The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-04 00:00:00

THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

On Tuesday morning London was startled with
news brought by electric telegraph, of events that
had on the same morning taken place in Paris; and
we saw revived afresh most vividly the wonder with
which the first message of the submarine wire was
received. The particulars given in another column will
be read with intense interest, and need at this moment
no comment. By electric wire and by special train we
give all that could be gleaned ;up to the hour when our
journal goes to press. But even the story of a Paris
revolution has to divide our wonder with the means by
which that news first reached us. We were long accus-
tomed to consider the line " And panting Time toil'd
alter him in vain," as containing a tolerably bold meta-
phor, even when applied to Shakepere; it turns out, how-
ever, to be the mere,t prose when spoken of the electric
telegraph. Every railway clerk sees time beaten hollow;
distanced every day by the wires under his control. You
hear him announce as calmly as if he were remarking on
the state of the weather, that a robbery was committed
at ten minutes past two, same hundred miles distant,
and that the officers at the station are enjoined to be on
the look out. You look up at the clock and see that it
wants exaciiy ten minutes to two. The telegraph has
aten the sun by 20 minutes! If you believe the sun dial
or your watch, you haVe heard of the robbery twenty
minutes befare it happened. Now that the lines of the
international telegraph are completed so as to form an
uninterrupted communication between Paris and Lon-
don, it may happen that the inhabitants of London may
hear of an &mute being crushed at the very minute
which is registered in the Paris chronicles at the time
of its breaking out. Nay, it may yet be possible that
Louis Napoleon may perpetrate another coup d'etat at
five minutes past twelve some Sunday morning, and that
we may be made acquainted with the fact at five mi-
nutes to twelve on Saturday night! Such are a few spe-
cimens of the pranks which the mad young genius gal-
venisea is playing, to the discomfiture of old Father
Time. We de not allude to them for the purpose of ex-
citing vague surprise, but to draw attention to the tact
that a mightier power of nature than was ever before
made manifest is now placed in the hands of man; and
that our scientific and practical resources will be taxed
to the utmost in watching over its develop-
ment and securing its most serviceable ac-
tion. Philosophers and practical men are equally
at a loss to place any limits to the effects upon the
ordinary economy of the world that must be produced
by this wonderful agent. Even regarded merely from
one point of view—that, namely, of carrying messages—
what revolutions may not be expected from a spirit
which can " put a girdle round the earth" exactly six
thousand times—this is a matter of rigid mathematical
computation—six thousand times while Shakspere'a
Puck performs the operation once 1 Puck's " forty mi-
nutes" appears an age when compared with the time de-
manded by the galvanic current. One most startling
effect of the perfection of the telegraphic system will be,
that, with respect to the ordinary political and domestic
occurrences, the inhabitants of every capital in Europe
will be made acquainted with the events which happened
the day before, not only in their own town, but also in
every other town almost at the same moment:Now that the
communication between Paris and London is perfect, the
editors of the daily newspapers read, every day, news
from these capitals not more than an hour and a half old.
Nearly the whole of this hour and a half is due to
the necessity at present existing of transmitting
the news by the ordinary methods of locomotion to and
from the stations. In some instances even one town may
be in possession of accurate accounts of what has passed
in another hours, nay days, before the inhabitants of the
latter know anything about these events beyond what
reaches them by vague rumour. Thus had the telegra-
phic communication between Paris and London existed
at the time of the last French revolution, and no politi-
cal reason existed for interrupting it, we might have lis-
tened to reports from the seat of action describing the
events as they succeeded each other every five minutes,
while the peaceable inhabitants of Paris were ensconced
in their cellars or in their bedrooms, unconscious of every-
thing but the rattle of musketry and the booming of can-
non. We can conceive nothing more calculated to stir
up the energies of some " used up" man of fortune than
his engaging a room in the office of the international tele-
graph, through which acommunication is kept up between
London and some town on the Continent which is in a
state of insurrection. The railway clerk would then
stand to the languid seeker for excitement in the posi-
tion of Rebecca to Ivanhoe, when she looked down
i!om the turret window and described to him the
desperate strife which was being carried on below. We
can
imagine the gradual heightening of the colour, the
us the
The troopa
brighteni
par the eye, and the acceleration of the pulse,
Sybariteh listened to the announcements,
dea
—" they are repulsed"
have fired on the people"—" the people are
forming bar "
the troops are storming them"
Governments
the King has abdicated"—and
g tsihseeinrtasuobn the continent seem in-
tentse on. As the
tempta-
tions to resort to measures of taiesetlssind, we recommend
upon furnishing
with ample
to the notice of the Electric
Company the
Telegraphaotueurs of revo-
lutions establishment of a department when
may be supplied with instantaneous
at an exorbitant rate. But with all thiss intelligenceat
power, the telegraph is not free from a few peculiarities
which in some measure cast a cloud over the great ad-
vantagesles which it produces. It is not content with
beating time, but it throws all the world into a state of
inextricable confusion with respect to time. Already
are the towns situated east and west of Greenwich be-
ginning to feel the annoyance of never knowing " what
o'clock it is." Already are the old market clocks, which
exercised a despotic sovereignty over all the clocks in
town and country adjacent, beginning to grumble over
the levelling effects of a democratic influence, which
"Disturbs their ancient solitary reign." Many of them
even have had to submit to the disgrace of publishing
their own incapacity by having an extra hand affixed to
their dials. The uninitiated traveller, who looks upon
a clock of this kind at Exeter, and asks with surprise
which of the hands indicates the true time, is answered
by the indigiatnt townsman the words of the showman
please." ,
" Whichever you
h. in
This which may be sport to
us, is heath to lm This " condition-ot-the-clock
question" is becomie.
g more important day by day, and
will increase in importance as the
railway
system be.