The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-07 00:00:00

TELEGRAPH TO NEWFOUNDLAND.

In six or eight weeks the New York, Newfoundland,
and London telegraph Company will have their line
finished as far east as St. John's, Newfoundland, at
which point many of the transatlantic steamers are ex-
pected to call to deliver and receive despatches. The
wire for this line left London on the 28th ult., and a
steamer is to be chartered to tow the vessel containing
the wire, in the process of laying it down. The port of
St. John's, when once it has been entered, is said to be
one of the best on the North American continent.
Parties employing submarine batteries are now engaged
in removing the large rock obstructing the entrance, the
sum of $2,500 having been appropriated for the purpose
by the Newfoundland Government. This will give an
ample passage for vessels drawing 30 feet of water.
Every convenience will be had at St. John's for coaling
vessels on the route for Europe, the coal being brought
there from Wales, as ballast, in fishing vessels. Euro-
pean steamers can thus leave the continent with one-
third less fuel. The space thus saved can be occupied
by freight. Should this plan be adopted, European
news will be received at New York in six or seven days
after the departure of the steamer bringing it ; or, if the
steamers should stop at Cape Clear, the south-western
extremity of Ireland, the time will be reduced to five or
six days. As respects outward-bound vessels, despatches
can be placed on board at St. John's four days after
'steamers leave New York. A telegraphic communica-
tion between the continents will, it is said, be completed
in two years. The method of constructing the sub-
marine cable (70 miles in length) to be laid in the Gulf
of St. Lawrence is described as follows :—ln the first
place, each communicating wire is regularly and per-
fectly insulated in gutta percha, making it, when thus
covered, about one quarter of an inch in diameter ;
three insulated wires are then placed in a circular form,
around a tarred hempen cord, and the spaces between
them filled up with layers of the same material ; after
which strands, likewise of tarred hemp, are bound firmly
around the whole, and afterwards strong iron wires, of
about the same diameter as the communicating wires
when insulated, are wound spirally around, and the
cable is completed. The reason of the use of the tar is
that it gives durability, as tar, in connection with iron,
has been found to act as a great preservative to the
cable when immersed in salt water.—New York Journal
of Commerce.

SOCIETY FOR IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF THE
LABOURING CLASSES.—Yesterday the Earl of Shaftes-
bury, accompanied by a number of gentlemen, members
of this society and others, met by arrangement in Wild-
court, Drury-lane, to inspect the results of the renova-
tion which that part of the metropolis has recently un-
dergone under the auspices of the society. No one who
yesterday accompanied Lord Shaftesbury over the
houses could fail to be struck with the comfort and sin-
guler cleanliness alike of the occupants and the rooms
they inhabit, and to notice the utter absence of anything
like an offensive smell of any kind in any part of the
premises, and no hole or corner was left unvisited. The
part of the metropolis on which the society intend next
to-operate is a notoriously offensive place called Tindal's-
buildings, in Gray's-inn-lane. Of this locality 89me
conception may be formed, when it is stated on good
authority that one house in it in one year contributed no
fewer than twenty cases to the Fever Hospital.