The preceding statement and evidence can scarcely fail to force on the conviction of every unbiassed mind “the following conclusions:—

1. That the Company owes its present extensive employment in the Contract Mail Packet Service to no other circumstance than that of having placed itself, by its own enterprise, in a position to execute that Service with greater advantage to the public interests than could otherwise he obtained.

2. That in the planning, undertaking, and executing of that Service, it has realised important benefits to the public, whether considered in a financial, political, social, or commercial point of view.

And, looking to its present position,—namely, the possession of an ample capital and means—of extensive practical experience in the management of steam navigation—a well-organised establishment of agencies at its numerous stations abroad—exclusive docking accommodation for its large ships at the principal ports of India—extensive main or trunk lines of communication, established in the principal tracks of Oriental intercourse, and to which any further extension of postal communication must of necessity subserve, as auxiliaries or feeders,—there is scarcely room for entertaining a reasonable doubt that the Peninsular and Oriental Company will be able to maintain its ground, both in respect to the Services in which it is already engaged, as well as in the undertaking of any further Services which may be required in the East, against any bonÁ fide competition, and on the same legitimate, and, therefore, invulnerable basis on which its present connexion with the Contract Packet Service has been established,—namely, its capability of maintaining the present, and undertaking such future Services, with the greatest advantage to the public interests, both as to efficiency and economy.

Benefits of the Contract Packet Service, and of Steam Communications with our Dependencies and Foreign Countries.

The advantage, as regards economy of the public expenditure, of maintaining these communications by means of private enterprise under Contract, instead of by Government vessels, managed by Government establishments, has now been fully recognised.

It has, however, been the practice in some quarters13 to estimate the value of these communications, and the expediency of maintaining them, by the amount of postage of letters which they produce.

A more narrow and unstatesmanlike view of the question can scarcely be entertained; and a slight consideration of the following facts will suffice to show that such a mode of estimating their value to the public is extremely fallacious.

Who, that has had any experience of the operations of commerce, or of the practical business of Government, would estimate the value of an accelerated and certain transit of a merchant’s letter or a Government despatch by the amount of postage which the one brings in, or the other would bring in, to the revenue?

The rapid transit of the merchant’s letter is often the means of originating a commercial operation which gives employment to hundreds of artizans and labourers, thus increasing production and expenditure, and thereby returning into the exchequer, in taxes on consumption, thousands of times the comparatively trifling cost of its conveyance.

And how often does the acceleration of the public despatch facilitate the duties and contribute to the lessening of the expenses of Government? Instances are not unknown where the rapid transit of a despatch has saved an expenditure for warlike supplies and operations, to the amount of many hundreds of thousands of pounds.

That facility of intercourse and transit creates and increases commerce, is a fact which experience has abundantly established. A circumstance strikingly illustrative of it, and connected with one branch only of this Company’s operations, was stated in evidence before the Parliamentary Committee of last session on the Steam Navy, and is as follows,—viz.:

Extract from the Evidence of Mr. Anderson, M.P., a Member of the Committee.

But I wish to remark that, to estimate the value of these communications merely by the postage of the letters carried, I consider to be a very erroneous estimate; there are incidental public advantages arising from those communications which I consider far to overbalance the cost of them; for instance, by facilitating the communications with those foreign countries and dependencies, you promote the increase of your commerce. And I will mention one fact, which I think will illustrate the opinion I am now giving. About some six or seven years since, the merchants connected with Constantinople and the Levant were very desirous of having steam communication established with those places, and the Company with which I am connected were willing to establish such communication; but the returns being rather uncertain, while the expenses were certain and very heavy, they considered they were scarcely warranted in entering upon such an enterprise without some assistance. It was proposed to the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Goulburn, that he should make some allowance, some few thousand pounds, for an improvement which was proposed to be made in the postal arrangements with Constantinople, and which would have reduced the post between London and Constantinople to thirteen days, instead of twenty-four. Mr. Goulburn objected to entertain the matter, but subsequently the communication was established. I find, in looking to the statistics of our export trade, that comparing the amount of our exports to the quarters to which those steamers run, previous to their establishment, with the amount at the end of the year 1846, there was an increase of about £1,200,000 a year. I find also that the actual value of the goods exported in those steamers from Southampton last year amounted to within a very trifling fraction of one million sterling. And referring to several Greek merchants connected with the trade, of much intelligence, for the cause of that increase, they told me that they felt perfectly certain that the establishment of the steam communication had been the great cause of the increase of the trade. I asked them on what grounds they formed that opinion, and they said it was upon these grounds: that the steam communication enabled them to turn their capital over a great deal oftener than by sailing vessels; that it gave them a certainty as to the time their goods could be in the market, and they also had a certainty of return for their exports. That no less than forty new Greek mercantile establishments had been formed in this country, since the time of the establishment of those steamers. Supposing those assumptions to be correct, which I believe they are, or nearly so, I think I am warranted in forming the opinion that the revenue has been very greatly increased, inasmuch as the trade is of the most valuable nature for the employment of our artizans and labourers. The exports consist of manufactured goods of the finest class; and the imports of raw material, as for example, silks and goats’ wool, coming here to be manufactured. I am informed that the wages of labour on this fine class of manufactured goods amount to about two-thirds of their value. Assuming that to be the case, and that the trade has been increased by means of the steam communication with Constantinople and the Levant to the extent of about £1,000,000 sterling, that is taking the exports and imports together, £600,000 of that amount have been paid to artizans and labourers, and expended by them for the supply of their ordinary wants. And as the proportion which goes to the revenue in the shape of direct and indirect taxes is usually estimated at about twenty per cent. of such expenditure, it follows that the national exchequer has been benefited to the amount of twenty per cent. on £600,000, or say £120,000 per annum, by the establishment of that steam communication. The effects, therefore, of those communications are, I submit, to increase trade and industry, and consequently the public revenue, while they at the same time provide us with an important means of maritime defence in case of need.14

The means of maritime defence provided through the three large Companies employed in the Contract Mail Packet Service are as follows:—

The first thirty-two vessels being of the tonnage and power of the steam frigates of the Royal Navy—the remaining twelve vessels of the power and tonnage of the steam sloops and gun vessels of the Royal Navy.

By a stipulation in the Mail Contracts, these vessels, with the exception of a few which are under 400-horse power, are required to be so constructed as to be able to carry and fire guns of the largest calibre used in the war steamers, and the Government have the power of employing them for warlike purposes, if required. The vessels under 400-horse power are included in the above list, as they would, without doubt, be also placed at the disposal of the Government if required.

Assuming that this reserve fleet supersedes the necessity, as it surely ought to do, of the employment of war steamers to the extent of only one-fourth of its number, a financial saving to the country of from £250,000 to £300,000 per annum on that account is due to the Contract Packet Service.

The annual amount paid to these three Companies for the East India and China, Mediterranean and Peninsular, West Indian, Mexican, &c., and North American Contract Mail Services is £589,000. The returns for postage, as estimated by the Post-office, is about £380,000—leaving an apparent cost to the pubic of £209,000 for these communications.

But it appears, from the circumstance stated by Mr. Anderson, that at least half of this apparent deficiency is made good to the exchequer by taxes on consumption, proceeding from the increase of commerce and industrial resources consequent on the establishment of one branch of one Company’s communications only; and it surely cannot be an exaggerated estimate to assume that the whole of the other improved communications of that and the other Companies make good to the exchequer, in a similar manner, at least the other half.

It therefore follows, looking at the question as a merely financial one, that the establishment and maintenance of these communications, so far from being any burden on the national exchequer, is a gain to it; their cost being more than returned to it in postage of letters, and revenue derived from the increase of industry and consumption created by their means; in addition to which the country is, or ought to be, a gainer, to the extent of not less than a quarter of a million sterling in a reduction of naval expenditure, seeing that a large reserve steam navy, promptly available for the national defence, if required, is provided by these great steam navigation enterprises. That reserve navy also, while forming so important an auxiliary to the means of national defence in case of war, is operating as one of the most effective instruments for the maintenance of peace, by promoting the extension of foreign commercial intercourse—thereby tending to bind nations closer together by the strongest of all ties, that of mutual dependence on each other for their material wants. Assuming these facts and conclusions to be correct, instead of the expense of these communications being grudged, it ought to be regarded as the most beneficial outlay of public money that occurs in the whole balance-sheet of our national expenditure.

Although, in the preceding remarks, the benefits of these improved postal communications have been considered only in reference to their financial, commercial, and political importance, it ought not to be forgotten that they also involve social benefits, of equal, if not superior consideration.15 How few are the instances, comparatively speaking, where a family in the United Kingdom is to be met with who has not one or more of its members absent in our distant dependencies, engaged in industrial pursuits, or in the public service of their country. To lessen the hardships of absence and separation to so large a portion of the community, by facilitating to them the means of social intercommunication, reducing, as it were, the distance which separates them (as has been done in many cases, to less than one-fourth of what it formerly was) is surely an object worthy of national sympathy and solicitude, and claiming to be supported by national means.