the mercantile interests, joined by that numerous portion of the public who have friends and connexions in the civil or military service. Meetings have been held in the City, and in Glasgow, Liverpool, Edinburgh, and other towns, to demand the acceleration of the Indian mail ; and but one opinion prevails as to the practicability of a considerable saving in time, and of its advantages, political, commercial, and private. The most active parties in getting up the steam on the present occasion are, very naturally, the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company ; who have at present the contract for the conveyance of the mails to the Mediterranean, and have built two large and expensive vessels, the Hindostan and Bentinck, to carry out the communication between Suez, Madras, and Calcutta,—which, without Government contracts or pecuniary assistance in some way or other, are not likely to prove a very profitable speculation. It is stated boldly, that a saving of 30,0001. per annum in money, and a month in time at both ends of the line, will accrue to the public by the acceptance of some offer (what, does not very clearly appear,) which this Company has made to the Government for the conveyance of the Indian mails ; and a good deal of indignant elopence and editorial declamation has been hurled at the heads of the Court of Directors, assumed to be the only obstacles.
New it is but fair to say, that on looking back at the rise and progress of steam-navigation to India, as described in documents now before us, we find that the East India Company have supported it very liberally, both in trying experiments at their own cost, and in encouraging others to do so by grants of money, or by patronizing improvements in the construction of marine engines and steam-vessels. So far back as 1823, the Company offered a reward of 20,000/. to the first steam-vessel that should make the passage to Calcutta in a given time ; and though the Enterprise, in 1825, did not fulfil all the conditions, they rewarded her spirited owners with a part of the premium, and purchased her into the service, at a price which, we understand, left a handsome profit on the speculation. The commander of that vessel has ever since been high in their employ, and is now Comptroller of Steam-vessels in Calcutta. In March 1830, they made the first step in oceanic steam-navigation, by sending the Hugh Lindsay from Bombay to Suez ; and so much were they in advance of public opinion then, that only one passenger would venture in the ship. It is also worthy of remark, that this was before any steam-communication was established between this country and the Mediterranean or Peninsula. In 1831, the Company introduced iron steam-vessels on the Ganges ; being the first among our public bodies to see the great advantages such vessels possess for river-navigation. In 1834, a Select Committee of the House of Commons declared their opinion, "that steam-navigation between Bombay and Suez, having in five successive seasons been brought to the test of experiment, (the expense of which has been borne by the Indian Government exclusively,)the practicability of an expeditions communication by that line during the North-east monsoon has been established." The Committee recommended, that measures should immediately be taken for the regular establishment of steam-communication with India via the Red Sea ; the net charge of the establishment to be divided equally between the Government and the East India Company. In pursuance of that recommendation, the Court of Directors prepared to build two suitable vessels for the service : but their ideas as to power and size were so far in advance of the Government then existing, that it was not until 1836 that they got permission from the Board of Control to proceed with the work. As soon as that was obtained, they constructed the Berenice and Atalanta, two of the finest vessels of that day, and with them made the second great step in ocean steam-navigation— namely, a voyage between Great Britain and India under steam alone. And it is to be remarked that this was undertaken and accomplished against the opinion of the Admiralty ; who at that time believed, with Dr. LAIIDNER, that it was impossible to steam a greater distance than 2,000 miles. In these voyages, the Atalanta made in one continuous run 2,355, and the Berenice 2,700 nautical miles. The great impetus that the successful result of these voyages gave to Atlantic steam-navigation is sufficiently obvious. But it was not until the month of Tune 1837 that the arrangement with the Government and East India Coin pany was finally completed on the basis recommended by the Select Committee of 1834: not, we are informed, from any fault of the East India Company, who had been always ready to carry out their part of the communication, but solely from the delays of the Imperial Government. A fourth steam-vessel being required to carry out the arrangement for a monthly mail between Bombay and Suez, the Court of Directors purchased the vessel of the greatest power and capacity then in existence, and despatched her immediately to her station ; taking the opportunity of trying the interesting experiment (declared impossible by nautical men) of steaming in a direct course against the South-east trade-wind from the Line to the Cape, and calling at St. Helena; which was successfully accomplished. In 1839, the East India Company constructed an entirely new class of steam-vessels, of iron, heavily armed, and adapted for river and sea navigation. This experiment has met with the success its boldness merited; and the appearance of the Nemesis, Phlegethon, Ariadne, Medusa, Pluto and Proserpine, in the China seas, marked a new zera in combined military and naval operations. In 1840, when the success of CUNARD'S line of Atlantic steam-vessels attracted general attention, the Court of Directors built the Memnon and Akbar, both of the same size and power as the Halifax snail-packets; the latter, indeed, constructed by the same contractor, in the Clyde. In 1842, they granted a bonus of 100,000/. to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, on condition that they made six voyages per annum between Suez and Calcutta for five years.
From this resume of what we may call the steam history of the East India Company, it would appear that there has not hitherto been any indisposition on their part to encourage steam-navigation : on the contrary, from its commencement, they have been consistent and liberal patrons, and always in advance of the Imperial Government. We can conceive the Court of Directors to be actuated by more weighty reasons than any yet stated, in their repugnance to delegate the conveyance of the mails to any joint-stock company of speculators, however respectable the individual members of it may be. They are held answerable by the public for the good government of India ; a quick and regular communication with their dominions is of essential importance to them ; they have at great outlay formed a steam-marine, to insure regularity and despatch in the conveyance of the mails ; and it is likely that they will scrutinize closely the pretensions of any parties who, with much fewer advantages than they themselves possess, proffer to do the work now done in less time and for less money. They will naturally inquire how the mail-contract system introduced by the late Government has worked in the Western world, before handing over the navigation of the Indian seas to a joint-stock company. The North American packets are generally adduced to prove the advantages which the public derive from the conveyance of the mails by contract's ; and we freely acknowledge the regularity and speed which have distinguished them : but the present is very far from being the original contract—which was, to convey twenty-four mails per annum to and from Halifax and Boston, for 60,000/. : the Government now pay 80,0001. per annum for twenty mails per annum, which, considering that four winter voyages are done away with, is equivalent to 40,0001. a year over the original contract, or 66 per cent advance. The Royal West India Mail Company contracted for 240,000/. a year to perform some 700,000 miles per suill t-p : the payment remains a fixed quantity, but the mileage is reduced tokrass than one-half the original contract. The Peninsular and Oriental Company have also had their work diminished several thousand miles per annum, by doing away with the Ionian mail. The Government, however unwilling, is obliged to submit to these demands for reduction of work, because they have no steam-vessels able to cross the Atlantic ; and all private enterprise in steam-navigation has been destroyed by the contract system. What guarantee can the Directors of the East India Company procure, that they will not be placed in the same position, if they surrender the conveyance of the mails into the hands of a private company, who are bound to advance their own interests whenever opportunity offers ?
But the mails must be accelerated; and there is no doubt they can be, without making their conveyance the foundation for a private monopoly of steam-navigation in the Indian Ocean. Let the Government put on a fast steam-vessel to run direct between Marseilles and Alexandria, avoiding Malta ; and let them despatch a mail on the 15th of each month, giving up the postage collected to the Peninsular and Oriental Company's vessels, or to any other private steam-vessels that may contract to convey them at stated times ; and let the East India Company keep the Bombay mail in their own hands : the public will then reap the benefit of private competition with the Government, and at the same time have the assurance of that punctuality which has hitherto attended the conveyance of the mail by the East India Company,
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