The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—Twenty-four hours are left us to specu-
late on the fate of the Atlantic Cable. To-morrow
it is expected that the Great Eastern will be once
more at Valentia, with her account of the disaster.
That account may or may not be absolutely con-
clusive as to the cause of the failure. It is re-
markable that precisely as wars appear to be neces-
sary to teach us geography, so we are all learning
more about electricity and magnetism by the suc-
cessive failures of this grand project. Few of our
readers can pretend to have known much about
magnetic storms breaking out suddenly and simul-
taneously over a large portion of the globe, or earth
currents, or magnetic deflection so strong as to
overpower for many hours the arranged signals of
the wire. We are learning every day, and, for our
part, we are ready to hail any accession to science
even in an inconvenient form. We did suppose, in
ourignorance, that the copper wire, once completely
insulated in gutta percha, would be proof against
all magnetic influences, except those which the
operators chose to give it at the two extremities,
and, unless it be a very stormy passage of .the earth
current from one extremity to the other, we cannot
see what is to interfere with the regular passage of
signals. But if this be so, and if every wire, how-
ever insulated, is liable to be flooded, so to speak,
with earth currents and disabled for human pur-
poses, here is a fresh source of error and perplexity
we had not reckoned upon. For example, on this
supposition it is possible that the present disaster
may have been as follows :—The supposed earth
current having thrown the cable quite out of order,
the operators on board the Great Eastern may
have perceived that disorder, but may yet have been
quite at a loss how to account for it. The elec-
tricians and the whole scientific world of England
have nothing to do but to make the best conjectures
they can on the reported facts ; but the small staff
on board the Great Eastern, working under great
difficulties, have not only to make conjectures,
but also to act. Becoming conscious of a failure
in the Cable, we doubt very much whether they
would ascribe it to earth currents and proceed
with their work, hoping that all would be right
in a few hours. They would take a safer course.
They would immediately begin to draw in the cable
to discover the fault, if discoverable ; but anyhow
to heave the cable on board. We are now told that
if the sea were heavy, as it is assumed for certain
reasons to have been just before the mishap, the
cable would be likely to break under this process.
It is, then, possible that the cable has perished from
no fault of its own, but merely because a "magnetic
storm" has laid it under suspicion, and the attempt
to investigate the suspected fault has proved too
much for the strength of the cable. After
the numerous and solid successes of submarine
telegraphy, and after the fact of this cable being
successfully laid for two-thirds of its length, we can-
not entertain a doubt of its final success. Nay, more,
we believe that every experiment will leave on record
its well-defined lesson, and each renewal of the de-
sign will be more likely to succeed, and to prove a
lasting success, than the last. Hitherto the failures
have been clearly traced to purely mechanical causes,
and we do not expect to hear to-morrow that either
a whale, or a shark, or an iceberg, or any other
agent beyond human control or prevision has done
this mischief. The bottom of the Atlantic is the
most lifeless and most unchangeable place in this
terraqueous globe ; and the only foe we have to
dread there is the sharp upturned edge of a rock,
rising high from the surrounding level, and thereby
pressed into the substance of the cable. Such a
rock might occur on a particular route, but not oc-
cur half a mile on either side of it. On the calcu-
lation of chances, we might safely reckon on its
non-occurrence the next time. On the whole, then,
we must conclude success to be within the reach of
art, and attainable with due care. But there comes
the difficulty. A very elaborate fabric is to be ren-
dered proof against an incessant, insinuating, and
instantly fatal antagonist for the immense length of
2,300 miles. Who ever knew a house slated without
a few faulty slates? Who ever knew a carpet taken
up and relaid without a " tack " or a pebble being
left under it? The greatest human vigilance will
nod. The fault discovered in Ibis cable on the first
day was owing to a bit of wire left in the tank, and
no doubt dropped in the operation of piecing. Such
an operation ought not to have been performed in the
tank. The most careful workman leaves vestiges
behind him. But the vigilance necessary to secure
the success of this cable must continue from the first
moment of the manufacture to the last of the paying
out. The last is done by night and by day, pos-
sibly in a storm, with all the powers of mind and
body exhausted. Many people are incapable of
self-control, and unable even to know what they are
saying, after a single day of great and protracted
fatigue. What must be the case of all concerned in
paying out the Atlantic cable, after a whole week
of it, not to speak of much previous anxiety and
hard work ? It would be strange if, after all, the
land should beat the sea ; and the Russians and
Americans should have completed the telegraphic
wire from London to New York, via Siberia and
Behring's Straits, before the success of the cable.
There can be no question as to the possibility of the
land line ; but England naturally inclines to the
Atlantic route. Both are only a question of time
and money. In the too probable event of the Great
Eastern returning with a tale of disaster we ought
immediately to set about improving our cable. It
appears to be admitted that it is capable of improve-
ment. The roughness of its exterior, consisting of
tarred hemp, is alleged as a reason why it could only
be drawn in from a great depth very slowly indeed..
It is said, too, that in the event of a sudden strain
by a lurch of the ship, a rope incapable of passing
quickly through the water would certainly break.
One other suggestion we beg to make. It may,
perhaps, have been anticipated by the great depthsat which submarine cables have already been laid.
If it has not, then we ask whether the Atlantic cable
has been tried under the pressure of an Atlantic
depth, produced by artificial means. A depth of
2,000 fathoms is equal to 360 atmospheres, and may
possibly have effects on the cable not exactly and
fully foreseen. The accounts always assume that
the cable is improved by the pressure, and works
better the lower it is laid. It is yet possible, how-
ever, that the pressure may aggravate any accidental
defeat. The destruction of the first cable was a
work of time ; though a fracture has been suggested,
nothing was ever proved. A few hours, however,
will add so much to the facts of the present failure
that we hope, even if this cable be hest, we shall find
ourselves to-morrow one step nearer to final and
complete success.
POST. The announcement that President
Johnson had issued an order for the liberation on
parole of the Confederate generals and other mili-
tary officers who have for upwards of three
months
been confined in Fort Warren and other prisons in
the United States will be received with satisfaction.
The suggestion, at first gravely advanced by the
organs of public opinion in the North, and to all
appearances endorsed by the Government, that
every one who had taken a conspicuously active
part in the rebellion, whether in the civil or the mi-
litary service of the Confederacy, should be selected
for punishment has at length been abandoned. The
President has found that it is virtually impossible to
carry out in all their strictness the provisions of his
celebrated amnesty proclamation, and sees himself
compelled by the force of circumstances, if not by
feelings of humanity, to introduce such modifica-
tions as may have the effect of rendering it more
conformable to the spirit of "the age in which we
live. Although, however, the amnesty is now to be
extended to the great mass of the military officers
in the Confederate army, however high their rank,
it will be noticed with regret that the best and
greatest of them all has not yet been restored to
liberty. Robert Lee is still a prisoner, and there are
to be found those who declare that he should only
leave his gaol to mount a scaffold. The accidental
circumstance of having been unsuccessful is all that
has deprived Lee of a position scarcely second to
that of George Washington ; but even although
obliged, when overpowered by numbers, to lay
down his sword, the Confederate generalissimo will
always hold one of the proudest places in American
history. So far as we are in a position to judge, it
would seem that the American Government, with all
the desire to mete out the most severe punishment
to the bulk of those whose gallantry and courage
so long kept them at arm's length, are unable to
discover a means of gratifying their vengeance.
It would be a little too absurd to put a large
number of generals, brigadiers, lieutenant-
colonels, and other field officers on their trial for
treason because they had served the Confederate Government, and accordingly Mr. Johnson's ad-
visers have been compelled to counsel their
dis-
charge. It is, however, a matter for observation
that, those provisions in the proclamation which
pressed heaviest on civilians, and which can with-
out trouble be enforced, remain un repealed. The
leading citizens of Richmond in vain besought Mr.
Johnson to withdraw that proviso from the procla-
mation which excluded from its operations all per-
sons possessed of a few thousand dollars. The Pre-
sident, however, remained inexorable. He evidently
deems it expedient to retain in its position a screw
which can be tightened at p.leasure. There appears
to be a growing impression that the American
Government are preparing the public on both sides
of the Atlantic for the execution of Mr. Davis. This
may or may not be without foundation, but it is
impossible to deny that several of the American
journals have been for some time past apparently
leading "to such a consummation. A communi-
cation which appeared a few days since in the
columns of a contemporary, and which by its tone
and substance unmistakably pointed to such a re-
sult, and almost went the length of justifying it,

has, as might have been expected, excited the indig-
nation of those whose sympathies were given to the
Confederate cause. The correspondent of the
Times, writing from the United States, is fairly
entitled to represent what he believes to be the tone
of the society in which he moves ; bat it may well
be doubted whether any journalist ever committed
himself to more reckless assertions on matters
seriously affecting the life and reputation of a man
daily expecting to be put upon his trial on a
capital charge than was done by the Times' cor-
respondent on the occasion to which we refer.
Whether the Federal prisoners of war in the hands
of the Confederates during the late war were
treated with gross inhumanity ; whether they were
butchered in cold blood, or mercilessly exposed
without protection to the rays of a tropical sun ;
whether the hampers of viands sent to them by
their friends in the Northern States were placed
so that they could be seen but not touched by the
unfortunate prisoners, whilst the latter received
such scanty rations that only the most robust suc-
ceeded in keeping body and soul together ; and
whether these and similar atrocities were com-
mitted not only with the knowledge, but with tho
approval, of Mr. Davis and of General Lee, and
must have been constantly witnessed by the former,
are all questions which may admit of being answered
in the affirmative or the negative. But as, up to
the present time, no judicial investigation has been
instituted the result of which has been to prove that
such things took place, much less that they did so
with the cognisance of Mr. Davis, it is trenching a
little too far on the liberty of journalism to assert
that the evidence upon which those charges of cruelty
rest is overwhelming and unanswerable, and to throw
out a hint that Mr. Davis's friends ought to con-
sider him fortunate if he died a natural death in
Fortress Monroe. Our contemporary has, whether
justly or not, acquired the reputation of invariably
throwing its weight into the balance against those
on whom fortune has laid a heavy hand, and it is
not surprising that the present should be pointed to
as an instance of an established practice. The let-
ter of a correspondent stands on a different footing
from a leading article, but in a journal like the
Times the difference of authority on which the two
rest is to the bulk of readers unappreciable. Our
contemporary would never have published a com-
munication from a correspondent in an assize town
to the effect that the evidence to be adduced against
a prisoner awaiting his trial was unanswerable, and
that the best thing that could happen him would be
to die in gaol ; and one should have thought that
much stronger reasons would have applied in refer-
ence to charges against the late chief magistrate of
six millions of people—charges which most persons
on this side of the Atlantic believed to be infamous
calumnies. Assuming the possibility of the allega-
tions being true, it is surely not asking too much to
demand that they shall not be declared to be so un-
til they have been judicially proved. Many of the
statements are grossly inaccurate, and notably that
of the murder of Colonel Dahlgren in a Confede-
rate prison—that officer having fallen on the field of
battle. The narratives of all the English travellers
who visited the Southern States during the war are
at complete variance with the accusations now made,
and certainly we shall require something more than
the bare assertion that the evidence is " overwhelm-
ing and unanswerable" to believe that Mr. Davis
and General Lee have so completely belied the cha-
racter they acquired for themselves by their public
acts.