The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-10 00:00:00

THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH.

PLYMOUTH, WEDNESDAY.
The screw steamship Bilboa, 312 tons register, is
now in Hamoaze, alongside the sea wall of the
Keyham steamyard, for the purpose of receiving
the Valentia end of the Atlantic telegraph cable.
She is commanded by Captain Joseph Kavanaugh,
a gentleman who has had some experience in the
submersion of telegraphic wires. This portion of
the cable is 1,4 inches diameter, about 14 or 15
miles long, and weighs eight tons to the mile. The
Atlantic wire weighs one ton to the mile. In con-
sequence of the necessity of retaining the tidal basin
for the use of the Himalaya and other Government
steamships refitting, the Bilboa could not go near
the store in the old powder magazine, and the shore
end has, in the absence of bobbins, to be carried by
hand the whole distance, a quarter of a mile, to the
wharf. Although 100 men are employed, the ope-
ration is slow. The stowage in the ship's hold will
probably occupy three days. Mr. Clifford, who
went out in the Niagara last year and the Aga-
niemnon this year, has charge of the arrangements.
Had there been no failure in the working of the
Atlantic wire, it is understood that the Bilboa
would have proceeded to Valentia direct, and have
under-run the cable until the point of connexion
was reached, when a very short interruption in the
transmission of messages would have occurred.
Now it is probable that the Bilboa will proceed to
the point of junction, 10 miles from the beach, and
grapple for the wire. The sea there is about 100
fathoms deep, and the time which may be occupied
in securing the cable will vary from two or
three days to as many weeks. In October
last three weeks were necessarily consumed in
recovering the shore end laid by the Niagara ; in
fine weather it might have been effected m three
days. The same grappling apparatus will be used
now as then. In paying out the shore end from
the Bilboa, a strong machine, a plain drum, and a
breakwheel are all that will be used. As the depth
of water at Newfoundland increases suddenly after
leaving the beach, the shore end there is only two
miles long. Being so heavy its recovery from a
great depth would be an operation of some difficulty;
besides which ships' anchors are not likely to injure
the wire in very deep water.
Some remarks having been made in relation to
the delay in attaching the shore end, it is stated
that the executive did not find themselves justified
in chartering a ship or incurring other expenses
contingent on the successful laying of the Atlantic
cable until that success was realised. The thin
wire run ashore at Valentia was intended only for
temporary use, and immediately it was laid Mr.
Bright and his colleagues adopted the most ener-
getic and prompt measures for the substitution of
the permanent shore end. The shore end, laid in
August, 1857, and recovered the following October,
and which has been, ever since at Keyham, was
tested on Tuesday last by the electric machine, and
found perfect.

THURSDAY AFTERNOON.
Instructions have unexpectedly arrived here from
Ireland for suspending the embarkation of the
Valentia shore end of the Atlantic cable on board
the steamship Bilboa, and she is removed from
Keyham-wharf to the stream in Hamoaze.

THE LATE ANDREW SHO.RT.REDE.

This Gentleman—late proprietor of the China
Mail—died at Bad-Bruckenau, in Bavaria, on the
31st ult., of
.morbus Brightii. His remains have
been deposited in the burial ground at Zeitloffs ;
the chief magistrate of the district, the lord of the
manor, all the English and many of the foreign
visitors of the watering place, attending the cere-
mony ; and the Rev. J. C. Murray Aynesley read-
ing the English service in the German language.
Mr. Shortrede was an ekve of the Edinburgh Bal-
lantynes, and for his taste as a typographer allowed
by all to equal, thought by some to surpass, his
teachers. While established at Edinburgh, several
works of high typographical merit issued from his
press. The after-working of the great Constable
failure was still felt when he entered upon_husiness ;
and, finding it difficult to make progress in Scot-
land, he betook himself to Hong Kong, shortly
after the island had been acquired for the British
Crown: The China Mail, which he started imme-
diately after his arrival in the colony, is such a
specimen of elegant typography and lucid arrange-
ment as had never before been witnessed in the
Eastern hemisphere. Mr. Shortrede's abilities as a
printer, and his regularity as a man of business, ob-
tained and retained for him the Government busi-
ness. But the tone of the China Mail was perfectly
independent. In some of his views Mr. Shortrede
was undoubtedly what is called " an original."
"
Many persons who came- into contact with him
" impracticable. But his in-
tegrity
suspicion. These lines are
alleged that
was he
bva wase
written by one who, after an intimate acquaintance
of more than thirty.. years, can safely say that he
never knew a more honest man or a truer friend.
A native of jedburgh—sprung from a family with
which Walter Scott had intimate relations—Andrew
Shortrede was a staunch Tory of the old Border
t e
principles—inso
tofar as homethe last :
are original
econcerned—he
ed_he
retainedthe child was the father of the man."
3ri
The men
and affairs among whom he was thrown
in China
he judged with an unbiassed
mind
and with rare
shrewdness. His views of the soundest policy for
Englishmen in China were at once benevolent,
high-minded, and just. Some of his views have
been developed in the columns of the Daily News,
under the signature of " An Outside Barbarian."
By his natural abilities and acquired skill, and4by
steady, judicious industry,
he acquired a compe-
tence; but disease, en
China, forbade him gendered by the climate of
to enjoy it. He is sincerely
mourned by the whole
circle of his acquaintance.
In his dechnin
he was affectionately tended
iii by at- d gtich f health
e friend—Mr. R. Daily
News.

FIRE IN THE DOVER-ROAD.—Yesterday morning
a fire broke out in the printing-office belo.nging to Mr. B.
Williams, situate at the rear of his dwelling-house, in the
Dover-road, near the turnpike-gate. The workshops were
uovirlY conmoci, The origin d the OW a ulikimais