The Sun.
London, England, 1852-06-02 00:00:00

Tib-tnimit flt

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 1852.

Yesterday, at a little more than an hour before
midnight, a message was transmitted by the electric
telegraph, for the first time, under the waves of St.
George's Channel, between Howth and Holyhead.
Intelligence of the event reached us in London almost
immediately afterwards, and in announcing this day the
suscessful completion of the enterprise, it is impossible
to do so without expressing at the same time our
most earnest exultation. In the triumphant close of
the undertaking we recognise the -augury of almost
incalculable benefit to Ireland. The political Union
of the two islands in 1800 by Act of Parliament seems
at length, after the lapse of half a century,
to have been completed by this physical Union in
1852 by means of the Electric Telegraph. Whatever
objections may have been raised hitherto in reference
to the results of the former proceeding, cannot, we
feel assured, be henceforth repeated in allusion to
the consequences of the latter achievement. The
dream we have long cherished, the cause we have
long advocated, the hope we have long entertained
appear at length to be approaching to the period of
their tardy but eventual realization. We behold in the
occurence here celebrated, that of laying down the tele-
graphic wire from Holyhead to Howth, and that conse-
quently of flashing messages to and fro in the twink-
ling of an eye between Dublin and Liverpool, the
promise of a very considerable movement, both mer-
cantile and maritime in its character, such as must
ultimately tend to constitute Ireland the great high-
way for the commerce between England and the
United States. With so much traffic passing con-
tinually backwards and forwards through the centre
of Ireland, it must inevitably happen that the re-
sources of that heretofore unhappy land must
be rapidly and increasingly developed. Even
now the principal portion of the preliminary labour
required for the carrying out of this most desirable
object may be said, with perfect truth, to have been
already successfully and permanently accomplished.
Before the magical wire was laid down across St.
George's Channel, the line of electric telegraph was
completed westwards from Dublin to Galway, and
south-eastwards from Liverpool to London and West-
minster : so that by the connexion yesterday esta-
blished between Howth and Holyhead, a direct inter-
course may be at once opened up from the capital of the
United Kingdom to the Bay of Galway, namely, to a
spot situated at a distance of almost five hundred
miles due west from the metropolis, at a point imme-
diately confronting the American shores of the At-
lantic. All that remains to be done now, therefore, is
to open uu the western coast of Ireland a harbour
sufficiently secure and capacious to contain vessels of
the largest bulk and the heaviest tonnage, so as to
enable the sister island to be the stepping ground to
England, the place of debarkation and embarkation to
and from the United States. This is no fantastic
proposition suggested, 'on the instant, by the com-
pletion of the electric telegraph between Howth
and Holyhead. It is a suggestion we ourselves, long
ago, submitted to the consideration of the public,
with especial reference to the magnificent harbour
Capable of being constructed at Valentia.
The advantage of such a scheme as the one here pare
""Ilarised mnst,we conceive, at once, at the first glance,
at the first blush, be apparent: The practicability
of its
tsbuspletion, moreover, needs, at this hour, no
very el
tutkrate demonstration ; nor would it be ne-
cessary' let us add, to restrict the benefits
certain
the
enterprisaccrue from the carrying out of
solitary portion of Ire-
land upon the east,e t one
orupo n the west—confining the
termini of the propose d route exclusively to Galway
and Dublin. It were possible, and it may be
even advisable to open up simultaneously, or in
quick succession, lines of traffic running not only in
tbag particular direction, but from Wexford to the
mouth of the Shannon, by way of Limerick, or from
,Di to ngley Bsy
Waterford by Doneraile, or from
Cork Os
so very.
frequently
to theproposed before in
these columns)
harbouraeen; of Valentin,
by
way of the beautiful
er
of Killarney.
Across St. George's Channel,
annel, as 'previously across
the Straits of Dover, it is intended
to lay down
two or three distinct wires, a° as to render
communication less •
the telegraphic c liable to the
accidents of interruption. Why not, upon a si-
milar principle, open up two or three routes
for the Atlantic across the sister island, among
which
routes, of course, must always remain Conspicuous
those connecting Galway with Dublin, and v a eutia
to the metropolis of
with Cork, proceeding respectively

, p \ 1 au 1 • 0.• 44 .
. ,
• 4,.„ •••''''', ',?..: -r-''.--1;7)=-'''' -- --
\"'"d?
"' lik I, , - . ,:r . -iO 0s ' • ? 41,5- , ' Ai
~ t