The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-18 00:00:00

Stage Manager, Mr. R. Phillips.

CANTERBURY HALL, Westminster-road.—
Proprietor—C. MORTON.
The public is most respectfully informed that the FINE
ARTS GALLERY, in connection with the above Hall, IS NOW
OI'EN DAY AND NIGHT, from 11 o'clock a.m. until 12
o'clock p.m. The New Gallery contains an extensive Collec-
tion of Pictures, by Ancient and Modern Masters and is also
devoted to Art productions generally. The Proprietor feels
he may confidently assert that, viewed altogether, the exist-
ing Music Hall, the New Fine Arts Gallery, and the recently
added Ante-llall, will present an attraction which, whether
as regards the architectural beauty of the structures them-
'selves, or the varied and hitherto unattcmpted combinations
within, will be found to be wholly without parallel in the
Kingdom.
The MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT commences as usual at
Seven o'clock.

THE WEATHER.—SuN OFFICE, Nov. 18.

THERM*METER, IN THE SHADE.

48—highest since noon yesterday.
42—lowest this morning and during the night.
47—this day at noon.
:13AuomurEn-29.70.
WIND, Easterly ; moderate, with heavy weather in the
morning and forenoon—now fine sunshine.

-
One simple alternative apppears now to present
itself in regard to the sub-Atlantic Telegraph
Cable between Valentia and Newfoundland. Either

the project must be set aside for an inde-
finite period altogether—or another and stronger

cable must be laid down with yet more precaution

than its predecessor.
It is hopeless, apparently, to dream of turning
the present faulty channel of communication
between the two hemispheres to any practical use

—certainly not to any permanent advantage. The
flaw, wherever it may be, is obviously too serious
to be vanquished as it is ; and it is evidently so

wholly invincible as to defy reparation. Days,

weeks, months have now elapsed, and the inter-
course between Europe and America has remained
all the while wholly,- absolutely sundered. The
needles every now and then quiver and vibrate
upon the dial—but nothing can be made out of their
movements. If anything at all is meant by the
oscillations, the significance of them it is as en-

tirely impossible even to guess at as at the Sense
of the incoherent guttural sounds emitted
from the lips of one born deaf and dumb.
So distractingly tantalising and completely value-
less are these intermittent and incoherent indications
of the passage of the electric current along the sub-
merged wire that the establishment at Valentia
has lately been broken up entirely, and the pre-
mises closed as useless by the Company. It is idle
to suppose that a mere misunderstanding- between
the chiefs of the Company and Mr. WHITEHOUSE,
the electrician, could alone have brought the labours
of the former thus wholly and abruptly to a close.

The Company might regard the band of clerks at
Valentia with jealousy—as a cluster of the personal
adherents of the dismissed electrician—and, incited
by that feeling, might have dismissed the clerks
also in the wake of Mr. WHITExousE. But unless
the Company regarded further observations at

Valentia-as really useless they would, unquestion.

ably, at once have replaced the recently employed
corps of clerla'by another corps entirely devoted to
the general interests of the company, and wholly
unbiassed by any individual partialities or predi-
lections. Instead of doing which they have acted
as we have seen ; and, we believe, with a rational
regard to the just expenditure of the funds
placed at their disposal. For a blind
persistence in the operations inaugurated at Valentia
at the period of the original completion of the en-
terprise would be (we rest assured in our own
mind) nothing less than a foolish and profligate
outlay of additional money without one shadowy
hope of any ulterior compensation in the way of its

vernment

reimbursement.
The undertaking in itself is altogether so ines-
timable in value, so immense in importance, so
magnificent in design, that we cannot conceive that
its happy realisation, sooner or later, will have been
dearly purchased by the loss of a single cable—
nay, not even by the loss of half-a-dozen cables.
Triumphantly establish at last—as we believe
renewed efforts will eventually establish—a secure,
regular, permanent electro-telegraphic communica-
tion between the British Islands and America, and
a few millions more or less will be comparatively as
nothing when weighed in the balance against the
-obvious, and superb, and sublime advantages.
Nevertheless, it is but reasonable that the re-
suit being altogether one of a manifestly imperial
character—affecting the interests, not of a class,
but of the nation itself, of the whole empire, of the
two continents, of both hemispheres—the brunt
of the original expenditure ought not to be borne
by a Company. This assuredly is precisely one of
those very enterprises which not merely justify but
demand the support and interposition of the Go-
A distinct guarantee from Govern-
ment would place almost any amount forthwith at
the command of the now temporarily bafficd and
bewildered Company. That guarantee might be
accorded to the project upon certain safe and rea-
sonable conditions. Another cable might then
immediately be got in readiness, and in due season
paid out along the basin of the Atlantic Ocean side
by side with that ever-famous cable - first trailed
along the ocean bottom—a bond of union between
the New World and the Old—not altogether use-

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THE SUN.
THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 18, 1858.