The Sun.
London, England, 1840-07-09 00:00:00

EVENING gDITION,

several jurisdictions to issue their warrents for the pro-
s ision not only of waggons, wains, carts, and cars, k€pt
by or belonging to any person, and for any use whr..!o-.
ever ; but also of saddle-horses, coaches, post-cht.isss,
chaises, and other four-wheeled carriages kept far bite.
and also of boats, barges, and other vessels used-for-the.
transport of any commodities whatsoever upon -any.
,;: navigable river." Your Committee recom-
mend that Mtn: Lit powers should be taken with regard
to railway conveyanct;, on payment of a reasonaoe sum
in consideration of the ace6:3lmodation required. • -
It appears that on the Great Western Railway
periments have been made to a considerable extent-,
with the view of ascertaining the best means of cou-
ve3 in: intelligence through the medium of electricity..
There is no necessary connexion between railways and
this new mode of communication, except that a railwa%
possesses continuity of property between two distant.
places ;" and, also, that the numerous servants of an
establiihed railway are available to protect the ma-
chinery required for the purposes of this communicein4.
Mr. Wheatstone, Professor of Experimental PlAle-
sophy in King's College, has for some years turned his,
attention to this subject, and has, in conjunction with
Mr. Cooke, obtained patents for his inventions. From
his evidence, which is especially deserving of notice, it
appears that there is no difficulty in conveying intelli-
gence to any part of the island, with an almost instarf-
taneous rapidity, by means of a few copper wires, and
small galvanic batteries. There is great ingenuity in
the various modes in which Mr. Wheatstone has applied
the power of electricity to alphabetical communications,
and your Committee believe that in a short time fur-
, ther improvements in this mode of intercourse will sim-
plify the machinery, and render the correspondence be-
tween distant parts of the island more speedy and cer-
tain than by means of such telegraphs as have been
usually employed.
Mr. Saunders, the Secretary of the Great Westerr'
Railway, states the expense of constructing the eke-
trical telegraph on the line of that railway to have
been from 2.50/. to 300/. a mile. This description of
telegraph, however, when once constructed, is work,.;
at a very trifling expense, whereas the telegraph rnyw
in use between London and Portsmouth, independent
of the original outlay, costs about 3,300/. a-year, and
the lines of telegraphic communication to Plymouth, `1
Yarmouth, and to Deal, were abandoned in the year
1816, on account of the expenditure required for their
inainLPance.
whenevei• t telegraph shall have been laid down 1,e.!
tween London aid the other ports and tnereanli.:C
cities of the island, it toi!1 give to its proprietors great
advantages in obtaining and transmitting informatioe.
which must be attended with most important results.
For the purposes of the railway itself this telegraph
may also be frequently used to prevent the risk of nee--
dents, and to obviate delay and inconvenience.
Your Committee are of opinion that circumstances
may arise in which it may be very inconvenient tc
leave in the hands of a private Company, or possibly
of an individual, the exclusive means of intelligence
which this telegraph will afford ; and it cannot fail to
be of paramount importance that the Government should
be furnished with similar means of procuring and trans-
mitting intelligence, and they believe that no Railway
Company will object on fair terms to give every facility
to the Government for establishing a line of electrical
communication over the whole length of their
Your Committee are aware that they have not fully
dev-3loped the great and increasing importance of this sub-
ject, which perhaps does not fall strictly within the
terms of the subject-matter referred to them, but they
are most anxious to fix the attention of the House and
of the public on a discovery which is no less susceptible
of useful than of dangerous application.
July 2, 1840.