speed involves an increase of cost
expenses, and a decrease of mercantile earnings, as dependent on
_freight per ton weight_ far beyond what is generally supposed."

He further says in reply to Query 9, which is as follows:

Do you know of any disposition in the Government to cut down the ocean
mail service, as an unproductive expenditure? He says:

"It is impossible to estimate the national value of an effective mail
service throughout the whole globe; the breaking of one link, though
apparently of trivial consequence, impairs the whole system. I can not
imagine that there is any disposition to impair the completeness of
the mail system."

From the foregoing considerations it is palpable that fast ocean
steamers can not live on their own receipts. And the same will in most
cases hold true of freighting and other steamers of all classes, which
depend entirely on steam as their agent of locomotion. Propellers will
hardly form an exception to this rule. If the power and the passengers
fill the hull, if the coal bill and other expenses increase as rapidly
as indicated for mail packets, if engineering improvements do not
advance as rapidly as the price of coals, if larger and more cheaply
running ships can not get an adequate support in business, if there
are the many leakages and expenses indicated, and if all of the
expenses of running steamers are continually increasing from year to
year rather than diminishing, then we may never expect to see the mail
and passenger steamers of the ocean become self-supporting, or less
dependent than now, on the fostering care of the Government and the
national treasury.[C]

[C] Since this was written, Mr. Drayton has shown me the receipt for
this year's _taxes_ on the Havre Company, which are $7,782, the two
ships being valued at $500,000 only.

SECTION VI.

HOW CAN MAIL SPEED BE ATTAINED?

THE TRANSMARINE COMPARED WITH THE INLAND POST: OUR PAST SPASMODIC
EFFORTS: NEED SOME SYSTEM: FRANCE AROUSED TO STEAM: THE
SAILING-SHIP MAIL: THE NAVAL STEAM MAIL: THE PRIVATE ENTERPRISE
MAIL: ALL INADEQUATE AND ABANDONED: GREAT BRITAIN'S EXPERIENCE IN
ALL THESE METHODS: NAVAL VESSELS CAN NOT BE ADAPTED TO THE MAIL
SERVICE: WILL PROPELLERS MEET THE WANTS OF MAIL TRANSPORT, WITH OR
WITHOUT SUBSIDY: POPULAR ERRORS REGARDING THE PROPELLER: ITS
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES: BOURNE'S OPINION: ROBERT MURRAY:
PROPELLERS TOO OFTEN ON THE DOCKS: THEY ARE VER