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1853, none of the circumstances being changed except in favour of your original proposal. I have been incessantly devoted to a seafaring life for 35 years. I served my apprenticeship in the West India trade, and for 16 years commanded ships in the West India and other southern trades, and the last 13 years I have been in command of steamers, making together 20 years as master, holding certificate for Channel pilotage, and being also a branch pilot for Cork Harbour as well as for the Thames. I enumerate these years of service to justify the right to express an opinion from an intimate knowledge of the subject. In regard to the advantage of the Cove of Cork as a port of ultimate departure, you rather understate the case. Besides a large export trade to the Gulf of Mexico, which now passes by way of Liverpool, Bristol, and London, you have there coal 15 or 20 per cent, cheaper than at Southampton; every establishment, for repairs or outfit, is ready for the development prop ortionate to your wants. You have no need of docks, piers, breakwaters, or other works involving commensurate expense to shipping and passengers as at other ports. The many vessels which have made the port tor orders, or in distress, or for coal, prove the advantages of its position, and I really consider the offing it gives over Southampton, as you state, certainly equal to a start of 500 miles. For whilst an outward Channel course Avould have westerly winds ahead, a vessel, especially a screw steamer, running from Cork on the same wind, would have a great advantage, and fall in with fair weather much sooner than another from Southampton. This was remarkably proved by the run of the " Sarah Sands" from the Cove to St. Vincent, Cape Verde, in 12 days. It is only a person ignorant of our coast who could dispute the superiority of that coast for landfall. It is comparatively, with either channel, free from heavy fogs, and the principal harbours are accessible to a steamer in any weather, and perfectly safe. You will be exempt from the same risks as vessels in the fairway of the Channel, where all sorts of craft, from and to all points of the ocean, crowd in the track of a steamer, obliging her to slow in heavy weather. Your headlands are well defined, your soundings well marked, and both unmistakeable. T have weekly the anxieties of the Channel navigation upon me, and I venture to assert that no practical seaman acquainted with the approaches of the two ports (Cork and Southampton) would hesitate to prefer the former. You can enter or quit it at any hour, day or night, as 1 have done for the last 14 years. Not so with the dangerous passage of the Needles, and the intricate channel of the Solent and Southampton Water. An apt illustration, following suit to others of more deplorable results, has just occurred in the case of the New York Steamer " Ariel," Avhich grounded recently inside of Hurst Castle. The number of lights and buoys about the Wight tell of themselves the danger to shipping when they can be descried. Independent of the actual disasters, steamers are frequently obliged to haul off, with ship's head to southward during thick weather. I need not tell you all these inconveniences occasion much delay and real risk to both passengers and mails. If called upon to state more in detail the advantage of the Cove, I shall be prepared to give innumerable cases, which would extend these observations too far; but it may be all summed up in your remark, that it is the best offing and landfall, and, I will add, full}' equal to a gain of six or eight days for a screw steamer on the voyage round to Colon and homeward. I remain, &c, William L. Tookeb, Matter " Preussiseher Adler" Steam Ship. RESOLUTIONS PASSED AT MEETINGS IN COBB. Cork, 7th October, 1858. Sin, — The eligibility of the Port of Cork as a station for the despatch of tlie steam-ships of the Australasian and Pacific Company, intended to convey Her Majesty's Mails, having been brought before the Harbour Board at their last Meekly Meeting, the following resolution, of Avhich I have been instructed to forward you a copy, was unanimously adopted. I ha\-e, Ac, Joseph F. Speabino. Moved by the Mayor of Cork, seconded by Sir William Hackett, and unanimously resolved: — The Australasian and Pacific Company having it in contemplation to select the Harbour of Cork as the place of Departure for their steam-packets for the transmission of Her Majesty's Mails, this Board, being anxious to afford every facility in their pow rer to advance the undertaking, hereby resolve: That all dues payable to this Board shall be remitted to the Company's vessels employed by them in conveying the mails for a period of five years, from the commencement of their opening the communication from this port ; and that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the Secretary of said Company. Cork, 12th October 1858. Sib,— I am directed by the Committee of Merchants of Cork to forward to you the enclosed resolution, this day unanimously adopted by that body. I have, Ac, Wm. Crofts, Secretary. At a Meeting of the Committee of Merchants, held 12th October, 1858, Daniel F. Leahey, Esq., J.P., President, in the Chair: proposed by W. Fagan, Esq., M.P., D.L., seconded by F. B.

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