The Sun.
London, England, 1851-11-15 00:00:00

fev quip
41

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LONDON; SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1851,

Thursday, the 13th of November, will henceforth
be ever memorable as the day on which England and
France witnessed, simultaneous ly, the miraculous
effect of electro-telegraphic imunication. Won-
derful as the various achievements of humanity may
have been heretofore, they haver been altogether sur-
passed by the extraordinary triumph just obtained
over innumerable obstacles, and :after countless disap-
pointments. The event alread.:y recorded by our-
selves and our Contemporaries, sounds more like
a romance than a reality, even in the matter-
of-fact language of the re porter. Upon the
morning of the day already apt raffled, the promoters
of this unprecedented scheme su eceeded in carrying
to a satisfactory issue the lal )(airs to which our
columns of late have made such repeated reference.
The copper wire, encased in a ;.t.itta percha integu-
ment, having been laid down acr of s the Channel from
Dover to Calais, or rather from Sat ndgate to Sangatte,
the fulfilment of the expectations of those who had in
any way participated in the and e r taking, was satis-
factorily demonstrated by a variety of very
curious and beautiful experim nits. After having
flashed messages to and o instantaneously
between this island of ours and the European conti-
nent, the parties entrusted with tbe conduct of these
proceedings decided upon testify ing the accuracy of
their predictions in regard to vibe submarine tele-
graph by a proof of a nature so 'entirely novel as to
kindle even the most sluggish img ination. Accord-
ing to a preconcerted agreement., precisely as the
clock at the old Town-hall at Cal is ds struck two, and
just as the express train was leaving t he station at Dover,
a discharge of electricity from the Ilegraphic terminus
in France thrilling for a second through the whole
line of the copper wire trailed um ler the waters and
along the bottom of the Channel,. ignited a thirty-
two pounder (loaded with 101 b. of gunpowder) in
England. This, it, is extraordim ily to observe, was
in honour of the Departure at that instant for London
of the Lord Wr.rden of the Ci nelue Ports, Field-
Marshal his ('grace the Duke of WILLLINGTON. With
a startling Teunctuality the hour struck, the needle
moved at rJalais, and the cannon exploded at Dover.
The groiled is described as trem.Tbling with the re-
port Et 3 the roar of it sounds d along the cliffs,
and the occurrence must have ca ;wed some emotion
we cannot but believe even to the, iron temperament
of the warrior. The discharge of -the first gun from
the French coast appears to hive been forthwith
answered by a similar compliment pa id to our neigh-
bours through an electric flash from our side of the
Channel, causing an explosion of 0% finance on the
borders of the European Continent. This tributary
firing of artillery seems, moreover, to have been for
some time afterwards alternately reiterated.

' Ultimately, and that before long, a , continuous com-
munication will be accomplished bet ween the capitals

of France and the United Kingdom. Until this
happy change has been effected, correspondence be-
tween Paris and London by electricity must be re-
tarded unfortunately by the enormous interval of fifcy-
nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds, in consequence
of the passing of messages to and fro from the tempo-
rary stations on the sea shore and those
directly communicating already with the principal
termini in the French and English metropolis. A
little while longer, and the wire having been laid
down throughout the whole route to be traversed, and
a clerk of the Telegraph Company, seated in his
office at Charing-cross, will be enabled in an instant
of time to communicate with the central establish-
ment at Paris, and on, on, on, radiating from that
point to the rest of the great capitals of the Conti-
nent to Vienna, and Berlin, and Brussels, and
Madrid, and Lisbon, and Turin. and Lucerne, and
Milan, and Florence, and Rome, and Naples,
and Palermo, and Munich, and Warsaw, and Mos •
cow, and St. Petersburgh. In an instant—with the
glance of an eye—in the bending of a finger
Pncre's boast of girdling the earth in forty minutes
is reduced to insignificance. Science has outstripped
the magical swiftness of elfland. The experimentalist
has effected more than the poet could imagine. And
whereas formerly, according to the estimate of geo-
graphers and arithmeticians united, it took
upwards of 4,752,000,000 barleycorns to go
round the globe—now-a•days, according to the
system of electricity, to effect the same it takes little
more than one WHEATSTONE.

It was ingeniously remarked, if we recollect
rightly, by one of the Quarterly reviewers, that the
Electric Telegraph is the offspring or offshoot of the
Railways—the writer maintaining that but for the
railways there would have been no electric telegraph.
Undoubtedly the remark holds good so far as it ap •
plies to the conveniences afforded to the telegraph
speculators by the margin of the various lines of
railroads threading the whole surface of the
country. But for this an infinitude of
difficulties would have presented themselves,
insomuch that we doubt if it would have
been practicable to have surmounted these with safety
to the enterprise. In the sub-marine routes now
being taken, however, in the development of this
marvellous system, the electric telegraph is inde.•
pendent of all such collateral assistance. Alone, or
aided only in one instance by the application of gutta
percha, the invention has been successfully carried
out as an agent for instantaneous sub-marine com-
munication. It must be regarded in the light of this
brilliant realization as the greatest miracle in an age of
miracles—an age which must ever be memorable
for the unprecedented number and extraordinary
character of its scientific achievements.

The new law of evidence has now been a fortnight
in operation, and our predictions with respect thereto
have already been fully verified. In every case
where the facts were in dispute, and the parties must
necessarily have been cognizant of all the circum-
stances, plaintiff and defendant have availed them-
selves of the privilege afforded by the recent statute,
and given, under the sanction of an oath, their
own version of the transaction, which, we re-
gret to say, differed so materially in many
instances, that no conclusion could possibly be ar-
rived at, hut that one, at least, of the litigants had
been guilty of wilful and corrupt perjury—that one
or the other had deliberately and solemnly sworn to
the truth of that which he knew to be totally false
and unfounded.

This is, indeed, a melancholy state of affairs, going
to a certain extent to sustai❑ the views of those who
opposed every description of legal reform, and who
boldly prophesied that the effdct of the alteration
which admitted the testimony of parties interested
in the subject-matter under investigation would be
to give an enormous stimulus to the crime of perjury,
and to afford a temptation to which but too many
would yield, by forswearing themselves for their
own pecuniary benefit. Such unquestionably appears
to be the result of the experiment so far as it can as
yet be ascertained. Our faith in its beneficial ten-
dency has not, however, been by any means shaken ;
and we are still convinced that ere it has been many
months in operation, even the most sceptical will ac-
knowledge how completely it has verified the most
sanguine anticipations of its advocates.
It could not be supposed that such a law could
come into operation without finding many persons
quite unprepared for so vast a change. It must be
considered, too, that every suit that has as yet been
tried had been instituted before the measure had re_
ceived the legislative sanction, that the plaintiffs had
told their stories to their respective attorneys, before
they supposed that they themselves or their opponents,
the only persons who could be acquainted with all
the circumstances, could have been examined, and
that through a feeling of false pride they were
ashamed to draw back, and endeavoured to support
the accuracy of their assertions and statements even
by the most desperate means. Such things cannot
again occur. Persons before giving instructions to
their professional advisers will be well aware of the
ordeal to which they may, and if patting for ward
unconscientious claims will, unquestionably, be
subjected, and they will therefore abstain
from giving highly coloured statements which
they cannot afterwards sustain. Although,
therefore, the Act may for the time being
occasion some few cases of false witness, it will for
the future materially diminish the number of uncon-
scientious demands put forward, and also the subor-
nation of perjury—a crime of no less magnitude than
perjury itself, and, if possible, fraught With even
more fearful consequences to society.
The strenuous determination evinced by the Judges
of the land to put down the offence, by availing them-
selves of the stringent powers placed in their hands,
must exercise a most beneficial influence. Parties
will see the danger of coming forward to support
falsehoods by their testimony, when the difficulties
inseparable from a prosecution for perjury have been
smoothed away and removed; and when, moreover,
the presiding judges are firmly resolved to inflict a
" heavy blow and great discouragement" on. anything
which can justly be characterised as reckless
swearing.

This salutary rule received the strongest illustration
yesterday. In two different courts, the Queen's
Bench and Exchequer, the learned occupants of the
judicial bench, Mr. Justice ERLE and Mr. Baron
MARTIN, issued their respective warrants for the
committals of plaintiffs, whose evidence had been
disregarded by the juries. Nothing could exceed the
astonishment of the parties when they found them-
selves consigned to the care and custody of officers, in
order that they may take their trials at the next
sessions of the Central Criminal Court, and when
they saw the rebutting witnesses duly bound over to
appear against them. They received a valuable lesson
which will not be thrown away on other persons in
similar circumstances, and we have no doubt that the
affairs of Messrs. " MAHON" and " ASPLAND" will
henceforward constitute leading cases, that will be
strongly impressed on the minds of persons who seek
professional assistance with doubtful stories on their

lips.
It was manifestly the intention of the Legislature
to deter parties from bringing forward unfounded
claims, and sustaining thew by false swearing. Not
only did it simplify the forms of indictments for
perjury and subornation of perjury, give additional
powers of amendment, and enable certificates con•
taining the substance and effect only of the former
trials to be given in evidence, in place of the formal
records, but (by 14th and 15th Vic, c. 100, s. 19) the
court or judge, &e., is authorised to direct a prose-
cution for perjury in any case, to commit the parties
for trial, bind over witnesses, and give a certificate
of the prosecution being directed, which will be suffi-
cient evidence of the same, and entitle the parties
to all the expenses of such prosecution.
These powers, when exerciEed so stringently, will
have their natural effect ; and notwithstanding the pro-
secutions that have already been directed, we have
no doubt that the effect of the new law will be to di-
minish rather than increase the crime of perjury.
and that its results in other respects, in preventing
unrighteous demands or defences, will be of the most
beneficial character.

The pollutions of the Thames are, it would seem,
to remain for years to come the fertile sources of
disease to all who inhabit its banks ; in vain has the
Board of Health denounced them, in vain have the
Commissioners of Sewers deliberated on the subject—

these Governmental bodies have talked for four years
and dune roamie6. Fur:aloe:by the refit o l er the
obstructions to the navigation of the Thames has
been taken up by private enterprise, and Nee there-
fore entertain sanguine hopes that, however
keg the Thames may continue to be a pol-
luted stream, yet the day is not far dis-
tant when; the flow of that stream will not be inter-
rupted by cumbrous obstructions, and when the lives
of those who navigate it will cease to be jeopardised,
and in many instances to be sacrificed in consequence.
Amongst the most cumbrous and the most dangerous
of the obstructions to the free navigation of the
river, the wooden bridge stretching across the
Tnarnes between Fulham and Putney is, per-
haps, the greatest. Every passenger by steam-
boat to Putney, Kew, or Richmond must have
a vivid recollection of the dangers of passing
under its only navigable arch, whilst every water-
man, professional or amateur, looks upon it as one of
the most dangerous portions of the river, so danger-
ous as not to be attempted by any prudent person
after sunset. This obstruction, this more than ob-
struction, this most dangerous nuisance, is, thanks to
private enterprise, we are happy to say. about to be
removed. In an advertisement which appears in
another column will be found the required official
notice of an intended application to Parliament during
the ensuing session for an Act to incorporate
a new company, under the title of the Putney and
Fulham New Bridge and Pier Company, for pur-
chasing and taking on lease, and removing the pre-
sent Bridge, and for the construction of a New
Bridge across the Thames from Fulham to Putney.
Of the necessity of the removal of the old Fulham-
bridge, the records of the Coroners' Courts of Middle
sex and Surrey bear abundant evidence, and should
the new company find any difficulty (which we cannot
imagine they will) in obtaining their Act, the evidence
which those records would furnish of the annual loss
of life on the river, occasioned solely by the faulty
construction of the present bridge, would be alone
sufficient to deprive all opposers, should any such
appear, of the Bill of their locus standi. We therefore
consider the destruction of old Fulham bridge as a
fait accompli, and have no doubt that the construc-
tion of the new bridge, by affording increased facilities
for communication with Putney, will considerably en-
hance the value of property in that village, and
at the same time, by increasing the traffic
across the bridge, add greatly to the revenues of the
company. It is not Fulham-bridge alone that is to
be removed—that ruinous old nuisance Westminster-
bridge is also to come down, and a new Westminster-
bridge erected on the site, and after the manner which
we have so frequently recommended for public adop-
tion. But this is not enough to render the navigation
of the upper portion of the Thames safe.
With a new Fulham-bridge and a new
Westminster-bridge, surely Battersea-bridge will not
be suffered to remain. In its present state it is in
some respects even more dangerous than Fulham-
bridge itself, for whereas at Fulham the piers of the
bridge are boarded up, at Batterea the bridge is
built on open piles, among which should a wherry
chance to drift escape is impossib!e, and even the most
expert swimmer, caught among these piles us in a cage,
finds himself utterly powerless. Fulham.-bridge is
doomed. Westminster-bridge is doomed, and we
hope that we shall soon have it in our power to an-
nounce that the doom of Battersea-bridge is sealed also.

THE FRENt H REPUBLIC

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
From them we extract the following resume of the
proceedings of the Assembly in relation to the Elec-
toralßill on the preceding day :

" The important discussion of the new Electoral Bill
for the repeal of the law of May 31, came on yesterday
in the Legislative Assembly, and terminated in the re-
jection of the measure by a small majority. The dis-
cussion by no means equalled in intere,t what might
have been expected from so absorbing a subject. Of
novelty in the arguments brought forward there was
none, and the several speakers, it was generally re-
marked, were not equal to themselves on the occasion.
M. de Larochejaquelein commenced the proceedings,
by declaring himself to be, then, as always, a friend to
universal suffrage in the widest sense of the expres-
sion, and, CODSrquently, a warm supporter of the new
Bill. M. do Vatimesail followed, tor the purpose of
proposing to the Assembly to reject at once the
Government measure, but to place on the order
of the day as soon as possible such parts of the
municipal Bill as treated of the mode of suffrage,
in order that if modifications seemed to the Assembly
necessary in the present conditions of voting, they might
be effected without delay. M. de Thorigny, the Minister
of the Interior, replied, declaring that the new Bill hail
been brought forward in a spirit of order and of justice,
the law of May 31 having evidently gone farther than
the authors of it even contemplated. M. Michel (de
Bourges), the Member deputed by the Mountain to ex-
press their sentiments, next came forward, and occupied
the tribune for a longer period than any other speaker
during the day. He claimed universal suffrage as the
great conquest of the revolution of February, and one
which no legislation of any Assembly could ever take
away, or even diminish. M. Davie!, the Minister of
Justice, then supported the Government Bill; and, after
M. Daru, the Reporter of the Committee, had defended
the conclusions which that body had come to, a division
took place, when the new Bill was rejected by a majority
of only 7, the numbers being 348 in its favour to 355
against it. The Assembly then rose at a quarter-past
seven in great agitation."
The organs of the Bourbonists and parti-pretre
do not conceal their mortification at the small-
ness of the majority, and admit that vir-
tually the victory is with the Republicans, and they
also admit that but for the bungling manner in
which the debate was managed by the Ministers, not
one of whom is a man of business or possesses the least
experience in the conduct of political or Parliamen-
tary affairs, the majority would have been the other
way.

The Assembles .Nationale, under the inspiration o
M. GUIZOT, thus confesses the defeat of the reac•
tionaries

"- When the spirit of disorder pervades the high re-
gions of power, honest and enlightened men cannot feel
too much alarm. The contagion is ineritsb!e, and the
moral sense of a nation is infected with a deadly poison.
We are not boasters in success, we are not puffed up
with our victories, neither do we dissemble our defeats,
because victories or reverses can only be honourable to
us. We have no idea of triumphing in the vote which
we have obtained. Far from dissembling that it deceives
our hopes, we loudly express our aflction at suing the
party of order so divided on a question which admitted
of neither hesitation nor division. Questions of honour
do not admit of them."
No one but M. GuizoT, the advocate of a species
of representative government which shall represent
nobody, would have thought of making a question
relating to the franchise a question of honour. It is
now abundantly evident that the party represented by
the Assemblee Nationale consider it a point of honour
to deprive the people of the franchise, and the people
will no doubt bear this in mind, and make it equally
a point of honour not to vote for a Fusionist.
The Ordre confesses that the vote is not only a
defeat but a complete break-up of the reactionary
faction, After describing the various tactics of the
different parties, it dolourously concludes its comment
as follows:

" From all these fine considerations, and clever tac-
tics, the result has been that the majority was reduced
to seven votes; that is, that when one of the powers
ceases to support the cause defended in common fur
three years, and now more than ever menaced, the coun-
try will inquire with a paintul anxiety where is the
strength of the other?"
The Pays, which is now one of the supports of the
PRESIDENT, says—
" It is to be remarked that the absolute majority
which has refused the re-establishment of universal suf-
frage, was only three votes. Three votes to maintain
thr. exclusion of four millions of electors! Such is the
positive result cf the discussion. This result, find these
comparative figures, speak more loudly than any com-
ment could do."
The Republican journals triumph in the result of
the division as a victory, and in the calmness of con-
scious power proceed to calculate the probable results.
In the National Assembly yesterday it was deter-
mined that the discussion on that portion of the
Municipal Bill which relates to the franchise should
commence on Monday.
and a material improve-
Government Securitit s.
m ell: e
tookß o u rpsl
cvve eisn atehiempartieede,
of
The Five per Cents. opened at 90f. 50c., rose to 90t.
90c., and closed at 90f. 80c., for the end of the month;
the Three per Cents. cicsed at 56f.; Orleans Railroad
Shares, 8671. 50o.; Rouen, 567 f. 50c.; Havre, 208 t. 75c.;
Great Northern, 460 f.; Avignon, 2081'. 75c.; Vi' rzon,
s 4 2t
riaf.s b 5u Or
ge.h;, B 3
siss lye. 115,
'Tura
B ando r d
Nantes,eaua , 3 7263€.3 2r 57e5.;0 P. A
ar ds
to Boulogne, 260 f. • •

BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, _Nov. 14.
The only transactions to-day were—Great Indian Penin-
sula, 4—Orleans and Bordeaux, 33g.