The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—A second time has an expedition set sail
from English shores to bind together in closer com-
munion than ever the two great nations of English-
speaking men. The Great Eastern, with the Atlantic
Telegraph cable on board, passed the Downs on
Sunday, was yesterday off Falmouth, and, if all be
well, will be off Valentia this evening. Thence she
will sail on her great enterprise to link America with
England, and not only with England, but with all
the nations of the New World. Once before ,the at-
tempt was made, and nearly succeeded. HOw much
has happened since that time it is scarcely necessary
to recall. Mr. Buchanan was then the honoured
chief magistrate of a united people, whose differences
were counted as no more than the natural accom-
paniments of an energetic political life. Now he
shrouds himself in the deepest seclusion, neglected
and despised by the party he too faithfully served,
and hated by those who have succeeded him in power
as the man whose treacherous complicity with rebels
made rebellion possible. The people over whom he
bore rule have been turned one against another in
fiercest strife, and a civil war has raged among them
which was almost without a parallel for the magnitude
of its operations and the animosity of the combatants.
If we have been spared such a calamity, we have
not been without our private griefs. The workmen
of Lancashire have been struck as with famine, and
from every part of the Empire help has come to
them in their distress. Now, when peace has once
more returned to America, and plenty has revisited
our own populations, an effort is fitly made to take
up the task once before attempted and abandoned
in failure. There is a fair promise that the reunion
of England and America will this time be achieved.
The difficulty is purely mechanical, the points of
departure and arrival are given, and, thanks to the
deep-sea soundings, the path between them is as
carefully mapped out as if it had been triangulated
by the Royal Engineers. When the way is thus
known the problem may be considered as half solved.
A long time may elapse before our machinery is
sufficiently perfect to let us succeed in the under-
taking of sending a message across the Atlantic,
but it is clear that the feat can be done. We know
that a mechanical action at the one end of a wire
can be repeated at the other, and we know the line
along which our wire must be laid. If it be worth
while to persevere in successive experiments, we
must in the end secure success. But there is a good
warrant for believing that we shall be successful on
this occasion. Our former trial showed us the
errors to be avoided, and the points at which the
machinery was likely to break down. Every effort
has been made to prevent a repetition of former
mistakes. The:cable has been manufactured with
the utmost care, and has been severely tested.
Every inch of it has been the subject of minute
examination. It may be almost pronounced flawless.
It has been stowed away in the great ship which
carries it in such a manner that it may be uncoiled
without slipping and without a hitch. Some of the
best mechanicians of England are on board the
ship, and they are aided by the counsel of men
who have made electrical science their especial
study. The vessel sails at a time of the year which
gives the fairest prospect of weather suited for the
great design. We cannot command success, and
it is even possible that, with all our efforts, we do
not yet deserve it ; but we may express our hope
that our labour may not be in vain, and that in the
course of a few days words will pass from shore to
to shore of the Atlantic, and an electric communi-
cation be established never more to be severed.
The mechanical triumph of uniting the two con-
tinents together, whenever it is accomplished, will
justly be deemed enormous, but it is, perhaps, pos-
sible to overrate the importance of the feat as a step
in the progress of civilisation. At best the means
of commanication is of less importance than the
thing communicated. We have established a tele-
graph between England and India, and a day suf-
fices to convey a message from London to the East.
The most important news yet transmitted has,
however, been the price of cotton and the collapse
of mercantile houses at Bombay. We might, per-
haps, have waited a little longer for this intelligence.
But independent of the consideration that we shall
not be necessarily wiser because we can converse
with greater rapidity, it 'must always be remembered
that telegraphic despatches are, at the best, hasty
and imperfect. Our information comes more quickly,
but it is less complete. This is of slight import-
ance when the intelligence only serves to excite
our curiosity, but there are occasions when the
transmission of imperfect telegrams might produce
serious embarrassment. Some hasty thinkers
have regretted that the Atlantic cable was not laid
and in working order at the time of the affair of
the Trent. They have thought that the ground of
offence would have been immediately removed
, could the two nations have communicated directly
' with one another. This is very doubtful. It seems
more probable that the exultation of the Ameri-
can public at the capture of the obnoxious commis-
sioners would have been known in England, and
the resentment of our own people at the want of
respect to the national flag would have been known
in America, long before the voice of reason could
have been heard, and the exasperation of both na-
tions would have been increased. The rulers would
have found it impossible to control the passions of
the ruled, and the happy settlement of the dispute
which did take place would have been impossible. It
is unnecessary to multiply instances, which are only
too apparent, of the dangers of half-knowledge.
Every one will hope that we may escape such dan-
gers, but we can only do so by remembering the
imperfections of telegraphic news, and by withhold-
ing our judgment in the exercise of a large charity
until we are furnished with ample details. The
establishment of telegraphic communication with
America will not be without its drawbacks, but, on
the whole, it cannot fail to prove of advantage to
the two nations. The advice,

" Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring,,,
is discarded in education, and may be put aside in
politics. A little knowledge is better than none,
and if we only remember that our knowledge is
little we cannot go wrong. The civil war which has
wasted America has had this among other good
effects—that it has made Englishmen know very
much more than they formerly did of Americans.
At the commencement of the struggle the ignorance
even of those among us reputed well informed was
portentous. We now know almost as much of the
politics of the United States as of our own country,
and are so far prepared for the reception of tele-
graphic despatches from the other side of the At-
lantic. The daily scraps will reach us like intelli-
gence from another province of the same nation,
and it is through the constant interchange of news
which may often, perhaps, appear insignificant
that communities are drawn most closely to one
another. When the communities have the same
origin, boast the same blood, use the same tongue,
inherit the same 'literature, pursue the same aim
of reconciling order with liberty and justice with
freedom, each should be strengthened, animated,
and encouraged by closer intercourse with the other,
and it is because we believe this of England and
America that we say " God speed the Atlantic Tele-
graph."
POST.—The intelligence from America informs
us that the persons found guilty of being concerned
in the assassination of President Lincoln have been
sentenced to undergo various penalties, ranging be-
tween death on the scaffold and imprisonment for a
term of years. Payne, Harrold, Atzerott, and Mrs.
Surratt were sentenced to be hanged ; Mudd,
Arnold, and O'Laughlin to be imprisoned for life,
and Spangler to six years in the penitentiary. The
sentence of death, as we now learn, has been carried
out. Assuming that the accused have had a fair
trial, and have been legally and properly convicted,
it is impossible not to admit that they have been
concerned in one of the foulest crimes recorded in
history. There is one overpowering reason which
instinctively dominates all rightly constituted minds,
without the necessity of being formulated, and
which, by a primary intuition, forces us to condemn
assassination, whatever plausible form it may take,
and whatever ancient precedents may be adduced
in its justification. That reason is, that it utterly
sets aside the great principle that no man should be
judge in his own cause, much less judge and execu-
tioner. It ignores and traverses the principle that
to unite the characters of party and judge is one
practical illustration of the height of absurdity and
folly. But tyrannicide, to take the most specious
and plausible form of political assassination, goes
much further even than this. The whole .affair is
ex parte from beginning to end. The witness for
the accusation, the counsel for the prosecution, the
judge Who passes sentence, are all one and the same
party. They hear nothing that can be urged on
the other side. Indeed, they are incapable of hear-
ing and appreciating anything that could be urged
on the other side. They are utterly disqualified
from discharging the functions of jury or judge.
They have made up their minds long ago, or rather
they were always of one way of thinking, or, to
speak more accurately, of feeling without ever
having considered the merits of the case at all ;
and, when they proceed to action, all they care
about is the gratification of a sanguinary passion,
the slaking of their unquenchable thirst for blind
unreasoning vengeance. Of course they can quote,
or misquote, as a certain personage is said to do, the
Scriptures for their own ends. .But no pretence,
however plausible, will overcome the detestation
which all normally constituted minds must feel for
political assassination. It is intuitively and instinc-
tively condemned, and reflection and reasoning serve
but to confirm, by logical processes, the sentence of
feeling and sentiment. The assassination of Presi-
dent. Lincoln was as prejudicial to the South as to
the North ; indeed it was more so. If the conspira-
tors were Southern sympathisers, they were of that