t with which Englishmen had business,
or could create it; and of government agency as the only means by
which this desirable, this essential service could be rendered to
commerce and to the country. They readily saw that rapid and reliable
passenger facilities, and the rapid and regular transmission of
commercial and diplomatic intelligence would give to British merchants
and to British statesmen the certain control of commerce, and the
conformation of the political destinies of many of the smaller nations
of the Eastern and Western hemispheres.

It was not a difficult task to convince the British statesman that it
was his duty to encourage the commerce, on which the wealth, power,
and glory of his country depended, by all the aids known to the
constitution; and to uphold the hands of the merchant by the use of
the money which his traffic had brought into the public coffers. There
was no contest between North and South, East and West. It was the
whole of England which was to be benefited directly or indirectly; and
they were willing that it should be any part rather than none. The
evident advantages which the United States possessed in her more
numerous articles of export, (_see page 16_,) as well as the rapid
strides which her first clippers were making across the ocean, were
reasons urgent enough for the forecasting statesmen of Britain; and
they determined to continue or to obtain the profitable dominion of
the seas, although it might cost a sum of money far beyond the postal
income. They knew that these postal and passenger facilities were
needed by every class of community, and that there was no one in the
kingdom who would not be in some way benefited by them; and that the
sums of money paid for them, although not apparently returned, were
yet returned in a thousand indirect channels and by a variety of
reflex benefits not calculable as a transaction of exchange.

We, therefore, see to-day, as the fruit of that determination, the
proudest and the most profitable postal and mercantile steam marine
that floats the seas. Several large companies, authorized to transport
the mails to all parts of the world, were immediately organized, and
paid liberal allowances for their peculiar duties. Where the
practicability of the service was considered doubtful, larger sums
were paid, and a greater length of time granted for making the
experiment. The contracts were generally made for twelve years; and
when their terms expired