Whether the company would have continued to maintain its career of prosperity without Government subsidies is a problem too speculative for me to solve; but it may well be questioned whether the grants of public money subsequently voted to it year by year, in so far as they prevented wholesome competition, and tended to damp the individual energy which brought it into existence, have been of much service towards its success. During one portion of the company’s career, when the advantages of the overland route had been fully established, it might, and I think it would, have been to its advantage to have been relieved from every incumbrance as to time and speed. Free from these, and the many other conditions required by Government, the company would probably have done better for its shareholders had it been, also, at liberty to build and sail its ships as it pleased, despatching them on such voyages and at such rates of speed as paid it best; and, in support of this opinion, I may remark that various other shipping companies with no assistance whatever from Government have yielded far larger dividends than the Peninsular and Oriental, and, further, that private shipowners, who never had a mail bag in their steamers, have realized large fortunes. With these remarks, I shall now endeavour to furnish a brief history of this important undertaking from its commencement, and to show that its rise was by slow degrees, and altogether unlike that of the Royal West India Mail Steam Packet Company, with which it has been frequently compared. [Sidenote: Its founders and origin.] [Sidenote: Messrs. Willcox and Anderson.] In the year 1815, Mr. Brodie McGhee Willcox,[337] then a young man with no influence and but limited pecuniary means, opened an office in Lime Street, London, and commenced business on his own account as a shipbroker and commission agent. To assist him in his business he shortly afterwards engaged as clerk a youth from the Orkney Islands, Arthur Anderson,[338] subsequently his partner, whose only capital was a plain but sound education, good moral and Christian training, a clear head and great industry. In 1825, the firm adopted the title of Willcox and Anderson, and removed their offices to 5 St. Mary Axe, where they carried on their business till it was absorbed into that of the great company whose progress I am about to describe. Originally, it was simply a small shipping commission business, with the addition of the part-ownership of a few vessels chiefly trading with the Peninsula, with which they in time opened up, first a regular sailing, and then a steam line of communication, this service having been started solely by Mr. Willcox. At first, Messrs. Willcox and Anderson had a good deal of up-hill work, but they were plodding and industrious, and, consequently, overcame every difficulty, soon insuring that success which industry, honesty, and economy must ever command. [Sidenote: Mr. James Allan.]