The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-25 00:00:00

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through the old Atlantic telegraph cable. The rate
at which the cable has been shipped on board has
varied from 20 to 30 miles per day, and it is
calculated that, providing no delay takes place at
the works of Messrs. Glass, Elliot, and Co., of
Morden-wharf, Greenwich, where the cable is
manufactured at the rate of 100 miles per week, the
entire quantity will be shipped by the first week
in June, and the Great Eastern ready to take her
departure towards the latter end of the same month,
so as to fall in with the best possible weather to be
met with in the Atlantic. Although the construc-
tion of the tanks is complete, a numerous body of
mechanics and workmen are employed on board in
strengthening the ship by means of a system of
knees, butts, and deck beams, so as to support the
additional dead weight of the cable, and to over-
come the lateral pressure of the mass by confining
its dead weight to the centre of the ship, and thus
to lessen as much as possible the rolling propensity
of the Great Eastern when at sea with the three
tanks filled with the cable and water. The weight
of the new Atlantic cable is nearly double that of
the one originally laid, the weight of the entire
insulation of the cable submerged in 1858 being
2611 b. per nautical mile, while that of the new
cable is 4001 b. per nautical mile. The weight of
the new cable in air is 35 cwt. 3 qrs. per nautical
mile, and in water 14 cwt. per knot, or equal to
11 times its weight in water per knot ; or, in other
words, it will bear its own weight in 11 miles'
depth of water. The original Atlantic telegraph
cable weighed but 20 cwt. per mile in the air,
and rather more than 13 cwt. per nautical mile
in water, which would be equal to 4.85 times
irs weight in water per knot. . In the cable
now in course of shipment the breaking
strength is 7 tons 15 cwt., while the breaking
strength of the first laid cable was only 3i
tons, and the contract strain equal to 4.85 its
weight per knot in water. The contract strain of
the new cable is equal to 11 times its weight per
mile in water, or more than double the strength of
the cable first laid-between this country and America.
The whole of the arrangements connected with the
shipment of the cable, and, indeed, with the equip-
ment and preparation of the Great Eastern, are
most ably carried out by Mr. Canning, the com-
pany's engineer, who has had the great advantage
of being similarly engaged on the occasion of the
first Atlantic cable being submerged. The Great
Eastern has commenced shipping her coals, about
2,000 tons of the 8,000 she will require having been
already received on board. The restrictions as to
the admission of visitors have recently been removed,
and the public are now admitted to inspect the great
ship and witness the operation of shipping the
Atlantic cable on board.

Theatres and other Places of Dramatic
Entertainment Bill.

The following explanatory observations on this
bill have been transmitted to us by a gentleman
who is thoroughly conversant with the subject :

The main object of this bill is to give greater facilities for
the establishment of theatres and other places of dramatic
entertainment, subject always to the censorship of the Lord
Chamberlain with respect to the character of the plays and
other entertainments there presented (see clause 5).
The bill does not take away any existing authority for
licensing (see clause 4). It creates an additional authority.

The subject of theatrical and musical entertainments was
considered by a select committee of the House of Commons
in 1853 and 1854. The committee comprised Mr. Villiers,
Sir George Grey, Sir J. Pakington, Mr. Sothern, and Mr.
Lowe. The committee observe in their report (p. 26) that
" dramatic and musical entertainments have a tendency,
under strict censorship, to raise the character of the people ;
and there is evidence of a growing taste for such entertain-
ments among the working classes, and which it appears to
your committee may be made to serve as a powerful coun-
ter attraction to the public-house."
The committee further report that on consideration of
the whole of the evidence, and the public and private inte-
rests concerned, they had agreed to certain resolutions,
among which are the following :
____

" That no public theatrical or musical performance, pic-
torial or other representation or exhibition, should bo per-
mitted without a licence.

" That it should be open to all persons to obtain such
licence from the Lord Chamberlain, or other competent
authority, on payment of a sum not exceoding.£s per annum,
and on giving bond and sureties for the observance of the
law and conditions of the licence."

(Report on Public-houses, &a., July 19, 1854.)
The recommendation of the committee is, in effect, that
there should be what has been called free trade in theatre;
subject only to the payment of a small fee in each case, and
to the giving of security for proper management. Thero
would, according to the plan of the committee, bo no dis-
cretion as to the grant of a licence. An applicant would be
entitled to one, as of course, on paying the fee and giving tho
security.

The promoters of the present bill might, relying on the
authority of this influential committee, have proposed a sys-
tem such as the report suggests. But they have limited
themselves to seeking the creation of an additional licensing
authority; not taking away the discretion, but trusting to
its proper exercise.

The new licensing authority they propose is the justices
in quarter sessions.

If the function of licensing places of theatrical entertain-
ment throughout Great Rritain was assigned to the Lord
Chamberlain (which is suggested as one alternative by the
select committee), a staff and establishment entailing con-
siderable expense would most probably be requisite. Ob-
jections of other kinds might be suggested.
The bill takes the existing act, which empowers quarter
sessions to license music halls and dancing saloons, and
gives it a twofold extension. (1.) It extends the operation
of the act to Great Britain generally, the act being limited
in operation to London and Westminster and twenty miles
round. (2.) It extends the scope of the act, so as to em-
brace all places for the public performance of stage plays
not authorised under some other enactment or privilege.
It is proposed that every licence under the act of Geo. 11.
should, ipso facto, sanction the performance of any enter-
tainment being a stage play within the meaning of that
term as used in the bill. There seems no good reason why
a license for music or for dancing should not carry the right
to the performance of an opera or burletta (for instance), or
of a ballet. Refined distinctions as to what is and is not a
stage play will be got rid of.

This effect, however, will not be given unconditionally to
a licence granted for a house or place which had been already
licensed before the passing of the proposed act. The musio
or dancing licence of such a house or place will not carry a
dramatic licence unless the construction and arrangements
of the house or place are such as would be required on the
grant of a licence for the first time after the proposed act
(see the latter part of clause 2).
Clause 2 prescribes the rules for the safety of the public
which experience has shown to be necessary, with an ex-
ception for places already licensed.
Clause 3 gets rid of the restriction imposed by section 3
of the Act of George 11., preventing music halls, &c., being
opened before five p.m. This restriction is condemned in
the report of the select committee already referred to (p.
24). The other regulation, as to the inscription, is
ts
pro-
posed to be also repealed as useless.
Clause 7 has a twofold operation. (1.) It extends to all
places
relpoicesensded underh
1842, for the protection of the authors of plays, &c. Those
provisions extend at present only to " places of dramatic
Act)to the
provisions Act of
Acts
of 1833 and
entertainment," which terms would not comprise a mere
music ball. (2.) It extends to the writer of the words of
a song the protection which the composer of the air has
under those acts.

- Clause B—The enactment here referred to (among other
things) empowers the Excise authorities to grant a retail
licence to any person to sell beer, spirits, and wine in any
theatre or other place of public entertainment licensed by
justices, without the production of any certificate or autho-
rity for him to keep a common inn, alehouse, &c. It isun-
derstood that thisenactment is (in pursuance of an opinion)
of the Attorney-General of some years ago) regarded as
mandatory to the Excise authorities, so that, in practice,
any person having a theatre licensed by justices obtains
from the Excise authorities, on demand, a licence to sell
beer, &c., therein.
It is not thought expedient that this right should be con-
ferred on the licensees of quarter sessions under the
proposed Act. It is considered better that they should
be entirely under the control of the justices with respect
to licences for sale of beer, &c. Clause 8 therefore
negatives the application in the case of the enactment
referred to.

NEW SCHEME OF LAIV REPORTING.—We learn,
on reliable authority, that the proposition that Sergeant's-
inn should send a member to the new council of reporting,
has been rejected by that body, all the judges present hav-
ing expressed themselves as opposed to the scheme.—
Solicitors' Journal.
FOUND DROWNED.—Yesterday Mr. IL J. Payne,
the coroner, held an inquest upon the body of a
young woman picked up off Ilorselydown. The watermau.,
who found the body said it was that of a Woman of about,
21, and had been in the water above two months. The
beadle, George Mummery, said the woman had boon dressed.
in a black eilk dross, black shawl, and striped stockings,
but nearly all her apparel had been rotted off by the action
of the water, and the body VMS quite decomposed. A verdict
of "Found drowned" was at once returned.

THE ATRE -R YA L, DRIJRY-LANE,
Managers. Messrs. E. Falconer and F. 33. Chatterton.
THIS EVENING, Shakespere's Play of HENRY TH
EE.
EIGHTH, terminating with the fall of wobsey. .
Phelps, Walter Lacy ; Miss Atkinson.
After which, on a scale of great splendour, Milton's Mask
of COMUS : Messrs. Walter Lacy, wilbye Cooper, ifenii
Drayton, Miss Poole, Miss Augusta Thomson, and Mrs. H.
Vezin.

THEATRE-ROYAL, HAymARKET.
Lessee. Mr. Buckstone.
THIS EVENING the performance will commence with
THREE WEEK'S AFTER MA ttRIAGE. Mr. Chippen-
dale, Mr. W. Farren, Mr. Gordon, &o.; Mesdames Fitzwilliam,
Snowdon, Arc.
Atter which, THE WOMAN IN MAUVE. Messrs.
Sothern, Compton, Howe, Farren, Braid, &c ; Mesdames
Stuart, Lovell, Buckstone, to.
Followed by LORD DIINDREARY MARRIED AND
DONE FOR Dundreary, Mr. Sothern.
And FAMILY JABS. Mr. Compton, &O.