The Sun.
London, England, 1851-09-20 00:00:00

RACING FIXT

SEPTE,
Cheadle (Cheshire) 22
Cheam and Sutton 23
Barnet Autumn 23
Leamington Pony 23
Upton-on-Severn
Bedford
Eglinton Park

OCTC
Richmond
Caledonian Hunt
Chesterfield 1
Weaversthorpe
Blackpool (Preston)
Handsworth
Chester
Hampton Autumn 7
Yorkshire Union Hunt 8
NOVE,

Epsom Autumn 4
Worcester Autumn 6
Shrewsbury lO

TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION 1N
GERMANY.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

Sir,—The numerous discoveries made by the rapid
progress of modern science, which so remarkably dis-
tinguish our ;present century, derive their greatest
importance, not from the astonishment and admira-
tion they create in the minds of the wondering mul •
titude, but from their utility, and from the material
benefit they confer on the community and on man-
kind at large. Of all the agencies applied to the
grand object of accelerating locomotion and the
transmission of intelligence, none is better calcu-
lated to astound our imagination, and at the same
time to prove useful to our material interests, than
the application of electricity to these most important
purposes. It is natural, therefore, that the intro-
duction of electric telegraphs in England should
have been followed by the erection of telegraphic
wires throughout Germany, which, being commenced
in the year 1847, were completed with mar% ellous
rapidity. The electric telegraph has admirably
served the German Governments. It enabled them,
when they once had screwed up courage to combat
the revolution, to do so effectually ; it overtook many
of their flying adversaries; it prevented the out-
break of a frightful war between Austria and Prussia ;
it then condescended to summon Prime Ministers to
amicable interviews, and even to invite Monarchs to
friendly suppers. But the people derived no advan-
tage from its fairy-like powers; it was closed to the
public until M. Von der Heydt, the Prussian Minister
of Commerce, was graciously pleased, at the end of
1849, to give it free—no, to give it fettered—to the
German nation.

To Government dispatches the first preference
was secured ; another priority was claimed for railway
directors ; and then, last and least, the public
were to be generously allowed to send their messages
by this vibrating spirit on its winged courier of iron.
The Minister reserved to himself the right of sus-
pending this boon, whenever it should please him
to do so ; meanwhile, interminable regulations and
byelaws of a very complicated nature were framed,
calculated to confuse the clerks, to cause vexation to
the public, and to occasion delay in the transmission
of dispatches. It is unnecessary to state that, for
forwarding intelligence, a certain fee has to be paid,
but it might not be superfluous to remark that no
guarantee whatever is given for its due delivery, nor
any money returned or compensation allowed for
delay or negligence. Every clerk is empowered to
refuse any message, the tenor of which might to
his judgment appear revolutionary or dangerous;
and, in order to be safely protected against all
spiteful enemies of the State, the electric wire,
covered with gutta percha, was laid several feet
deep underground. But, alas ! the Prussian Govern-
ment is not omnipotent, and if in its dominion
above ground the very dogs bark at it, in its subter-
raneous regions certainly the very rats gnaw at it.
The gutta percha covering attracted the gastronomic
propensities of the field-rats, by whose ♦oracious ap-
petite and sharp teeth the telegraph has suffered in-