The Express.
London, England, 1866-01-04 00:00:00

BOMBAY AND MAURITIUS MAILS.

The following telegram has been received by
Reuter's Telegram Company (Limited) from the
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Com-
pany, Jan. 3:

MALTA. JAR. 3.

The Tanjore leaves here at 7 a.m. to-day for Mar-
seilles, where she may be expected on the evening
of the sth.

In consequence of an accident to one of the
paddle-wheels of the Delta, the Tanjore has all the
mails, ckc., on board. She may be expected at
Southampton about the 15th inst.

THE RECIPROCITY TREATY.

The Toronto Claim of Dec. 1 has the following
telegraphic paragraph :

MONTREAL, DEC. 20.

The resignation of the Bon. Mr. Brown was so unex-
pected that it created a profoand excitement amoaget our
politicians. It is generally node:stood that Mr. Brown will
support the goverment in their confederation and general
policy. It is said that the reciprocity question was the
cause of his resignation.

DESPATCH OF MR. CARDWELL ON BRI-

TESH AMERICAN CONFEDERATION.

The Canadian government have received from
Mr. Cardwell a despatch written to show that a
better arrangement could be made with the Ameri-
cans in commercial affairs by the whole of British
America united than when split up into fragments.

Downioi-street, Nov. 24, 1865.

Sir,—l think it right to *aqui:int yen that I have been I
informed by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs that,
in the opinion of her Majesty's representative at Weahitig.
too, the necessity of having to submit a tniaty of cowmen*
to the separate action of the various provincial legislatures
would be a serious difficulty in his way, and that the union
of the provinces would afford the beet hope of obtaining each a
treaty. It is evideat.that U the gentimmes who amnion about
to proceed to Monteath° British end SpasialtWeet Indies, and
Brasil, for the purpose of asseriaining in what miaow the
trade and eommeree of these months@ with British North
Amities can he extended, shall bring their jounce, to a
suereseful woclusion, and shall be able to suggest to her
Majesty's government, on the part of the British North
Anseneas provisoes, any new errangemests with the
°Pantries is question, for the benefit of those waviness, a
similar difficulty may he expected to arise in every sack
sad, us the other hand, the union of the provisos@
would, in every web ore, afford the beet hope of bringing
each orrampaseste to a speedy and salidsotow conclusion.
have. he.. (SP* Ewe's) Oehoina.c.

LITERATURE.

The Atlantic Telegraph, by W. H. Russem.,
LL.D. Illustrated by Robert Dudley. London :
Day and Son (Limited).
"A difficult journey to a splendid tomb" is a
living author's definition Of the rewards of genius.
It applies with some fitness to the abortive Atlantic
Telegraph Expedition of 1866, enshrined aa it is in
the elaborately handsome volume before us. The
sanguine confidence, the anxious hopes, the diffi-
culties, trials, and disappointments of the scientific
and the financial promoters of this great enterprise
are brought vividly before the reader ; while in
every accessory of type, paper, illustration, and
binding the book is worthy of the subject of which
it treats. It is as impossible to open it without a
tinge of sadness, as to rise from the perusal of Dr.
Russell's eloquent narrative without augmented
confidence in the ultimate laying of an Atlantic
cable ; while the numerous spirited drawings of
Mr. Dudley, furnishing as they do every detail con-
nected with last year's expedition, seem to strengthen
the hope that his pencil may at no distant date have
the pleasant task of portraying the circumstances
of success. A brief history of the preceding at-
tempts to lay a cable between Great Britain and
America, with appropriate sketches, is followed by
a full description of the manufacture of the one
it was sought-to lay last year, by an account of the
precautions taken to ensure its perfection, and by a
history of its removal to, and coiling in, the tanks
of the great ship. We have next the history of
the voyage—from weighing anchor in the Medway,
on the 15th of July last, to the re-appearance of the
Great Eastern at Crookhaven on the 17th of the
following August. Foilhuramerum Bay, and the
landing of the shore end, when all the character-
istics and humours of an Irish fair were to
be seen on cliffs and rocks, dangerously
rugged and desolately bare—makes a charming
picture, and one in which artist and
author vie with each other in truth and
power. The confident speeches of Sir Robert Peel,
the Knight of Kerry, and Mr. Glass, the repeated
assertions as to the "perfect" character of the
cable, and " that all human skill could do" had
been effected, make a sad prelude to the diary of
the voyage and its crowning disappointment. The
discovery of " faults," the splicing of the cable,
and the adaptation of machinery for picking-
up, all fall with comparative flatness, for the result
is known ; and the final catastrophe robe portraits
and incidents of half their interest. Yet no one
who wishes to follow this year's expedition with a
moderate comprehension of its details should omit
reading Dr. Russell's history, and studying Mr.
Dudley's pictures. The Great Eastern herself, the
people on board, the tanks, buoys, drums, and
V wheels, are all portrayed with an exactitude
it is impossible to praise too highly, and
which puts it in the power of any reader to
follow the voyage and share in its vicissitudes
with keen personal interest. Thus, when Mr.
Saunders, a gentleman who had much experience in
"fault-finding," kite upon the situation and cause of
the first bitch by means of unerring tests—when
Mr. Cyrus Field's gentle equanimity and confidence
are temporarily shaken—w hem Mr. de Sauty comes
from the testing-room to inform Professor Thomson
that signals with the shore have been successfully
resumed—when Mr. Field at another crisis re-
marks pleasantly, "I have often known cables
atop working for two hours, no one knew why, and
then begin again—it's some mistake on shore"—
when Captain Anderson makes passing comment
on the tediousness of picking up—and when Mr.
Halpin, the chief officer, is heard encouraging the
men—we have in minute touches the inner life of
the voyage. Again, when a jury of examination
was held in Mr. Clifford's cabin, and the damage to
the cable declared to have been done wilfully, we
read with warm interest of " the piece of iron wire,
bright as if cut with nippers at one end and
broken off short at the other." That "no man who '
saw it could doubt that the wire had been driven
in by a skilful hand"—tbat precautions were taken
against the "villainous design"—that "enemies
to the manufacturers," and " Lynch law" were
talked of—and that the gentlemen on board
formed themselves into a watch, reads at this
time like a sarcasm on hasty conclusions,
for a couple of pages later we find the
last and fatal fault to occur during Mr.
Field's watch, and to have been undoubtedly the
result of accident. What had looked like pur-
posed malice was now generally admitted to be mis-
fortune, and it is we believe fully understood that
the wire strand intended as a protection to the
cable was, through breaking off and penetrating
its core, the cause of its ruin. The histo of the
"picking up," of the hoping against ry
hope, of
the drifting and suspense, of the variety of
anxieties against which Mr. Canning had to con-
tend, and finally, of the reluctant return home,
are all admirably told, the obvious moral of the
story being that cable-laying vessels must be so
, appointed that the process of recovering and re-
, pairing a faulty part can be gone through without
difficulty or delay. Absolute perfection can no
' more be guaranteed in cables than in men, and had
! the machinery for recovery been as strong and
perfect as that for laying down there is good reason
for believing that the " faults" of last year need
not have been fataL Let us hope that we shall
profit by the experience gained, that the telegraphic
' communication between England and America may
I be resumed this year, and that the success of 186 t
• may be as ably chronicled and faithfully illustrated
as the failure of 1865.

TWO VOLTINTEER CORPS—A CONTRAST.—I will
give an instance of the courtesy shown by the working
clusee. When the volunteer movement began in 1860, a
number of working men came to me with the request that
I would assist them in forming an artisans' corps, by lend-
ing them my schoolrooms and accompanying their request
to the authorities for enrolment and permission to wear a
characteristically cheap u, iform. This involved numerous
meetings, deputations to the Lard-Lieutenant, and the
War-office. We waited on Lord Salisbury's representative.
We waited in Pall MalL We were left to cool for some
time. We were on two or three occasions politely snubbed.
I was present at the interviews, and talked with the men
after them. We had several public mselicgs, and
heard freely-uttered sentiments. At hat with the
aid of hired instructors, about 120 men were drilled in our
schoolroom. Now comes my instance of courteous con-
sideration. Daring that whole winter, though I mixed
freely with the men, I never head an oath. They knew
how to swear well enough, sod I dare say m•oy of them
swore among themselves, but courtesy restrained them in
the presence of a clergyman. In the course of the year 1
chanced one day to be brought into the company of • large
party of volunteer', draw° mostly from the middle class
of society. They swore like trooperv, and I could not help
contrasting their utter disregard of the present* of a
clergyman with the considerate politeness of my friends
the anises,. —Marmillan's dlafia:ine for January.
VISITORS ON THE ROTRTHAL.—A shadow passad
over me, hexplicable at tint from such a sky ; but the
canes soon appeared in a couple of enormous lammer-
genre, or eagle-vultures of the Alps, that kept circling
round, or resting in a watchful manner on the neighbouring
cliffs of snow. It was interesting to see the white bodies
and dark powerful wings of these savage birds, for they are
now rare even in the Bermes Oberland ; but there was an
out-on-business sir about them which forcibly suggested
that perhaps a snow cornice was not the most favourable
point for calm observation of their manners and habits.
Their dimensions were very formidable ; they flaw away
I some distance, consulted together, and then came back
spin to the immediate neighbourhood of the Rotlithal
saddle, as if there were something there which specially
interested them • and they seemed male and female, pro-
bably with a needy family, and accustomed to act in con-
cert. At one time they were so near that I fancied I saw
the hungry gleam of their cruel eyes, and, perhaps luckily,
remembered Tsohndt's stories of their swooping against
men on the verge of pre-Apices. It was necessary to dila
abuse this respectable couple of the delusion that they were
going to carry me off in large pieces wherewith to gorge
their infant.. The guides were bad enough, but the society
of lamrserriers became extremely objectiremble, end se I
shouted and waved my alpeneteek till they end sad their
shadows disappeared.—Blockiroode Megnnse for January.
ROYAL GOOORAPHICAL SOCISTY.—At the meeting
i oe Monday next the following paper will be reed:—"Second
Joersey into Wasters Bqoatotial Afrios.° By IL P. B. des
Chsills.