Tas beginnings of what has become a great inflaence in the world are always interesting. And steam communica: tion between the East and other parts of the world has grown to such large proportions, that the views and Lopes of those who first pros posed it are worth the recall The opinions of the experienced mon of the past which we shall refer to, show how little those who took this matter in baud knew what they were doing. Nor were those who opposed them any wiser. Lieutenant Waghorn bad formed a company in London to carry out his scheme of conveying mails and passengers to India by what has since been known as the Overland Route; and as a subsidy was required from the Post Office, a Committee of the House of Commons was appointed on the 10th of June, 1887, to take evidence and report the result of their investigations, as well as their opinion on the subject. This Committee was chiefly composed of merchants, and was in every way excellently constituted for the purpose.
Lieutenant Waghorn gave in a ait. ten communication, in which the essential points of his scheme were embodied, As long as a good understanding existed between England and France, he con. sidered that the route by Marseilles would be the quickest and best. The mails and passengers would be carried to Alexandria by the steamers then plying on the Mediterranean, and would be traveported on camels across the desert to Saez, just as the rich goods of the East had been borne for more than two centuries, Coals for the steamers on the Red Sea woald be taken through Egypt in the same way, On the Red Sea side of the Isthmus there should be two steamers of 550 tons constantly plying between Suez and Mocha, and a third in reserve at the Intter port, in case of a breakdown in the others, Three steamere of 850 tons should run between Mocha and Calcutta, touching at Socotra for fuel, and anchoring for a certain time at Trincomalee and Madras, Another steamer of 850 tons should lic ordinary at Socotra, and at the service of the Bombay Government, to be used any way it should think fit, ho voyage from Bombay to Mocha should not be attempted between the 15th of May and the 15th of September, and Mocha should be the grand depot for fuel and stores, Such was the outline of Lieutenant Waghorn's scheme for providing rapid and complete com. munication between England and India, A Lieutenant Welstead, whose experience in the Enst extended over many years, objected to the selection -of Mo. cha as a depot, because for niue mouths of the year the south-west monsoon blows there with such violence that communication with the shore is impossible, and the roadstead is an open one. It had been suggested to the Committee (hat a station for the steamers should be establish ed at Porip, bat others preferred Kamaran, an island some twenty miles long, off Hedjax" in Arabia, and on the Red Sea, of which we confess we had never heard until reading the proceedings before the Committee. So far as we noticed, there is no mention of Aden by the two Lieutenants as a suitable or possible depot.
Lord William Boutinck, who bad been Governor-General from 1828 to 1835, and bore a high reputation for knowledge of India and basines capacity, was examined by the Committee, His ideas of what was necessary in the proposed line were more liberal than those of Lieutenant Waghorn, He assumed, ho said, that ten steamers would be proper establishment for a comprehensive plan of lines between Calcutta and Bombay and Sues, calling at Socotra, and Aden, The Calontta steamers on their homeward voyages should not go beyond Galle; the steamer from Galle should be changed at Socotra and the Socotra steamer at Kamaran, These frequent changes were, his Lordship did not doubt, necessary, as the steamers could not travel longer distances at one lime; and this opinion was founded on statements made to Lim by people of experience, who were well acquainted with the ocean-going qualifications of steam. boats. We are reminded by this of the offer of the late Lord Derby, to ent the first steamer that accomplished voyage across the Athautic; which the establishment of the Canard line, about the very time when this Committee was silting, gave him many opportuuities of currying into effect, but of which he did not avail himself. 'I'he ox. Pp! £ the ton steamers for the Red Sea and Indian Service, Lord William Bentinck calculated at £20,000 each per annam—or £200,000 in all. The profits he expected were from 800 pnesour gors in the first year, 1,200 in the second, and 1,600 in the third, or an average of 1,200, which at £50 for ench would give £60,000; letters between Oulcutta and Suez he estimated at 200,000, which at a postage of 1/ each would give £10,000; and a freight of 50 tons a voyage for 24 voyages a year, £6,000; parcels and periodicals, £100, for the same number of voynges—£2,400 despatches, £500 for each voyage, £12,000; making the total yearly earnings £90,000. This would an annual deficit of £110,000. proposed to meet this partly by giving two of the three steamers then maine tained by the Government of Bengal to the service, which would reduce the expenses by £40,000, and he would convert the Indian Navy, which cost £100,000 a year, into five steamers, allotting three to packet and two to general service, From these clanges in the existing Indian wary the deficit would be reduced to £10,000, He obtained the date, on which he founded his calculations, in India, but he stated that after his return home he had been in communication with many persoug
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