_Query 4_: Is the steamship stock of Great Britain, subsidized or unsubsidized, paying stock, and is there much disposition among capitalists to invest, even in the stock of subsidized companies? He replies: "I do not think the steamship stock of Great Britain to be in a very nourishing condition: in fact, I know of only one company (the Peninsular and Oriental) in which I should like to invest money." Mr. Atherton replies to a query regarding the cost of running steamers as follows: "As to whether the effective performance of high speed mail service is compatible with ordinary mercantile service without government subsidy, I am of opinion that the mutual relation of Speed and Cost in connection with long sea-voyages has never yet been duly appreciated by owners, managers, or agents in charge of steam shipping affairs. An acceleration of steaming speed involves an increase of cost expenses, and a decrease of mercantile earnings, as dependent on _freight per ton weight_ far beyond what is generally supposed." He further says in reply to Query 9, which is as follows: Do you know of any disposition in the Government to cut down the ocean mail service, as an unproductive expenditure? He says: "It is impossible to estimate the national value of an effective mail service throughout the whole globe; the breaking of one link, though apparently of trivial consequence, impairs the whole system. I can not imagine that there is any disposition to impair the completeness of the mail system." From the foregoing considerations it is palpable that fast ocean steamers can not live on their own receipts. And the same will in most cases hold true of freighting and other steamers of all classes, which depend entirely on steam as their agent of locomotion. Propellers will hardly form an exception to this rule. If the power and the passengers fill the hull, if the coal bill and other expenses increase as rapidly as indicated for mail packets, if engineering improvements do not advance as rapidly as the price of coals, if larger and more cheaply running ships can not get an adequate support in business, if there are the many leakages and expenses indicated, and if all of the expenses of running steamers are continually increasing from year to year rather than diminishing, then we may never expect to see the mail and passenger steamers of the ocean become self-supporting, or less dependent than now, on the fostering care of the Government and the national treasury.[C] [C] Since this was written, Mr. Drayton has shown me the receipt for this year's _taxes_ on the Havre Company, which are $7,782, the two ships being valued at $500,000 only. SECTION VI. HOW CAN MAIL SPEED BE ATTAINED?