The resources of our mercantile marine are highly appreciated by naval administrators even in countries where the ocean steam service has not attained to the development it has reached in this country. 'There is,' says the Secretary of the United States Navy, in his report of 1869, 'another element of defence in time of danger, perhaps as effective as any other, available to wise and liberal statesmanship … Such means would be at hand if we had lines of ocean-going steamers established. There are now running from New York, Boston, and Baltimore to Europe, over 60 powerful screw steamers, any of which could be quickly converted into an efficient and powerful ship of war, capable of carrying full sail power, and keeping the sea for any length of time. Had our mercantile marine possessed such hues at the breaking out of the late war, we might have quickly closed every Southern port. A comparatively small force of this kind, appropriately armed, and let loose on the ocean, under the command of bold and intelligent officers, would be a dangerous foe to the commerce of any country. Our own ships were substantially driven from the seas by two or three roughly equipped vessels, much inferior in power to those of which I have spoken.'
It is a just subject for regret that, while we stand committed to large subsidies for the postal service, the owners of these great lines of steamers are under no absolute engagement to place their ships at the disposal of the Government, in the event of war, at a certain fixed rate of charge. The Crimean war showed the
