The half-way point on the Pacific side between America and England is the Malay Peninsula. This leaves even Australia and all of Oceanica nearer to us than to England, and all of China, Japan and Siberia thousands of miles nearer to us. Hong Kong and Canton are the English headquarters in China, and yet our Pacific coast is 5,000 miles nearer to these than England is. It is also 6,500 miles nearer to Shanghai, which is a more important port than Canton, because of its greater nearness to the rice and tea producing sections. The advantages are still greater in respect to Peking, Japan, Vladivostock, the terminus of the projected Russian railway, and the entire country drained by the Amoor. Our commerce is now within thirty days of the coast of China, and will be in less than ten days when the fast mail and express and passenger steamers are launched. I insert a table of distances, which is full of significance. ROUGH ESTIMATES OF DISTANCES. MILES Puget Sound to mouth of Amoor River 3,900 " " " Vladivostock 4,700 " " " Shanghai 5,750 " " " Canton 6,500 " " " Singapore 8,100 " " " S. W. point of Australia 9,550 San Francisco to Vladivostock 5,200 " " " Shanghai 6,100 " " " Canton 6,800 " " " Singapore 8,400 " " " S. W. point of Australia 9,500 " " " St. Petersburg via Vladivostock 9,700 St. Petersburg to Vladivostock 4,500 San Francisco to Calcutta 10,200 Liverpool to mouth of Amoor River 13,550 " " Vladivostock 12,700 " " Shanghai 11,750 " " Canton 10,900 " " S. W. point of Australia 10,750 " " Singapore 9,300 " " Calcutta 8,700 Liverpool and Puget Sound are about equally distant from west coast of the Malay Peninsula. MILES New York to Canton, via Puget Sound 9,500 " " Shanghai " " " 7,800 to 8,000 By this it will be seen that New York, by way of Puget Sound, is 1,400 miles nearer to Canton than Liverpool is, and nearly 4,000 miles nearer to Shanghai. Mr. Swan makes the distance from the Pacific coast less than I have given. It should also be noted that Puget Sound has the advantage of distance over San Francisco also. [Sidenote: Advantage in productions.]