The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-17 00:00:00

LOCKE KING'S motion would give ; and he showed,
by an obviously correct calculation, what we know
to be true in point of fact, that the £lO
householder in the county must be a man of £5O a
year rental. When, however, the county franchise
is thus extended, and extended with the protection
of the Ballot, the county constituencies would be
as popular and independent as those of the towns.
Mr. BRIGHT, however, points to the House of
Lords, and asks, what do they represent—them-
selves only, or the counties in which their immense
estates are situate ? If the former, then the in-
quiry is forced on us, what right have some 400
persons to set themselves, whenever they see fit,
against the wish of the whole nation, as expressed
by its representatives? The Crown has long sur-
rendered all pretensions to veto the demands of the
nation ; it has not rejected a bill for perhaps
150 years. Can it be tolerated that the Lords,
if they represent themselves only, should assume
this power, as they did lately for instance, for years
together, in regard to the Jew Bill—the House of
Commons having, moreover, no kind of control
over them, as they have over the Crown by
stopping the supplies. But if the Lords
represent the landed estates of the county,
what becomes of the demand for more representa-
tives for the counties ? Mr. BRIGHT has certainly
given Mr. NEWDEGATE a puzzle which he will not
easily find a key to. The less the landlords say
about defective county representation the better,
▪ unless they are prepared to discuss at the same
' time some radical change in regard to the House
rf Lords.

The extraordinary enterprise displayed by the
Atlantic Telegraph Company renders it, we cannot
but think, exceptional—entitles it, we still con-
ceive, to more than ordinary consideration on the
part of the Government. Hitherto that remark-
able enterprise has been baulked by means of a
most untoward casualty. An apparently irrepar-
able flaw in the cable actually laid down between
Valentia and Newfoundland closed the electric in-
tercourse between the New and the Old World
within a week or two from the date of its esta-
blishment along the bed of the vast ocean sepa-
rating the two hemispheres. That intercourse, it
cannot very speedily be forgotten, was wonderfully
established for an interval, so that the opposite
shores of the Atlantic were literally brought
into all but instantaneous communication. The
feasibility of this hitherto fabulous and even, when
accomplished, scarcely less than miraculous project
—its practicability (if not its permanence) was
distinctly and practically demonstrated. Until
then it was no more than a splendid day-dream.
But after those magical needles had simultaneously
vibrated by means of the connecting thread of two
thousand miles of wire submerged in the Atlantic,
that glorious day-dream was actually realised.
Granted that the marvel continued in working order
during only a comparatively brief interval—during
that interval it was incontestibly in operation.
Rapidly though the time passed away, it
was still sufficient to afford proof positive
that the wondrous feat could actually be ac-
complished. For that—England and Canada, rather
it should be said Europe and America, all the
nations of the earth civilized, and uncivilized, are
beholden to the enterprise of the adventurous, and
seemingly to many doubtless, at the onset, merely
visionary association. The Atlantic Telegraph
Company, though they have failed as yet to connect
the two hemispheres permanently—though they
lost a fragment of a cableb at the first venture and the
whole of the cable at the second venturc—baN e
established incontestibly the fact that the New
World and the Old World can be, simply because
they hare been, brought together by means of elec-
trio-telegraphic intercommunication.

It is ungenerous and ungrateful, we think, at this
stage to insist that the Atlantic Telegraph Corn•
pany ought to be placed in the same category with
all other companies that may from this time forth
be organised for the laying down of submarine
cables. It is invidious, moreover—it is even mean—
to argue that if any one Telegraphic Company
ought to be encouraged by a direct guarantee from
Goverxment, that company ought to be
the one having for its aim the establishment
of a line of electric intercourse eastwards and
not westwards—to the Indian Peninsula, and not
to the North American Continent.

While we heartily concur with those who, upon
principles deprecate the notion of submarine tele-
graphs generally being subsidised by the State,
we are yet prepared. to insist upon the advisability,
to say' the very least of it, of making the trail of
the first permanent cable to North America and
the trail of the first permanent cable to Hindostan
great and resplendent exceptions. It does certainly
appear to us that there is ample justification for
this double plea under the circumstances. Recol-
lect, for example, in regard to the former enter-
prise, that the first grand sub-oceanic cable ever
attempted to be laid down is this very one which
has already been submerged, and for a while suc-
cessfully, by the Atlantic Telegraph Company. The
enterprise here, in its way, was as entirely without
precedent as the immortal enterprise of the first
American navigator. Voyages of discovery had
been made before COLUMBUS-but never before,
such a voyage as that ! Submarine cables had been
submerged before the one laid down between Va-
lentin and Newfoundland—but none before that one
in any degree comparable. The first attempt on
that occasion was a failure, by reason of the
stormy weather and the snapping asunder of the
electric cable shortly after it had begun to be paid
out into the depths of the Atlantic. The second
attempt was a failure later on—it was a failure only
after it had been a brilliant and unparalleled
success—after messages had thrilled to and fro
along the cavernous abysses of the ocean—messages
first of all expressive of homage to the SUPREME

BEING, and afterwards of goodwill and fellowship

between man and man, between nation and nation
—signals of peace and courtesy flashing, under all

that world of waters, between the American PRE-
SIDENT and the British SOVEREIGN. " The third
is the charm"—the third attempt would, in all
human probability, be not only eminently, but
pre-eminently successful. Of this we have
within our grasp, as it were, substantial gua-
rantees, in the encouraging and incontrovertible
truths established during the first momentarily
successful realisation of the undertaking. Every-
thing combines to satisfy us that there are valid
reasons for Government still continuing to act to•
wards the Atlantic Telegraph Compaq as one in
every respect exceptional. This project is the first
attempted to be carried out upon so grand a scale
—and as such, until its designs have been fully
realised, it is, to our thinking, in a manner entitled
to direct encouragement from the State. So also is
it, from. a variety of weighty considerations, with

reference to the proposed company for the laying
down a chain of electric cables in the opposition
direction eastwards, instead of westwards—bring-
ing England into momentary communication with
her vast Asiatic possessions. The North American
line, and the East Indian line ought both of them,
as a matter of prudence and of justice, of economy
and magnanimity, to be laid down under the direct
encouragement and guarantee of the Government.

The former, because, as already intimated, it is the
first enterprise of the kind of such magnitude.
The latter, because it is the first projected in that
direction upon the very morrow of Hindostan being
brought under the sway of the British Sovereignty.
Afterwards let all other lines of submarine wire be
paid out, if you will, by bold, unaided, and perfectly
independent speculators. But—until the prac-
ticability of these undertakings shall have been
not merely proved, but securely established—it is
but due to our imperial interests that the line
eastwards to Hindostan and the line westwards to
Newfoundland should be laid down under the
direct encouragement, superintendence, and gua-
rantee of her Britannic MAJESTY'S Government.

A cry for Protection has gone forth. The British
shipowners declare that they are unable to meet
foreign competition, and that unless the Govern-
ment are prepared to enter on a retrograde policy,
they must succumb to the difficulties of their
position. They do not apply to Parliament, or
appeal to the country. They know that the demand
would be worse than useless. Unfortunately, how-
ever, there is a mode by which the matter may be
managed without legislative interference, and they
seem to think that Lord DERBY and his col-

leagues will consent to be dragged through
the mire at their heels. At the time of
the repeal of the old Navigation Laws—

a matter demanded alike by justice and expedi-
ency—what was termed " a reciprocrity clause" was
very injudiciously inserted. This enabled the
Sovereign—without consulting Parliament—to
place restrictions on the vessels of any nation that
imposed difficulties in the way of British shipping.
This was both unfair and unconstitutional—uncon-
stitutional, as it was, such as divested both Lords
and Commons of
,their legitimate functions ; and
unfair, because it might have occasioned coßsider..-
able difficulty to future Administrations. Had it not
been for this most unwise provision we should have
heard nothing of the present agitation, and much
futile labour would have been spared to orators,
and considerable annoyance to the nation.

We should have thought that if there were any
class in the community that could fearlessly have
engaged in " unrestricted competition," it would
have been the shipowners of the United Kingdom.
It is true that the thoroughbred English sailor may
require better food, kinder treatment, and higher
wages than a foreigner ; but if he costs more his
services are more valuable, and it is a sound rule
that the best article is cheapest in the long run.
It is not altogether pure patriotism that now
induces the British shipowner to employ
his countrymen. He finds that it pays better than
hiring men that will consent to be under paid and
badly fed, and who cannot be relied on in situations
of difficulty or danger.

Besides it must be remembered that all classes
in the United Kingdom have had their cycles of
prosperity and adversity since the passing of the

Bank Charter Act. Manufactures have been sus-
pended, mills and factories closed, merchant
princes changed into paupers, and houses of
unquestionable solvency, which had stood the
test of ages, compelled to suspend payment.
'Why should shipowners hope for any exemption
from the general law ? During the wars in the
Crimea, in China and in India, there was an
extraordinary demand for transports. We believe
that it is not too much to say, that in those palmy
days the first cost of a vessel was nearly defrayed
by her first year's earnings. Then " all went
merry as a marriage bell." But when these
exceptional circumstances were altered, when the
extraordinary traffic in Government stores and
troops, which " are not included in the
shipping returns of the United Kingdom," is taken
into account, it cannot be regarded as matter of
astonishment if the large profits so recently ob-
tained could not still be realised. There has, how-
ever, been no serious attempt to show that the
shipowner does not still receive a fair—nay, more,
an ample return fog• the capital invested, or that he
could make a better investment than in English
ships. It is not a single year that is to be:looked
to, but the average of a reasonable number, and
whether five or seven years be taken, we believe
that the shipowne rs will - find themselves much
better off than they would wish the public to
believe.

It has been said that statistics can be got up in
support of almost any proposition. If, for instance,
you strike an element from one side of an equation,
omitting the corresponding one, there will, of
course, be an exec ss. When the increase of foreign
shipping in Eng Thai ports is harped on, without
any allusion to that of British shipping in foreign
ports, it is manirest that there is a fallacy
somewhere We have a sincere regard for
the maritime inter() sts of Great Britain. We wish
well to its enterpria ing shipowners and hardy sea-
men. But we would tell them that the way to
achieve prosperity i s to deserve it, and that they
should rather set ti eir own shoulders to the wheel
than put forward unavailing petitions to the
HERCULES of Down ing-street, whose tasks are suf-

ficiently onerous without assuming their burdens,
in addition to those which he is compelled to sus-

tain.

THE PRINCE Of WALES.—His Royal Highness

the Prince of Wales r eached Dover, from Ostend, in the
Black Eagle, at 11 o', clock last night. The Prince was
received by the naval fit zd military authorities of the port,
and conducted to the LI ,rd Warden Hotel, where his royal
highness passed the nit ;ht. The Prince left Dover early
this morning en route fe r Osborne.
The Right Hon:* tajor-General and Lady Alice
Peel returned to town ti us day, from visiting the Marquis
and Marchioness of Sail sbury, at Hatfield House.
The Duke and Du .chess of Manchester intend to
leave Kimbolton Cc Est to for town on Monday next, en
route for Germany.

The Duchess D 4 r sager of Somerset entertained
his Excellency the I, xabassador of France and the Duchess
de Malakoff, and a 'elect circle, at dinner, last evening, at
her residence in Par k-lane.

The Marquis o f Hertford is shortly expected at
his mansion, in Mar ichester-square, from Paris.
The Earl of M almesbury, who has been staying
on a visit to the Ma rquis and Marchioness of Salisbury, at
Hatfield, since Mon day last, has gone to join the party
visiting the Earl as id Countess of Hardwicke at Wimpole
BAHAMAS AND f lAVANNAH.—After the despatch
of the packet of the 1 7 th inst. the mails for the Bahamas
will be forwarded v a New York,L instead of via St.
Thomas, and will be (0 anveyed from New York to Nassau
by a branch steam pa cld -et wider contract with her Majesty's
Government. The t srt A mail under the new arrangement
will be made up at t ;hi 3 Post-office on the evening of the
24th inst. for transir as sion from Liverpool on the following
morning by the Be ltir3h mail packet for New York, and
subsequent mails will be fontarded from Liverpool
on the following days in the year 1859:—Saturday,
Jan. 22 ; Saturda .y, Feb. 19 ; Saturday, March 19 ;
Saturday, April 16 ; Saturday, May 14 ; Satur-
day, July 11; Sati irday, July 9 ; Saturday, August 6 ;
Saturday, Sept. 3 ; Saturday, Oct. 1; Saturday, Oct. 29 ;
Saturday, Nov. 26 ; Saturday, Dec. 24. The branch packet
from New York, aft( u• landing the mails at Nassau, will pro-
ceed to the Havannt A, and letters, &c., addressed to Cuba
may be forwarded by :this opportunity, if specially addressed
" via New York and 741 assau." Letters and newspapers sent
to Cuba by this rou. '4333 will be liable to the same rates of
postage as those forwa 11 led by the West India mail packets.
Mails from Havannah , and Bahamas will be due at Liver-
pool by the packet from New York appointed to arrive on
the 17th of February ra ;at, and by each alternate packet
from New York.
JAMAICA EXPORTS FOR 1857-58.-4 Custom-
house return received b y the West India mail shows the
following as the exports i 'rem the island, of the principal
staple articles of produce, during the year ending on the
30th of September last :—Sugar, 33,032 hhds. ; rum,
18,193 puncheons •, cotta n, 5,8761 b. ; coffee, 5,237,6891 b. ;
giraento, 9.465,2611 b. ; ginger, 709,62011. ; arrowroot,
72,0231 b. ; logwood, 12,5 58 tons ; honey, 8,108 gallons ;
beeswax, 794 ewt. 1 qr. 11 lb. ; cocoa nuts, 784,4221 b. ; lead
ore, 23 tons ; copper ,:qe, tons.