ded lead in European commerce, of which it will now be ships of seven or eight hundred tons would soon be reno easy matter to deprive her.

The packet line was a sort of hobby to Jeremiah Thompson. All the captains loved him, and he animated them to exertion by commendations and little presents; for every passage of less than twenty-two days to Liverpool, or thirty-five to New York, he gave the captain a coat for himself or a dress for his wife; he certainly judged very accurately as to the proper length of passage; for, the average of the last three or four years to Liverpool is a fraction over twenty-one days, and from Liverpool thirty-five days. He kept tables To facilitate the correspondence of his own governof all results, the average passage of each ship, of each ment, Mr. Maury, after having consulted with the captain, of each month, and of each year, and the ave-packet captains, with all of whom he was very popular, rage and progressive number of passengers, amount of and who readily entered into his plan, wrote to Washfreight, &c. From these statistics he predicted that ington, suggesting that the government despatches for England and other places, be enclosed to him, and un

der the seal of the state department, put on board the New York packets, to be delivered by the captains into his hands. Hence the "consular letter bag."

Independent of these, the fleets of home packets that are continually plying in and out of New York, must carry something to and fro: and it is well known, they keep up an active trade. Their regularity procures them also a preference over other vessels, for freight and passage. Their profits arise from the frequency of their trips and low freights, rather than from large freights and few trips. And, as they have their regular days of sailing, on which they must go, they soinetimes carry at a very low rate; and this low rate of itself often induces shipments to and from New York, which otherwise would not be made. Owing to this

via New York; iron ore from New Jersey, and many other articles, which but for the packets, would never have been sent to the New York market.

But of late years, instead of being sealed in the state department at Washington, the consular letter bag has been made up in the New York post office. All who have the entree there, and wish to save their correspondents the extra postage paid on ship letters, contrive to cheat the captain of this perquisite, by mailing in the consular bag. Thus it has swelled from a small package, into a No. 1 canvass sack of very portly dimensions. The packet captains found, that the increasing size of this sack affected letter money, some-circumstance, copper ore is sent from Cuba to England what as distance does gravitation; their receipts on account of the latter decreasing, not as the squares, but as the size of the bag, increased. On a recent occasion, the consular bag being more than usually large, and Their packet character gives them another advantage the number of English two-pences for letter money over transient vessels; owing to which the Liverpool unusually great, the captain did not find out the mis-packets sail without the expense of ballast, and afford take, until he discovered, that, by a mere Yankee actheir whole capacity for the transportation of merchancident, the consular letter bag had found its way into dise. Some of them have a standing contract, to carry the Liverpool post office, instead of the consul's hands. the copper ores of Cuba, whenever offered, at a fixed The minister in London and the consul in Liverpool rate of freight, which is very low. Others have a simipaid up, for the first time, the ship postage with a lar contract for iron ores from the United States. When bad grace, for their complaints were heard in Wash- these are wanting, the extensive market of New York ington, and Mr. Secretary Forsyth ventured to write the always affords other heavy articles, such as turpentine unlucky captain Harris a severe reprimand for his and the like, which serve in the place of ballast. The want of patriotism in not sacrificing his time and his same thing occurs at Liverpool: weighty articles of two-pences to save those functionaries a few shillings. merchandise to ballast the ship are always to be had How the twenty-five cents per sheet, now levied by the there, and which will more than pay for the mere exsteam-ships, and twelve and a half cents by the packets, pense of taking in and discharging. will go down in Washington, we shall in due time find

out.

Thus we have shown how the packets, by their occasional low rates of freight, inrite shipments, and are the means of exchanging many products, which without them would continue dead capital. Instance the Virginia and New York packets, which bring firewood when no freight can be had; the Savannah line, which brings cotton for less than a dollar a bale, and the New Orleans, a vast variety of merchandise, that never would have been sent to New York except for the extremely low freight. By such influences as these, exerted upon commerce in various ways, the packets are daily drawing New York nearer and nearer into the exact focus of foreign and domestic trade. The facilities to transportation, continually present

Some are of opinion, that the establishment of packets was a natural consequence of the course of trade: but we think this a mistaken view of the subject; and certainly, when the project of sailing on the same day of each month, full or empty, was first broached, it was generally thought a piece of mere Quixotism. Many were the half cargoes of turpentine and cotton from New York, and salt and coals from Liverpool, which the owners, for many years, were compelled to ship on their own account, in the face of almost certain loss, in order to be ready for the appointed time of sailing. Moreover, the packets were in operation two years, before they got any decided preference from passen-ed by the speed and regularity in the sailing of the gers. But now they serve as the passenger train, on the great highway between the old world and the new. The officers of the British army in Canada, and the merchants of British America, think of no other route both for coming from and going to the mother country. Merchants and travellers from the South and West, from Havana, Mexico and the West Indies, make them the great thoroughfare to England and all parts of Europe. Always sailing at their stated times, full or empty, business men began to calculate with certainty on their departure and arrival; the effect of which, in a short time, was to make New York a greater depot for produce and manufactures, and a place of resort for merchants and passengers: so that there is now less difficulty in obtaining cargoes for twelve ships per month, each of three or four times the capacity of the original liners, than there was in filling up the Amity, or the James Monroe. Thus, New York now carries on a trade in her foreign packets alone of twenty-four of their cargoes per month, equal to 17,000 tons, and sufficient to give constant employment to 140 ships of the size of those which commenced the Havre line.

packets, caused many goods to be shipped to New York, which were intended for other cities, and oftentimes for foreign markets. These, the home packets and traders are ever ready to receive, and convey to their point of destination. So convenient have the packets become in this respect, that the merchants of Philadelphia and Boston are now in the habit of ordering large quantities of their merchandise, purchased in England, to be shipped in the New York liners. For the same reason, merchants from other cities, which but for the packets, would import directly, have found the most convenient channel for a large portion of their French and English trade, to be through New York, Thus, that city has become an entrepot for English and other goods-a repository for all the great staples of the South, and a mart in which the merchandise of the North is bartered for the produce of the South.

It frequently occurs, that several houses in Boston, Philadelphia, Charleston, Mobile, or New Orleans, send each, large orders to England, for the shipment of merchandise. Not having bottoms of their own, the im. portation must therefore be made by some vessel al

ready there. The orders are given without any concert at | limited extent. But none can deny that the packets, acme, neither is there any between their agents abroad. with their regularity, have been found to be a great And though the orders together call for a large cargo, improvement in the old system of commerce. They those from the same house, or even from the same city, are to transient vessels what canals are to turnpike to any one agent, may not be sufficient to complete the roads. And the packets, like canals, have rather led, or cargo of a ship "up" for the very place. The goods directed, than followed trade. have been purchased and are ready for shipment; the transient vessels advertising for freight, have no fixed day for sailing: that depends on their success in making up a cargo, which may be to-day, to-morrow, or ten days hence the New York packets are sailing regularly once or twice a week; and home packets or coasters, are plying daily from New York to the place for which the goods are intended; the orders are pressing; time is money; consequently the shipments are made in the New York liners. The importer, by directing his goods to be thus shipped, knows beforeband when and by what vessel to expect them. In all of which the merchant finds his advantage. Besides the punctuality with which his orders are met and his importations made, he finds that the packets, by their "floating policies of insurance," offer another inducement to shippers, which transient vessels do not. By these policies, insurance in New York is effected, by the mere act of shipment, upon all goods shipped by the packets, and that too at a lower rate than is generally charged by other vessels.

It may also be urged, that the packets were established from New York, because she had more capital than the other large cities. Were this true of the city, which we much doubt, it was not true of her Quakers; for, it is generally believed that they, when they established the first liners, had a loan from a Quaker house in Liverpool, the agents for that line. Besides, Philadelphia had the Bank of the United States: so that in banking capital, New York was her inferior.

These various operations have made New York the place of remittance to England. Hence, the heavy transactions there in foreign exchange. And these transactions, and their influence on trade exerted in favor of the packets, have made that city the London of America, and Wall street its Lombard street. Of her forty-eight packet ships to England and France, New York, during the boisterous weather of last winter, presented the rare spectacle of only one at her wharves, the value of those on the seas being estimated at twenty millions of dollars.*

Ever since the establishment of packets, New York has been gradually swallowing up the commerce of Philadelphia and Boston with England. We have seen that their merchants now make large importations through New York. Twenty years ago, and there were almost as many ships sailing from Boston, as from New York, to Liverpool. But if one ship sailed last year from that port to Liverpool, it is more than we know. British ships too are almost entirely thrown out of the trade from New York to Liverpool. In the months of December, 1837, and January and February, 1838, fifteen packets, and about as many transient vessels, sailed for Liverpool, but not one English vessel, though freights at this time were twenty-five or thirty per cent. higher than usual.

If then the direct trade of the enterprising cities of Boston and Philadelphia have been so much crippled in their contest for its advantages with New York, on something like equal terms, and before she possessed the facilities which she now enjoys from her packet system and extended commercial relations, what may the agricultural South expect to accomplish by her commercial conventions, which meet to resolve and not to act?

Such have been the effects, and such is the tendency of the packets on the trade of New York and the commerce of the United States; though some may say that the packet system has been the effect, rather than the cause of increased trade, and this may be true to a * See newspapers of the day.

The accessibility of the port may be urged as another reason. But in that respect, Norfolk is far her superior. A thorough examination into cause and effect will convince any candid mind, that it was the noble scheme of the enterprising Friend, Jeremiah Thompson, which made New York the packet port, the emporium of trade, and the centre of negotiation for these United States.

The practical solution of the Atlantic steam problem, by facilitating intercourse alone, will tend greatly to increase at home the power of New York, and to extend abroad her commercial sway. But let the success of Atlantic steam ships meet the just expectations of their most sanguine friends, many and great improvements must be made in the generation and application of steam, before this subtile means of navigation can compete with canvass, in the carrying trade of the ocean. For a long time to come, the steam packets must rely for their profits mainly on the transportation of passengers, small parcels, and letters.

The number of these parcels will rapidly increase. They will consist mostly of light and costly articles of merchandise, such as the demands of fashion and the change of seasons are continually calling for. If one merchant receive by steam ship the latest fashions and newest patterns from France and England, all the merchants of the same city, in self-defence, must do the same, or lose their run of custom. It is to this circumstance-to the advantages of the most rapid communication, that we wish to call the attention of those who have the will and the means to open a direct trade from the South. The trade of Bristol, like that of the South, has dwindled down into a mere skeleton of its former greatness. She has made a bold effort, and sent out her splendid steam ships, to invite commerce again to her wharves, and recover back to her piers the rich argosies of her merchants. In the example of that ancient city, let the South get understanding.

The plan talked of at the South, of sending their vessels, dragging along at uncertain periods, after foreign trade, must signally fail in the present stage of commerce. The South has not the market of the North to receive, nor the fleets of packets of New York to distribute her return, or to collect her outward cargoes; for she must have something more for commerce than raw cotton, tobacco, tar, pitch, and turpentine. The force of her own habits is against her; and to succeed in gaining her portion of direct trade, she must, as we have before said, go vigorously to work, and carry on the heat of the contest, not with the bulky trader, as might have been done twenty years ago, but with the crack liners of the present day.

The packets that have been lost during the twenty years' existence of the various lines, are as follows: In the Liverpool line-the Albion, captain Williams, on the coast of Ireland; forty-three lives lost: the Amity and the Nestor, both on Long Island, by captain Pease; no lives lost: the Liverpool, on her first voyage, on an ice.berg; crew and passengers saved in boats: the Panther, on the Welsh coast; no lives lost: the George Canning, on the New Jersey shore; no lives lost. In the London line-The Crisis, never heard of; supposed to have been lost in the ice: the Sovereign, on the New Jersey shore; no lives lost.

In the Havie Line- The De Rham, captain Weiderholt, on Long Island: the Louis, captain Macy, on the New Jersey shore: the Paris, captain Robinson, near Barfleur; and the Francis Depau, captain Robinson, almost within the piers of the harbor of Havre. The loss of the first two was attributed to negligence on the part of the pilots. No lives were lost in any of them. If it be recollected, that no vessels that traverse the ocean crowd canvass as the packets do; that these various lines cross the Atlantic once every thirty hours, or two hundred and eighty-eight times a year; that they have been running twenty years; that they have carried to and fro not less than 200,000 persons; and that, of that number, and within that time only two shipwrecks have occurred with loss of life, the safety of the packets compared with railroads, steamboats and stages, will appear wonderful. The navigation of the packets calls on the captain for the sailor's best skill and judgment, and on the crew for untiring vigilance.

But if the packets, as we have seen, have operated to the aggrandizement of New York, placing the commercial sceptre of America firmly within her grasp, they have, in other respects, had tendencies of a more general character. In improving naval architecture, they have done much; and in increasing the commerce of the United States, they have done more. In a national point of view, the Thompsons, the Wrights, and Marshall-all of whom, except Marshall, have been gathered to their fathers-are, with their packet ships, scarcely less of public benefactors, than Fulton and Whitney were with their steamboats and cotton-gins. The influence which the packets have had in naval architecture, is scarcely less important than that which they have exercised in the trade of New York. They, more than other ships, continually called for a combination of capacity to carry, with other qualities no less requisite-speed among the foremost. Constant efforts to produce such combination have effected wonders in ship building, and have adorned our commercial marine with the finest specimens of naval architecture known on the ocean.

In all improvements common to the two, the commercial has taken the lead far ahead of the naval marine of the United States. In the introduction of chain cables; in the economical substitution of iron for hempen cordage, as slings, ties, trusses, sheets and the like; in the modelling of ships, and in the masting and sparring of them, the former have invariably shown the way to public vessels. So far from taking the lead in all such improvements, the navy has lagged behind, and in many instances has actually been "whipped in."

as "whipper in ;" but generally the officers, not in the navy department, by their united voice, have performed this office.

In the use of steam, the navy is far behind the times. The most skilful of all nations with the commercial steamboat, it is not a little remarkable that the government of the United States should be groping behind all the maritime nations of Europe in the department of the affairs of the navy, have shown an inertness on steam. Those who of late years have had control over this subject, which true patriots cannot comprehend, and which intelligent officers heartily condemn. Present prospects are not much brighter than the past. The advocates of steam for maritime warfare have no cause of gratulation on account of recent changes in the navy department; for it is asserted, and we believe with truth, that the present head of that department is deplorably unenlightened on the subject, and therefore bitterly opposed to steam men-of-war. Must we be whipped into the use of steam also? We pray God, it be not by a voice louder than officers can give, stronger and more dreadful than the South can utter.

Any attempt on the part of a junior officer to invent improvements, or to introduce those of others, single handed, has been frowned down at once. In way of illustration, we might here instance the case of a young officer, who referred to the proper head, the plan of an instrument invented by him to facilitate the finding of longitude by lunar observations. It was referred to the board of navy commissioners, who, although it was founded on mathematical principle, condemned it as a piece of "hardihood," because, forsooth, the materials (those of all the nice nautical, and astronomical instruments,) were liable to expansion by heat, and contraction by cold. Such is the spirit that keeps the materiel of the navy behind the times; that has caused so many abortions, and occasionally produces things, instead of ships for the service.

With regard to every improvement concerning ships, ship-building or navigation, if the packets are not the first to present it to the world, they are the foremost to copy and to give it currency.

In the days of the Thompsons, it was thought necessary to put a new ship into the "line" every eight years. But this arose more from the desire to improve and build larger, than from actual necessity on account of wear. It is thought, that the “liners” which are now new, may be continued in the "line" for twelve or fourteen years with perfect safety; for there is a point in size, speed, and accommodation, (and they have nearly reached it,) beyond which it will not soon be expedient

to go.

For many years, the old ships of the Liverpool were taken into the London line. But the practice is now discontinued, and within the last four or five years this line has been fitted out with twelve elegant new ships of about 650 tons, and receives as it deserves a larger share of public patronage than formerly. The passengers in it are landed and embarked at Portsmouth.

In the packets of 1818, the ladies' cabin was in the stern of the ship. The first innovation upon this, was made in the James Cropper in 1822, which was fitted with a centre house, and storm house over the wheel.

In the introduction of cotton canvass, the South acted Old sailors have ever had a prejudice to "top ham

The Crisis was merely a temporary packet.

pers;" and it was thought by many of them, the height