The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-03 00:00:00

THE GOVERNMENT AND THE
TELEGRAPHS.

The arbitrators, Mr. Pattison and Mr. Harrison,
appointed to decide upon the amount that oughtto be paid
under the Telegraphs Act of last year by her Majesty's
Postmaster-General to Reuter's Telegram Company
(Limited), are busily engaged in taking evidence. To
avoid waste of time, Mr. Russell Gurney, Recorder
of the City of London, who has been selected to
aot as referee, sits with the arbitrators, though, of course,
he takes no action, except in cases where the arbitrators
cannot agree. The Solicitor-General, Mr. Denison, Q.C.,
Mr. Serjeant Sargood, and Mr. Simpson appear for the
Post Office ; and Mr. Vernon Harcourt, Q.C., Mr. Pol-
lock, Q.C., and Mr. Bompas for Reuter's Telegram Com-
pany. The proposed agreement to be entered into by
the Post Office with Mr. Reuter recites that
he is possessed of a submarine telegraph from
Lowestoft to Norder in North Germany, which
is called the Norderney Cable. In connection with
this, Mr. flouter has entered into an arrangement with
the Electric Telegraph Company, by virtue of which the
latter bare laid down a line of telegraphic wires from
London to Lowestoft, and are to work them for ten years.
The chief question for the arbitrators to deal with refers
to the Norderney Cable, the agreement made by the
Post Office proposing to pay to Reuter twenty years' pur-
chase of the amount of the net profits derived by or
secured to the company from the transmission of messages
through the cable, such profits being based on the expe-
rience of the month of March of last year, and to pay
also twenty years' purchase of the profits deter-
mined by the arbitrators to be the probable
profits to be derived by the company under its
contracts with the Indo-European Telegraph, which is not
yet at work, or even entirely constructed. The evidence
taken has been of a most voluminous character, and as far
as witnesses called by the counsel for Reuter's Company
are concerned, it has been directed chiefly to the
establishment of the value likely to be derived by the
company, from the Indo-European contract. Amongst
the witnesses examined have been Mr. Jules Reuter, Mr.
Varley, the eminent electrician, and Colonel Holland.
Yesterday Mr. Siemens,- whose firm, acting as telegraph
contractors, have had a hand in constructing half the lines
in Europe, gave a number of statistics in reference to the
cost of constructing, maintaining, and working the Indo-
European line, and the sums that would be likely to be
earned by it. The gist of the evidence of this witness was
that the advantages that would probably accrue from the
undertaking would be of an exceedingly substantial kind.
The succeeding witness was Mr. Corrie, member of a large
Indian firm, who was called to prove that the present
telegraphic communication between this country and India
was by no means in a satisfactory condition. Were
the proposed Indo-European line opened, conducted with
regularity, and the prices charged at present much re-
duced, the increase in telegrams would be considerable.
Thus, were the charge for a telegram 20s. instead of 58s.
his own firm would undoubtedly use the wires frcm
five to ten times as frequently as they did now.—Mr.
Costella, a cotton broker, whose house.used to telegraph
to and from India daily and hourly in connection with the
Continent and Liverpool, was examined to prove the neces-
sity of anew communication with India. The more lines there
were the better for trade. The price of a message to
India ought not, he thought, to be more than £lss. or
£1 10s. It was, however, more important to get
speed and accuracy than a reduction in the cost of
transmission. The secretary of Reuter's Telegram
Company furnished a number of instances in which
messages sent off from London to Bombay at different
dates arrived on the same day. From a state-
ment which he had prepared, he found that the
time occupied in the transmission of a number of messages
varied from eighty-four hours to a fortnight. It con-
stantly happened that a message sent on Monday did not
arr:ye until after one sent on Wednesday, which, as
the mes,:gges often referred to the state of the
markets, was 1,-:ry vexatious. To get a message through
in twenty-four hours was an event so exceptional, that on
the rare occasions on whle' it happened public attention
was always called to it in the nO'spapers. After the exa-
mination of some other witnesses, iv,::-‘se evidence was of
the same character as the foregoing, the ;arbitrate' .' and
referee adjourned.

D BMA nc ED SOLDIERS. —ln order to prevent
soldiers who have joined the reserve force enrolling them-
selves a second time by means of mutilated certificates of
service, commanding officers have been requested not to
issue more than one certificate to a discharged soldier.
LONDON, CHATHAM., AND :DOVER RAILWAY.
We are informed that the representatives of the different
classes of debenture and preference shares of this company
have during the week had under their consideration
various plans of compromise. No definite arrangement
has yet been come to, but there is every reason to believe
that a scheme wid sLoitly Lc matured »y which the line
will Le taken out of the control of the Court cf Chancery,
the funds in hand, amounting to LaY,),OCA), he distributed,
and a. termination be made of the costly litigation t.N,ltich
is doing so much injury to the propel ty.— T tilway lirezcs.

THE S.►t'axN V. SrAnn Case.—Tile Archbishop
of Weatminster has consented to become chairman of the
committee forme I to collect subscriptions for the purpose
of defraying the costs of the late trial Sanrin v. Star, and
has addressed the following letter to the present reverend
mother of the Hull Convent:—" 8, York-place, W., March
19, 1K 9. Reverend Mother—With all zny heart I give my
ful permission that collections may be made in this arch-
diocese to aid in defraying the costs of the trial to which
your convent has been subjected ; yoo may also put my
name on the list of the committe, and I shall be happy to
assist you to the utmost of my power. Do not be cast
down at this trial. It will turn not to the hindrance, but
to the furtherance of the faith, and to the vindication of
our convents from the false accusers who, in your case,
have been signally disappointed. The public opinion of
the country_is just and generous, and we have no fear to
stand in the light of day. May the blessing of God be
upon you and your sisters."

THE MURDER IN TIPPERARY.—TIIO following
further particulars of the last brutal murder are taken
from the Clonmel Chronicle:—"Clonmel, Thursday.—ln-
telligence of another fearful murder in this county has
just reached Clonmel. The present victim—it is believed
—of agrarian revenge is a gentleman named Topham, highly
respected by all who knew Lim. He had recently purchased
some property in the vicinity of his residence, near l3uffana,
within three miles of Fethard, and last evening, it would
appear, Mr. Top'man left his residence to visit a part
of his farm, and was not afterwards seen alive. A
close search having been made, the unfortunate man was
found lying murdered and quite cold inside the wood of
Buffana. Upon examining the body it was discovered
that lie had been fired at from behind. The back part
of the head presented the marks of two bullet wounds,
while the fingers of the right hand were shot off. A report
of this dreadful outrage has just been transmitted to the
coroner for the district, Mr. James J. Slice. The news of
this awful occurrence, which was conveyed to this town
by two of the neighbouring magistracy, has caused the
utmost consternation. It furnishes another sad evidence
of the present alarming disorganisation of society, and of
the insecurity of life."

IS HEMLOCK A POISON 7—With respect to a
paragraph which recently went the round of the papers to
the effect that hemlock is not a poison, a correspondent of
a Scotch newspaper writes :—" A boat's crew of H.M.S.
Wellington, while on shore at Campbeltown, dug a quan-
tity of spotted hemlock (conium maculatum), which they
mistook for wild celery or parsley. T, Ile men who partook
of it (eight in number) became very ill, and two of them
died. The poison principle of this plant resides chiefly in
the leaves and seeds. The roots, when boiled, are said to have
very much the taste of parsnips, and are occasionally eaten
by rabid vegetarians ; but the roots are generally admitted
by this graminivorous race to be also poisonous at certain
stages of the growth of the plant and states of the atmos-
phere. There are several species of £nanthe crocatd, all
of which are universally believed to be more or lesi
poisonous, the least poisonous being the common " hem-
lock or spoutingun," as country people call them. These,
when broken, exude a milky juice of an. acrid bitter
taste. They are greedily devoured by pigs and hungry
cattle without any bad effects ; but the conium maculatum
is, so far as my observations have gone, instinctively
avoided by brute animals."
THE BELLS OF BALLARAT.—The settlers at
Ballarat, immediately after the attack upon the life of his
Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, met together
and resolved to commemorate in a substantial manner his
happy escape from assassination. A committee was
accordingly appointed to d,;termine the shape which the
memorial should assume, and they recommended the erec-
tion of a campanile for the reception of a peal of bells, and that
recommendation was accordingly approved of. Subscriptions
were at once forthcoming, and as there is not as yet any
bell foundry in Australia an order was sent home to
Messrs Mears and Stainbank, of Whitechapel-road, the
most eminent bell founders of this country—the founders
of Big Ben, Great Peter of York, &c.—to cast a peal of
eight bells to be hung in the proposed tower, which is to
be eighteen feet square, and proportionately high. That
order Messrs. Mears and Stainbank have just carried
out. The following are the dimensions and weights
of each bell in the peal :—The tenor is in diameter 4ft.
3in., and weighs 23 cwt. The seventh bell is 3ft. Din.
in diameter, and weighs 15 cwt. The sixth bell is four
inches less in diameter, and four cwt. lighter. The fifth
bell has a diameter of 3 feet 2.1 inches, and weighs 10 cwt.
2 qrs. and 211 b. The fourth bell is 2 feet 10 inches in
diameter, and 9 cwt. 141bs. in weight. The next bell is
only 1 inch less in diameter, and weighs 7 cwt. 1 qr. The
second bell weighs just 6 cwt., and is 2 feet 8 inches in
diameter, and the last or treble is 2 fees 7 incises
diameter. aidiimi itiglittkat.S qrs.