The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-06 00:00:00

TEBBIBZE T.RAGEDY ON BOARD A

THE FRENCH ATLANTIC COMPANY.

,-,`,STEAMBOAT.

(From the Anglo-American Times.

Monopolies are injurious, often even to the inte-
rests they are designed to subserve. If a monopoly
can be justified, it would be in the case of the men
who laid the Atlantic Cable between Europe and
America. Although they started with a monopoly,
having Newfoundland guaranteed to them for a
century, it may happen that they are left out in the
cold, while a French company cuts in with a genuine
monopoly to the shores of America. Indeed nothing
but the action of the United States Senate has pre-
vented this, and we would then have seen the ex-
traordinary spectacle of the great pioneer line,
which has lost and endured so much in the interests
of science, set aside that a mere imitator might step
in and enjoy the fruits. - We do not like monopolies
of any sort, and we believe it would be just for
England and the United States to reimburse the
Cable Companies for the sum lost in their first
efforts to lay the line, letting the cables, now down,
rest on their own merits and management, leaving
the shores of both Europe and America free to all
thatcmn pcaansiee s
thet Atlanticla nd wires
Telegraphe s
Companies
restriction.onipanies wouldln
surrender their privilege as regards Newfoundland,
rl-v without
u
and the new French company their's as regards
France. But till such privileges are surrendered
we believe the late ruling of the Senate to be just,
permitting no cable to be landed in the United
citizens of the
States from any country where the
Republic are not allowed equal rights of landing
wires on its shore. America's objection to the com-
pany organized by Mr. Reuter is, that the French
I restriction would practically give it a monopoly of
The number of deaths by the terrible explosion at the I Atlantic telegraph communication with France.
Ilighbrooks Pit of the Park-lane Collieries has been 'lf the United States were to permit the land-
- reased to thirty-three, three more deaths being
i
reported on Saturday. All these were amongst those first
of the French line on their territory these
reccovered from the district in which the explosion occurred, gentlemen will enjoy a well-secured privilege,
and all were dreadfully burnt. It is
feared that the list for no American can pass a line from New York
will receive yet further additions, as several others of to France until this agreement ends. That COM-
hose injured are not progressing favourably. Late piny then asks that, while France is secured to
ton Friday afternoon the inspection of the mine by them, America may be also secured as regards
Mr. Higson, Mr. Mercer, one of the proprietors, and other France against Americans—a one-sided bargain
gentlemen was completed. It was ascertained with some the 'cute Yankee is not likely to make. We hope
degree of certainty that there had been a fast or " blown-
that these restrictions may not interfere with the
out" shot in the place where a man named Leyland was.
laying of the French Cable ; but if we are to have
working, but as this was in a down brow it was a spot In
mono
poly, in all fairness, that monopoly should
not likely to lurk. No fire-damp a which gas was
was found in the course of the examination, although
be in the bands of the Atlantic Telegraph Com-
the usual quantity of air sent into the workings was dimi- panics. No corporation has been better or more
nished by nearly one-half, owing to the leakage from the liberally managed, and even now arrangements are
large quantity of brattice which had to be put up in order being made for a further reduction in the price of
that the searching party might carry the air along with transmitting messages. Doubtless the Senate was
them. Men were at work at the time of the explosion in
every "place" in the district, so there was
inspection the
body of the lad Parkinson, who was unknowingly left in
reciprocity. But the plain principle of not sanction-
the pit on Thursday evening, was sought for and found.
ing the invasion by a foreign monopoly of Amer--
can territory would under He had in all probability been killed by the force of the any circumstances have
blast of the explosion, or at all events so much injured as led to the same decision. The simple rule is that
to be unable to escape the choke-damp. He was placed now distinctly recognized by the Government of
with the others in the shed, where there are now twenty- Great Britain, and which guided the late decision
nine bodies. The inquest on the bodies was opened on in reference to .Malta. Saturday morning before Mr. C. E. Driffield, and wasWe believe that the French
adjourned to Thursday. Company would act wisely in throwing over their
privilege and trusting to the skid and economy of
their management to work at a profit against all
of comers. In fact, there is no alternative unless
4 they desire their line to end at Sint Pierre,
't a destination which will scarcely gratify the aspi-
n rations of the shareholders. The cable is expected
to be finished in June, and already a large por-
p
tion is on board the Great Eastern. It will be
1. little short of the whole length of the two cables
laid in 1865, and 1866, united. When down, it
will lie in a regular depth between 1,800 and 2,000
fathoms, and steamers were to have left France
this month to make careful soundings for the route.
The work, we should think, must now proceed, as
the cable manufactured is a great deal more valua-
able than the privilege which takes hold only of one ,
end. The enormous weight of the cable may be
gathered from the fact that each mile of the con-
ductor alone weighs 4001b5., and around it are
four folds of gutta percha and four coatings of in-
sulating compound, covered and bound together by
ten galvanized wires, done up in strands of
Manilla hemp saturated with tar. The shore
ends on both sides will be something prodigious in
weight, as each will extend twenty miles to sea,
gradually tapering as they go, while for seventy
miles further from either shore, an intermediate link
will connect with the deep sea cable. The shore
ends will weigh twenty tons to thtsmile, but the
intermediate cable differs chiefly in the cover-
ing, which is designed to protect the conductor
against chafing on the rocks. We a'. ways start on
new enterprises with errors, which, when practi-
! tally proved, appear absurd ever to have been enter-
tained. Before the Atlantic Cables were laid the
masses believed that dropping a wire to the bottom
of the ocean was not unlike a man in a penny
steamer throwing sovereigns into the Thames as he
moved along ; as in both instances an equally use-
less track of metal would be left behind. 'I he fre't
and fume of the restless Atlantic was thought fatal,
and it was nothing in point that lines had lain
across the Channel for years. "The Channel, in-
deed ! What is the Channel to the Atlantic?"
Now, we know that whatever danger of injury
exists is at the shore ends; that there the water is
stirred to its bottom, and that its restless bed is
generally the hard, jagged rock, the danger increas-
ing with the shallowness of the water. In the
depths of the ocean, however, the cable lies on a
soft bed of minute shells, fine as sand, in the still-
ness of the grave ; and a marvellous fact has bsen
developed that these, of all known to telegraphy,
are the most favourable conditions. A cable is
judged of by its powers of resistance to the
passage of the electric current through the con-
ductor, and this is measured by units. The
standard of the Persian Gulf Cable is fifty
million units; the Atlantic Cable of 1865
one hundred millions ; of 1866, one hundred and
fifty millions; but both these latter have so gained
under the ocean that at times last year they gave a
resistance of four billions of units. For the French
cable the contract is a standard of two hundred and
fifty millions of units. While we recognize the
enterprize of Mr. Reuter and the French Company,
we regret the difficulties of the Atlantic Companies
in getting their cables into direct communication
with Paris. Every effort by them has failed to
throw their line open for through messages. It is
true that they have an office in the Rue Scribe,
where a gentleman who talks many languages sits,
.N
o through"
wirei
ads epost-haste
froth t st
h toa nd looks helplessly at the eager comer who desires
York
"putmessageouse, oe sussaeg, e n ot o c New
York. No wir&leads from that house, no click-
click is heard in that building, for the French
Government has prohibited it,
and the gentleman
can but direct the applicant whose hurry is extract ed
and replaced by the virtue of patience before his'bn-
siness is transacted by the French officials. This
fact, well known across the water, does not tend to
facilitate the designs there of the French Company.
if every privilege in France is so jealously guarded
how can it be expected that concessions will be
given for the asking in the United States ? Yet it
is clearly for the interest of both the Empire and
the Republic that the lines should be laid, for it
would be invaluable for America in case of war
with any other European Power than France, and
under any circumstances, it is well, to have '
two
strings to your bow."

• -
001t11-e
„afterpoog 'of .Pie, ITt . ult. throple n TO on
board tlitf rtiearder-Bel4- of Memphii, at Itaandi No. 10
(says a St. Louis paper), and stated that they wished
conveyance to Craig's Landing, some distance above.
Two of them are brothers, named Darnell ; the third
iii as yet unknown. All were armed with shot guns
and pistols. Opposite 'Watson's Landing, the
Belle was hailed. and took on board a Captain Lane,
his wife, and two 'Children. A brother of the gentle.
man and a friend by the name of Edwards, who accom-
panied him as far as the stage plank, witnessed and
glared his fate. The Darnells and their comrade ap-
pear to have been on the forecastle of the boat, and while
Lane and his family were going up the stairs, one of
them shot him in the back, inflicting a mortal wound.
The other Darnell, standing on the other side of the
gangway, behind two passengeres immediately levelled
his gun and shot Lane's brother, who was still on the
bank, killing him instantly. The third member of the
gang completed the triple murder by shooting Edwards,
then forty yards distant and running for his life. The latter
fell to the ground, writhing in agony, when the miscreant
deliberately went ashore, walked up to his victim, shot
him again, and thus finished the work of death. Captain
Lane, in a dying condition, was carried on shore by the
crew of the steamer, and left in the midst of his horror- ,
stricken family. After this wholesale slaughter,
ore of the assassins quietly told the captain of
the Belle to " take good care of the lady and children, as
they were nice people, and he would pay all expenses."
He and his companions then departed unmolested, the
passengers being apparently so paralysed by the scene as
to be unable to even attempt their arrest.

THE WIGAN COLLIERY EXPLOSION.

ANOTHER COLLIERY ACCIDENT.
About twelve o'clock on Friday evening a pit in one
Lady Carnarvon's colleries was suddenly inundated, ar
four men lost their lives. The pit is situated t
Skegby, about three miles from Mansfield. The me,
worked in shifts, and seven men descended the shaft 0]
Friday evening. All appears to have gone on as u,ual uj
to within a few minutes to twelve o'clock, when three
of the seven men were startled by a loud roaring
noise, and immediately volumes of water came
rushing on to them. They had no time to give
their unfortunate companions the alarm, but at once
hastened to the bottom of the shaft. Here the poor
fellows were obliged to remain in the utmost peril for an
hour and a half before they were extricated, there being no
means by which they could give an alarm. At the time
they were rescued they were standing up to their chins in
water. The chance of saving the other four men was quite
hopeless, as the pit at the end where they were working
dips considerably below the level. The depth of the pit is
ninety-five yards, and at three o'clock on Saturday morning
the water had risen to within forty yards of the pit's mouth.
The pit is completely surrounded with old shafts, and it is
thought that one or more of these gave way, and so caused
the inundation. Besides the four men, there are five horses
and seven asses drowned. One of the rescued men, on
being brought to the pit's bank, stated that such was the
force of the water pouring into the pit that the horses
were carried before it with great velocity. As soon
as possible the pumping engine was set to work, and
a vessel, capable of holding a ton, was also sent
down the shaft. It is expected it will take three weeks
to clear the pit so as to.. be able to get to the dead
bodies.

BUDGET OF PERSONAL ITEMs.--The President has
appointed Robert M. Douglas as his private Secretary.
He is a son of the late Senator Douglas. Colonel W. T.
Foster was appointed by the Secretary of the Interior Pen-
sion Agent for Philadelphia on the 14th March. Marcus
Eldridge, a prominent citizen of Troy, N.Y., has committed
suicide by cutting his throat. Capt. M. E. Lonaid was
assaulted and robbed in Milwaukee on March 13. He is
not expected to recover. Allison Smith was killed at Spen-
cerport, N.Y., on Sunday, March 14, while entering a
church at the head of a funeral ; the wind blew a belfry down
upon him.—An American paper announces that Jefferson
Davis denies that he has heart disease, and says that he
was never better ; but we are sorry to hear, from a gentle-
man who knew him well in former times, and who had an
interview with him recently in London, that he is far from
looking well.—General Ames, Commander of the Fourth
Southern Military District, has been instructed to act as
Provisional Governor of Mississippi until Congress recon-
structs the State.—Four women are returned as "ship_
builders" in the Vermont census.— William Morgan, one of
Commodore Perry's crew in the battle of Lake Erie during
the war of 1812, died recently at Boston. —Attorney-
General Hoar is a first cousin of the late Attorney-General
Everts.— General Longatreet is a relative of Mrs. Grant.—
David Crockett's son has d ed in Kentucky.—Tho lion.
Onelow Stearns, Governor elect of New Hampshire, is at
the Fifth-avenue Hotel. The British Government has
done away with the Colonel of Artillery maintained at a
heavy expense at New York for many years to look after
its interests in the trial of a case in the New York Courts
for a breach of contract on the part of an American manu-
facturer for a supply of arms.—Frank Eastman is to bs
Postmaster at Chicago.