The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-20 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 1863.

The Montgomeryshire election will take many by
surprise. The electric telegraph this morning
brings the final close of the poll, leaving Mr.
TRACY with a majority of 109, and this in spite of
the time-honoured influence and associations of the
great Conservative families of Montgomery. There
will be rejoicing, and not without reason, in the
Liberal camp ; while among the ranks of the Op •
pcsition the prominent feeling, we doubt not, will
be one general sentiment of unmitigated sur-
prise. So many recent elections had prospered
with them, that, after the successful issue at Ponte-
fract the other day, they were beginning to feel
tolerably secure at the polling-booths, and to con-
sider a contested election, especially in certain dis-
tricts, merely as a matter of form—a necessary con-
cession to the exigencies of party. They begin to
find now that they are reckoning without their host.
Many unexpected triumphs have, it is true, during
these latter mouths fallen to the share of the Con-

aervatives, occasioned, in some instances, by a very
culpable neglect on the part of their opponents,
and occasioned very considerably also by a
general disappointment among Liberal elec-
tors at the non-fulfilment of their pledges
and promises on the part of Liberal Representatives
and Liberal Governments. Great as these defalca-
tions have been and well-deserving of some natural
retribution, the Liberals of the United Kingdom,
disappointed and disheartened though they may be,
are not disposed to play entirely into the enemy's
hands. There is still enough vitality left in the
Liberal cause—enough to scatter dismay among
the opposite ranks, if only a fitting occasion presents
itself. As an evidence of this vitality, an
evidence perceptible and tangible to all, witness
this unmistakeable triumph at Montgomery ! Here
in an old Tory stronghold, upheld by aristocratic
influences and political associations of long standing,
in the very midst of the enemy's camp, yet a Liberal
has there won the day, and by a large majority !
Take heart, then, disappointed electors of Pontefract,
and moderate your jubilations, antagonists of reform! I
The men of Montgomery have read you all a lesson.
They have set an example to their fellow-Liberals
of England, one that will not be without its effect
in coming days. The names of TRACY and Mont-
gomery will be worth a hundred votes at every
new and impending election. And while Liberal
electors are heartened on by this example, by this
new proof of the vigour and animus of Liberalism,
the chiefs of that party, the popular representatives
of that party, men chosen by Liberal electors to
carry out, and not merely to cavil about, Liberal
principles and Reform, should take the encouraging
3xample to heart individually. Let them ask them-
selves, until how long the popular patience will
tamely suffer itself to be abused, as it has been
during these recent years, by the so-called cham-
pions and advocates of popular privileges. Let
them be warned in time, The same determined
spirit, not dead but dormant, that has yesterday
placed a Liberal in the place of a Conservative, at
Montgomery, will, to-morrow, if need be, place
some real Reformers and true Friends of the People
in the place of some of those Time-servers who now
bear and desecrate their name.

It is difficult for the casual observer to realise the
amount of work that must be done before the ap-
pliances of civilisation are fully brought to bear on
a wild uncultivated land; and before those dis-
coveries and improvements which modern skill and
science have made common among us are practically
applied in a rude and untried country. We look
around us
and see an ample supply of water corn-
munia.;
at our filf3u) a perfect network of railroads, and have
--tigers' ends maps, charts, and directories for
any and eyer,
spot in the United Kingdom. Pro-
fiting by these advantages, we are apt to forget the
slow and tedious
steps by which they were gained,
and many readers
will probably be startled when
they hear of a survey going on for sixty years, and
still incomplete
let) when we remember the vast
extent of British India, and the numerous obstacles
and dangers in the way of thes.c'urveyors, as well as
the cautious and dilatory
fan
in which every
official undertaking
carieh
s
a on, we shall not,urprised at the result.
perhaps, be very much
The task of surveying demand..
men
of skill,
science, and energy. None but
Europeans can be
suffered to take charge of such an e
apedition and
they have to encounter the dangers of
hostile
tribes, the extremes of temperature, the hostile
of traversing the country, and countless other
impediments. No less than three surveys are be-
ing carried on simultaneously—the Trigonome.
trical, the Revenue, and the Topographical—at a
total expenditure of nearly £170,000 per annum.
The 'Trigonometrical Survey, which is the chief
undertaking, has been in action since the commence-
ment of the century. It began at Ceps
Comorin,
and thence proceeded up the Himalayas, the alti-
tudes of which cff,:red not the least formidable of
the obstacles to the task. Captain MONTGOMERIE
and his party succeeded, two years since, in
satisfuctoiily completing the Topographical survey
of more than 12,000 square miles, a great part of
which was on the mountain tope. In some parts
the stations were 17,000 ft. high, and the highest
altitude ever gained as a point for observations
was reached, when on one occasion they were
made at a height of 20,000 ft. In these lofty ranges,
the largest glaciers yet found south of t he Arctic Seas
were met. We hear of one glacier measuring 36
miles, and a june ion of two terming a mass of ice
C 4 miles in length. The wonderful art of Ulf
photographer was calicd on to picture these mar-
Tula of nature, and amid tkx, bikzct and ~tiilness of