e Royal Mail
Company an annual addition of L75,000 in the event of coal, freight,
insurance, etc., being at anytime higher than they were at the date of
the contract in 1850. This aggregate sum of L295,000, or $1,475,000,
to say nothing of the increased allowance of L75,000 probably now paid
to this one branch alone of the British service, is considerably
greater than that paid for the entire foreign mail service of the
United States.

Now, it is a very extraordinary fact that, with such a field of
commerce lying along the sunny side of our republic, and with such an
array of facilities for converting it into European channels, our
Government has done literally nothing to protect the rights of its
citizens and give them the means, which they do not now possess, of a
fair competition with other countries for this rich and remunerative
trade. Yet such is the fact; all of the petitions and memorials of the
seaboard cities to the contrary notwithstanding. The same is the case
with the Pacific and East-India trade before noticed. While we have a
noble chain of communication between the Eastern States and California
and Oregon, which is manifestly essential to the integrity of the
Union and the continued possession of our rich Western territory;
while California is admirably situated to command the trade of those
vast regions and concentrate it in the United States; while the
British have several lines to China, the Indies, Australia, and
Southern as well as Western Africa; and while our citizens have
petitioned Congress year after year for even the most limited steam
mail facilities to those regions, which could be afforded at the
smallest price, it is truly astonishing that these facts and petitions
have hitherto been treated with contempt, and almost ruled out of
Congress as soon as presented. Such has been the course of action
that, instead of fostering foreign commerce and encouraging the
enterprise and industry of the people, the Government has really
repressed that enterprise, and practically commanded the intelligent
commercial classes of this country to look upon foreign trade as
forbidden fruit which it was never intended should be grown upon our
soil.

It is not to be disputed that foreign mail steamers, by creating
almost unlimited facilities for the conduct of trade, greatly increase
the commerce of the nation with the countries to which they run. The
evidences of this position are patent all around us, and to