"1s. 6d. is allowed as a perquisite on each whole passenger, 1s. of which to the agent at Cuxhaven for every whole passenger embarking for England, and the other 6d. to the agent at Yarmouth; and in like manner 1s. to the agent at Yarmouth on every whole passenger embarking for the Continent, and 6d. to the agent at Cuxhaven; but no fee whatever is to be taken on half passengers, so that 10s. 6d. must be accounted for to the Revenue on each whole passenger, and 6s. on each half passenger." Half passengers were servants, young children, or persons in low circumstances. While touching upon passage-money, it may be noted that in 1811 the fare from Weymouth to Jersey or Guernsey, for cabin passengers, was, to the captain, 15s. 6d. and to the office 10s. 6d.--or L1, 6s. in all. The mail packets performing the service between England and Ireland in the first quarter of the present century were not much to boast of. According to a survey taken at Holyhead in July 1821, the vessels employed to carry the mails between that port and Dublin were of very small tonnage, as will be seen by the following table:-- Uxbridge, 93 tons. Pelham, 98 " Duke of Montrose, 98 " Chichester, 102 " Union, 104 " Countess of Liverpool, 114 " The valuation of these crafts, including rigging, furniture, and fitting, ranged from L1600 to L2400. The failures or delays in making the passage across the Channel are thus described by Cleland in his _Annals of Glasgow_: "It frequently happens," says he, "that the mail packet is windbound at the mouth of the Liffey for several days together"; and we have seen it stated in a newspaper article that the packets crossing to Ireland by the Portpatrick route were sometimes delayed a couple of weeks by contrary winds. A few years previously an attempt had been made to introduce steam-packets for the Holyhead and Dublin service; but this improved service was not at that time adopted. Referring to the year 1816, Cleland writes: "The success of steamboats on the Clyde induced some gentlemen in Dublin to order two vessels to be made to ply as packets in the Channel between Dublin and Holyhead, with a view of ultimately carrying the mail. The dimensions are as follows:--viz., keel 65 feet, beam 18 feet, with 9 feet draught of water--have engines of 20 horse-power, and are named the 'Britannia' and 'Hibernia.'" These were the modest ideas then held as to the power of steam to develop and expedite the packet service. In the period from 1850-60, when steam had been adopted upon the Holyhead and Dublin route, one of the first contract vessels was the _Prince Arthur_, having a gross tonnage of 400, and whose speed was thirteen or fourteen knots an hour. The latest addition to this line of packets is the _Ireland_ a magnificent ship of 2095 tons gross, and of 7000 horse-power. Its rate of speed is twenty-two knots an hour.