[ 423 ] BOOK VI . CHAPTER I. Remarks on Intercolonial and Transatlantic Steam Navigation. The mutual advantages which one country derives from another, increase in value and magnitude accord¬ ing to the increased facility of mutual intercourse and transportation. This fact is so well established by experience, as to become an evident truism ; and, that all important places between which an inter¬ course by steam navigation is established, derive, in consequence, vast mutual benefits, is also a fact equally evident. When a communication is opened with a country, that will enable us to visit it in a certain given period of time, the intercourse is increased in the same ratio as the certainty of arriving at, or returning from, that country more speedily, is greater than by any previous mode of conveyance. In the same ratio, according to this rule, does the interchanging of the commodities of different coun¬ tries increase ; consequently, the prosperity of the