COST OF STEAM MAIL LINES.

18. But, notwithstanding the large subsidies paid by Great Britain for mail service, the cost of supporting such Lines, it will be found, forms but a trifling charge upon the commerce she gains thereby, and is really an almost nominal percentage upon her total trade. Statement showing the total commerce of Great Britain with the different countries of North and South America; the gain consequent upon the establishment of Mail Steam Ship Lines, as before stated; and the cost of postal service thereto :

Total North and South America.. 515,353,965 126,952,670| 2.412,700 1,056,365 1,356,335

The exact expenditure, as shown by the foregoing statement, is about one-quarter of one per cent. (represented by the decimal .26), on the entire amount of commerce.

The cost for British North America is .5, or one-half of one per cent.; for the United States, one-twelfth of one per cent.; West Indies, Mexico and Central America 1.23, or one and one-quarter of one per cent.; for South America, one tenth of one per cent.; for the West Indies, Mexico, Central and South America, combined, .65, or two-thirds of one per cent.; and, as stated, for all America, one-fourth of one per cent.

..

This, assuredly, is not an exorbitant expenditure upon the amount of commerce transacted. If a merchant should invest annually in advertising, the sum of $1,350,000, and get a trade of $515,000,000, it would not appear to be an unprofitable outlay.

At this rate, $200,000 expended in mail service to Mexico would bring a mutual trade of $80,000,000 per annum.

Upon the gain in exports alone, this expense is also merely trifling for this enormous increase of over $125,000,000 per annum, we find, is secured by a gross government outlay, in the support of Mail Lines, of less than two per cent. upon the increased export per annum of national products. And it is also shown that upwards of one-half of this amount is returned to the government in postage.

Surely, there can be no further doubt as to the advisability of expenditures of this character on the part of government.

INCREASE OF COMMERCE UNIVERSAL WHERE STEAM MAIL COMMUNICATION IS INTRODUCED.

19. The same rule of increased commerce, consequent upon increased facilities of communication, it will be found, holds good with reference to British trade in other directions than America.

England has extended the same wise and far-sighted policy to her trade with Africa and to China, India and Egypt; the results that have there followed the establishment of Steam Communication have been equally positive and important.

Mail Communication from England to the West Coast of Africa commenced at the close of 1852. The result is shown by the following statement:

Exports of British manufactures and products to the West Coast of Africa and Canary Islands, for two periods of four years each, before and after the introduction of Steam Communication:

Thus showing a clear annual gain of over 75 per cent. in the export of British products.

To China, India and Egypt, the gain is even more extraordinary.

Statement showing the exports of British products to China, Egypt and India, for two periods, before and after the introduction of Subsidized Steam Mail Lines. Mail Communication commenced in 1845.

The annual increase of British exports to these coun- . tries since the establishment of Steam Communication to them, it is seen, is $39,948,615; and this gain is secured at what cost? simply by a mail subsidy of but $920,570 per annum, or less than two and one-half of one per cent. on the annual increase of exports.

No one will contend that Lines of Steamers would have been established to these countries without government aid; nor can any one, after seeing these results, fail to admit, that the outlay required for the establishment and maintenance of such lines is a most profitable expenditure, tending perhaps more than any other one cause, to increase the revenues of the government, enlarge the commerce of the country, and add to its general prosperity and welfare.

POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES WITH REFERENCE TO MEXICO AND OTHER SPANISH AMERICAN COUNTRIES.

20. Can further examples be necessary to show what should be the policy of the United States with reference to her long neglected trade with the Spanish-American countries adjoining us, and what means are necessary for us to again secure and to increase that trade?

The trade of the Spanish-American countries on this continent of right belongs to the United States.

Nature has given to us a monopoly of their commerce -unless we choose to reject it, and prefer to be supplanted by others.

These countries possess greater natural resources than any others on the face of the globe; their aggregate

population is already larger than that of the United States; they produce sufficiently to at once furnish a large and valuable export trade in return for our commodities; and, from their geographical position, the United States can furnish every article required by their wants, cheaper than it can be furnished from any other country-facilities of communication alone are wanting.

WHO CONTROLS THE COMMERCE OF MEXICO, AND WHY.

21. In particular, is the absence of these facilities noticable with reference to Mexico.

Mexico is the most important of the Spanish-American Republics, and is the one with which our commerce should be the most extensive, and of whose trade we should, from our natural position, enjoy almost a monopoly.

But what are the facts?

The total foreign commerce of Mexico, imports and exports, as stated by Dn. Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, the present enlightened Minister of Treasury, in his reliable Statistics of Mexico, is $54,000,000 per annum.

Of this, importations from the United States formed, for the year ending September 30th, 1858, only $3,315,825, and exports to the United States $5,477,465, or a total trade of $8,793,290-less than one-sixth of the foreign trade of Mexico.

At the same time, we have seen that the imports from and exports to Great Britain, give her a total trade of $33,400,000, or over one-half of the entire foreign trade of Mexico.