AMERICA VANQUISHED.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XII, Issue 707, 17 August 1859, Page 3

AMERICA VANQUISHED.

America is weeding for her steamers, and will j not be comforted;; Like other youiig'people; the I United' 'States\have had'their' visions; arid 'casiles in the, air, butt the! illusions have vanished", and they ■ are npw^stead.Hy; settling ..down, to the realities :of i actual existence, such.as men find and feerit/r-noi; ; such as -.they, dream, and ; imagine it. The. youny' ; lawyer who'ay twenty was/to be' Lord,Chancellor1 ; limit's 'his wishes at thirty'tb'{i A Puisne Ju;%esiiipf j and;:is ati forty only too' happy if* he cdn -secure &' | repose, for'his labours itt the s«afe but inglorious' | harbour of a County-colurt. ori a metropolitan poli'ce- | office., : The : iy.Qung:h.eauty, whp in her first.-season I would look at nothing.,under, a; discount; passes, ; rapidly as yeai-s roll by' through''ihe ...subordinate' ! grades of society,, and is at last, well contenttp preside over the establishment of a thriving attorney <or an Australian millionaire/ Even so has it been [ vrith- the United States." Their boundless terrii tpry ;? the, rapidly-in,cr,easing, .population, the. .sources ! of' wealth and of ppwer ■ which,' are open to -thim^ on j eyer^ side, arid seem' oiilytb" coiiyt their acceptance/ i hkfe. "made';s6 : many"things possible.td them'that they havie; become to 'believe 'nothing impossible^' and are, we honestly believe, even more astonished^ than disappointed; when jthey find, sas we all in turn must find, that th.ere are some things which'it js, '■ not.in..ftieir power, to achieve. To r us,,-\Vho.lpok at these matters with the coqiness of pepple jwhpj'-'.iF they have s'ueceededin mahytliings. Have failed iri many b'thersj there^appears /nothing surprising or' disheartening-in the uiidoiibted fact that'the Uiiited States-have proved quite unable to maintain a competition with Englarid, or even -with .the Hanseatic Towns, in, the navigation.of the,ocean by large steamers. Let, tis ,take.the statement of the.' case as put forward in piteous language ;b^ ':' the '' New,; York". Times.'; ' America, lit'appears, splendidly triumphed over us. in a gallantrivalry in ocean steam navigation, and then abandoned the coritest to her beaten competitors. She ".whipped the Britishers,"^and then, to console, them,- abandoned. ; the .field of battle. At present, there.are three new lines of.steam navigation which, ; have been opened in addition tp those ■ already at wbrk between"Europe' and.North 'America. .There is a'G-alway line: arid a Bremen lirie, and a line is'; arinouriced which is to connect; Quebec with Glasgow. : Vessels have -been added to the line between Quebec and Liverpool,::and the .Gunard;line. is obliged to employ.a subsidiary fleet' to, x assist its I mail steamers; There a,re, 45 steam-vessels running between Europe .and North America, 32 of which' J belong to Great Britain, eight to.the Hanse'Town's,^ and five'to the United States, bf "which five' otily j two ply during the' wiriter'i If we look at the '■■ tonnage, the case,. according to olit contemporary, ■ is,,equally, : .strong. Of the transatlantic Steam Meet "England, owns 61,000" tons, the Hanse : Towns 20,000. tons, and, the United States 12,000, Nor is- this, alii The 'business./still, enjoyed -by American, steam-ships is that between New. York and HuVre, but a plan is in agitation by which thie English line will call" at Queeristowri, \ and. thus bei able to despatch a branch steamer to Havre, —a competition agaitist which our cbntempprary apprehends the American §tearaships will he unable to, struggle^ If we,add .to this, picture that ; England has ;2,000 steamships, in her foreign mercaritile.arid'pbstal service^ and America, only seven, we have put the last to'uchfo a .picture wliich !not unnaturally-raises the' indignation and regret of anr American journalist jealous of the honour" of'^ his cpuntry and, anxious that she should take the lead'■ whenever she, enters into ; the contest- ..-; : . ... !r : Startling as th ese, results, are, it : wiU probably be, easy to" account for them without;making.too large, 'demands' upon the self-love arid national'pride of our .gallant rivals across the .iwater. ; Tliey,ciin hardly expect us to graritv iiideftd, tKatihey came but.victorious frbtni a: competition':iii which they' have;been so; manifestly oVercdme; but we/ on the other hand, must not forget; that;the. contest :be-. tween the Cunard aud, Collins lines was to some j

extent a question of subsidies. The value,.of a subsidy to a Steam Navigation Company depends Jnot only on its amount, but its permanency, aad in this respect we believe that England; has felt the advantage of the greater stability and higher'character of the popular branch of our Legislature.. The Thames' has hot beeii 'disgraced, like the Pot6mac, r by'the presence of- the1 steamers of' rival', companies ".opened"—to use" an' eidcHcra phrasel—to members; of-the House ofiGdmraons, in :order to; secure; their support; and,'whatever motives may have induced' the'renewal; ol the Cunard grant, ; champagne.lun-; ch'eons' on boar,d the Persia or the Arabia had'not, at any, rate,'anything tq do with it. .. The subsidies may be' given/ ;or refused in England, but here, at least, there' :no !"lbbbyers" to levy blackmail upon the applicant. It must be admitted, that ■ those who have to seek 'subsidies 1 under' such a; system compete at a; very! great disadvantage..- There was, besides, a great difference in the. •management of the two rival lines. ; The Cunard Company has always avoided, alluring; novelties, and, relying solely on the safe teachings of experience,' has uniformly sacrificed show'to substance and speed to safety. • They;have gradually increased the size and power'of their ships J but in each case only so'much &i experience showed to be advantageous. Their officers have been many years in the .service, arethoroughly acquainted with; their duties, and their, crews" have uniformly, shown in great, emergencies' that' confidence "in each other, that discipline and courage, which such a system • cannot failitb produce. The'commanders and their officers are'selected' ehtirefy' with'reference to their merit. ,On, the. other ..hand;: the Americans' itt buildingitheir ships thought quite; as much of what was showy and:ornamental as what was solid and useful. Before the time of the Persia they were, we .believe; if. anything, superior in speed to the. Cunard line; and'their commanders' were;excellent' seamen; but the Screws were only engaged for the voyage, and have shown on more than one trying occasion the want ofi discipline and_ devotion to the service which, such.-a.practice, unavoidable, probably, in an, American .port, could not.fail, to produce., Tlie result wfas what might have been ..expected../ The ANnerican sliips\vere abandoned'by Americans themselves, who. showed an undisguised preference for the Cunard line. Nor wasi this difficult' to account for. While it is -the '<■ honorable boast of the Cunarders that in more than twenty year?' incessant^navigation, always at a high rate of sp^ed on the'-most tempestuous course,- they ■. ■nevJv' lost a passenger, and only one ship;—the Colu'^bia, sucked by- some unaccountable, current "ir^o.. the Bay of Furidy-;—the Collins line, had to lament many severe losses, which shook tyiei' confidence of the public and lowered the chp.Yacter of the undertaking. i Much of this rrnscljief undoubtedly arose from* causes within the reach of prevention; but itf is only fair to' ad'2aU that there are-many others'at which America should not repine, because they inece?sarny spring.from her prosperity and proi^ess, With an average rate of profit so much :hi/j/her than our. own it is not wonderful that ,! American capitalists, with means of wealth at their [•own doors in such profusion, should be unwilling '■ tolengage in remote and hazardous enterprises like j those\)f ocean steam navigation^ and that if they !do so they should compete at a disadvantage with I oountrles in which capital has been accumulating ! for centuries. In such an enterprise everything [depends"on the excellence of, the captains and the l orews. It y partof'the happiness- 6f America, as' the working niah's' parudise,'that labour' should be more highly paid and more difficult to retain than in Englatid.Mf it' be true, as we believe it is, that the great public works which have anticipated by centimes the settlement of the American continent have been made by Irish labour and

English gold, it is; not likely that America should permanently .compete with us in enterprises, the yery essence, of which is'cheap capital and cheap labour. Let America be satisfied with the boundless riches she possesses, and not repine because it is riot' granted to her to reap at the same moment the advantages which spring from two opposed states of social and eebnomical development.