During all of this time the system has operated with unbroken regularity. Established on a great general principle, as well as the highest possible expediency, it has been regarded as a fixed policy of the Government and the people, and has been suffered to do its excellent work quietly and undisturbed. The legislation introducing it was not an accident. It was not a spasm of generosity to the people; but it was a fixed purpose of the British public; the wise and only adequate means adapted to accomplish an important, an indispensable end. The first contract for carrying the mails in steamers, was made by the Post Master General in 1833, with the "Mona Isle Steam Company," to run semi-weekly between Liverpool and the Isle of Man at L850 per annum. This Company has run the line ever since, a period of twenty-four years, and at the same price per annum. After this, a contract was made in 1834 with the "General Steam Navigation Company," for the semi-weekly conveyance of the mails between London and Rotterdam, and London and Hamburg, at L17,000 per year. The contract was not annulled until 1853, nineteen years, when it was found best to send the mail by a new route; that is, to Ostend, and over the railways of Belgium. The first contract for a long voyage was made with Richard Bourne, in 1837, to convey the mails weekly from Falmouth to Vigo, O Porto, Lisbon, Cadiz, and Gibraltar, for L29,600 per annum. The contract was transferred in 1843 to the "Peninsular and Oriental Company," Southampton was substituted for Falmouth, the weekly trips were changed to three per month, and the subsidy was reduced accordingly, or to L20,500 per annum. The service has been performed on these terms ever since. The Aberdeen and Shetland contract was made in 1840, at L900 per year, after a failure to run on L600, by a previous arrangement. It now continues as then made. It is known that the first passage across the Atlantic was made in the American steamer "Savannah," which left Savannah, Georgia, on the 25th May, 1819, and at the end of twenty-two days arrived in Liverpool, steaming only fourteen days of the time. The Savannah was only 350 tons tonnage, and had an engine of ninety horses' power. Captain Moses Rogers was her commander. The "Sirius" arrived in New-York on the 23d of April, 1838. The steamer "Great Western" next followed, in the same year. And although this was only nineteen years ago, it is instructive to notice the observations which the _London Times_ made at that day. That journal said, March 31, 1838: "There is really no mistake in this long-talked of project of navigating the Atlantic ocean by steam. There is no doubt of the intention to make the attempt, and to give the experiment, as such, a fair trial. The Sirius is actually getting under way for America."