THE LEVIATHAN,

Colonist, Issue 89, 27 August 1858, Page 2

THE LEVIATHAN,

The Leviathan having been successfully limit and launched, the prophets of ill omen now declare that she never can pay; that she will never get 2000, nor 1000, nor 500 passengers, nor 6000 tons of cargo, nor nothing like it, and so on. Now this vessel is intended to trade to Australia and Polynesia in general. The exports alone from this country amount to near y fifteen millions annually in declared value; there will, therefore, be no lack of cargo for her, supposing she can supersede the sailing vessel. But how much, and how many things can be sent by a vessel that takes only thirty days, instead of the laggard ninety of the regular trader, is plain enough. Many classes of goods .that can be kept from psrishing in thirty days are destroyed in a voyage of ninety. Take as a commercial example the case of a merchant that is advised by his Melbourne correspondent, that a class of goods, if sent out in a given time will command a sale, but if delayed beyond a certain period the demand will be past (such a case is a common oue), under the present length of voyage the speculation could not probably be entered into; but with the Leviathan at hand to take out the goods in thirty days from the time of the next start, the merchant might feel justified in embarking his capital. As to her attractions with regard to passengers, after the first prejudice against her has worn off,, and that will be with the first voyage, no vessel could be more likely to draw to her the crowd of emigrants that flock not only from England, but through England from Germany. She is the strongest,

swiftest, staunchest vessel ever built, and has every assurance of safety about I 1 er. Then she exceeds in comfort the most luxurious of the royal yachts, for she lias that which the Queen's vessel has.not—abundance of room: in fact, the passenger will in comfort find little difference between the hotel ashore and the ship afloat, save, perhaps, in the superiority of the latter. Except in the very greatest storm, sea-sickness will be unknown upon her steady decks; stretching, as she will, three waves at a time, they must be high rollers that will make her pitch; and her high spsed will keep her almost entirely from the annoyance of rolling. With all these advantages she will, from the quickness of her voyages, be able to offer her passengers st much below the usual fares. It is that with all her splendid accommodation, she will be able to take passengers of the first class for .€65, the second class for £35, and of the third cluss for £2o: the first being under three halfpence a mile; the second, three farthings; and the third, a halfpenny, all including food and luxuries, without rent or taxes. But it is urged that if she make four voyages a-ycar, she will not, even if she stop all competition, get passengers enough. Our answer is, that there are already more than enough passengers to fill her over and over again, and that if s>he depend on emigration alone, she will answer. Emigrants are not men of business who must be off at a moment's notice; they are always ready to wait the best vessel for the price they can afford; and as the Leviathan will be the best and the cheapest, she will be the emigrants' vcssol. It has always been found that an advance in locomotion creates its own traffic; railways have been made between towns that scarcely paid a coach and waggon traffic, and have paid well. So we confidently look to the Leviathan making her own traffic. The length ami expanse of the voyage have hitherto been a trrcat discouragement to emigrants who reluctantly souyht'an asylum from the difficulties '$? the old home under new and strange systemsMn the United States. But without that,' how many fridnds of the exiled will visit Australia when they can go and return in sixty days (exclusive of stay) and for a moderate sum; how many a homesick, but unfortunate, exile will return, for one more glimpse of the green fields of Old England, the gratification of a desire perhaps impossible under the old system. These are but faint glimpses of the future of this extraordinary leap (advance is too tame a word) in the mastery of the seas.— Times.

The Victoria.—The delay in the arrival of the Victoria may be attributed, it seems, solely to the inefficiency of her machinery, and her general want of power to grapple with the difficulties of such a voyage. We have received statements of the most unfavorable character with reference to the Victoria's passage to Suez—statements that apply to everything about her, and to eveiyone officially connected with her. She was stopped, it is said, upwards of thirty times, for the repair of her machinery, whilst the annoyance occasioned by these perpetual hindrances was aggravated by incivility, by bad provisions, by a failure to maintain the necessary discipline of the ship, and by almost every circumstance that can add to the discomfort of a sea voyage. The result was a feeling of deep resentment on the part of the passengers, by whom a series of resolutions on the subject, and more generally on the whole question of mail communication by the present system, had been prepared.—Melbourne Paper. The Australian Mails.—The Cambria, steamer (chartered'from the Cunard fleet by the Royal .Mail.. Company), Captain Anderson, sailed from Southampton on May 12, for Malta and Alexandria, taking out a heavy mail for ths Australian and New Zealand colonies, &c, thirty-five passengers (including Assis-tant-Commissary-GeneralM'Cawldy), £450 in specie, and jewellery value £3940. The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer Benares, arrived at Southampton on May 11, with the heavy portion of the Australian mails, and 119 passengers. The Australian and Indian mail on board the Benares consisted of 350 boxes. It was not sorted on board, as it would ha^ebeen if it had been brought home in the Teviot. The Benares left Alexandria as the Teviot entered that port.