6_s_
1-3/4_d_, or $1.53-1/2 to the Peninsular and Oriental, much of whose
service is coasting. This is saying nothing of the Pacific and the
African coasting lines. The highest sum which we pay is to the Collins
line, $3.10-1/2 per mile; and the lowest to the Havre, $1.00-1/2 per
mile; while the sums paid to all of the other companies range but
little above the last figures. The lowest rate per mile paid to any of
the lines under the contract, was to the Pacific Mail, $1.70. It must
not be forgotten that the low rates per mile of the Havre and Bremen
result from those lines taking the postages, since their contracts
expired; a sum by no means adjusted to the service done. They had
ships that they could not let lie idle. Under their regular contracts
the pay per mile of the Bremen line was $2.08, and of the Havre
$1.76-1/2. While the British Government pays to four of her principal
transmarine services an average of $2.39 per mile, we pay to five of
ours an average of $1.80-3/4 only, or but about two thirds as much as
she does. While our total annual expenditure for foreign mails is
$1,329,733, a sum by $20,267 less than that paid to the single service
of the West-India Royal Mail Company, that of Great Britain is
$5,333,985. And, while our total income from transmarine postages is
$1,035,740, a sum but little short of that paid in subsidy, taking the
present Bremen and Havre services at the estimates of last year for
sea and inland postages combined, the income from the whole
transmarine service of Great Britain, including ocean and inland
postage, was, when the last report was made in 1853, L591,573, or
$2,957,865; but little above half the sum paid in subsidy, and
including the French, Belgian, and Dutch routes, where the postal
yield was much greater than from the ocean lines. The estimates which
I present below have been made with great care from distances and
subsidies furnished me by the reliable First Assistant Post Master
General, Hon. Horatio King, from the last report of the late Post
Master General, and from the report of the British Post Master
General, Lord Canning, before noticed. Every item is consequently
authentic.

AMERICAN.

----------+------+----------+----------+----------+-------+------------------
| | | | Gross | Total |
Line. |Trips.|Distances.| Subsidy. | Postage. | Miles | Pay per Mile.
----------+------+----------+----------+----------+-------+--