In obedience to this very proper spirit we produced some of the noblest vessels that ever floated. Stronger vessels than the Collins, Aspinwall, and Pacific Mail Steamers were never built in any country. And although we have fortunately not been compelled to test their capacity in naval transport or in action, yet there is no doubt that they would do honorable and efficient service in both, and by no means sully the glory of the American colors. The establishment of these and the Havre and Bremen lines, certainly gave an impulse to shipbuilding and the manufacture of steam machinery in this country which could have been given in no other way, and which in a few short years has demonstrated that we are behind no people on earth in capacity for these noble and difficult arts. And although we are yet but in our infancy in experience, as compared, especially with Great Britain, yet the increasing demand for mail facilities, the necessity for a large war marine, and the rapidly increasing coast steam service, all indicate that we shall require a large amount of this class of work and a mechanical skill to which our ingenious countrymen have thus proven themselves entirely adequate. And although it is certainly indispensable that we shall ever be provided adequately against all the exigencies of foreign war, yet it is to be trusted that bold and fearless statesmen will support and extend our steam mail service on the tenable grounds of its necessity to commerce and our citizens at large, and that its productive services will not be obscured by or subordinated to the subterfuges and deceits of the war marine feature. Let us have steam mail facilities on high and independent grounds, and for their benefits _per se_. The system is abundantly tenable on this ground alone; on this only ground that it will probably ever practically occupy. Let us also have our war marine, efficiently separate, as it should be. Let both systems be perfect, both independent, both mutually conducive to the prosperity and the defense of the country. But there is no doubt that these vessels would do excellent service in a conflict. They could swarm any particular coast with troops in a few days. They could easily run away from dangerous vessels, or pursue and overtake others when necessary. They are alway needed for transport, while the time will probably never again come when mail steamers will not be even more necessary during war than in times of peace. But this is not all. They fit and train a large number of marine engineers who are ever ready at a day's warning to enter efficiently on the naval service. This is a point of greater importance than is generally supposed. Engineers, however skilled in the shops, are wholly unfit for the service at sea until they have had months of experience, and become accustomed to sea-sickness. When one of our first American mail steamers sailed for Europe, no practised marine engineer could be found to work her engines. They took a