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However he soon pulled up when one of those painful
scenes took place which arrives whenever the hour of
separation comes and calls me from the kind and
affectionate anxieties of my dear Dorcas. The night
was most piercing, it froze very severely and snow fell
several times during the night, we reached London at seven
o'clock. I lost no time in proceedng with my letter of
introduction to Mr. Cunard, which had been kindly
offered by Sir Richard Grant unexpectedly and unasked,
I found Mr. Cunard in bed, stoppped and breakfasted
with him. I found him very agreeable and received the
necessary information as to how I was to proceed from
Boston to the Lakes. This is the gentleman who has entered
into a contract with our government to run a line
of Steam packets between England and the United
States for the purpose of conveying the Mail between the two
continents. They commenced running last summer
once a Month. It was found that these vessels of Fourteen hundred
tons made the voyage to Boston a distance of two
thousand seven hundred miles in Fourteen days, Cunard
informed me that he is about entering into an arrangement
with the Government to run two during the month
and he does not despair by the course of next year to run
one a week, the terms of contract I have seen, government
pays him sixty thousand per annum for carrying the
Mail Bags. It was thought that the projected enterprise
would fail, the prevalent opinion being that it was quite
impossible that a Vessel could be propelled by Steam
across the Atlantic. Dr. Sardner was of opinion before
the Committee of the House of Commons that the