The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-14 00:00:00

T ISL E:GRAP HIP 1004 111:1741,1CATION., Tr/TIT,

IlsiDIA.

( Front tie Times' City Article.)

. _
The news from India to-dap has revived the ques-
tion, When is the telegraph to be constructed ? In
the height of the first alarm, seven months ago, the
matter was instantly to be attended to. Two lines -
were to be formed, and the only point was whether
one should be commenced before the other, and, if
so, which. One company proposed a cable from:
Suez to Aden, and thence to Bombay or Kurrached, •
to be laid in 12 months, at a cost of /00,0001. ; the
other a line along the Euphrates. River and the
Persian Gulf to Kurrachee, to be completed in about
the same space of time, at a cost of 400,0001. Each.
would be liable to the respective contingencies that
lead to interruptions in this mode of communica-
tion, and the unanimous opinion of the public was
that the work should be at once sanctioned
in both cases, and that the promoters should, in
fact, be stimulated to see which could first achieve
success. There was the usual oratory upon The sub-
ject in Parliament, followedby the usual professions
that its vital importance was fully seen. According.
to the calculations the Euphrates line should now
be within a month or two of completion, and that
of the Red Sea within six months. Indeed, the
latter should already be available from Suez to
Aden, so as to save a week in our present trans-
mission of inte!ligence. Is a single foot of either
yet manufactured, or even ordered V Nothing .of
the sort. Even the companies that were organized
for the projects are virtually broken up, having
found it impossible to contend against the want of
support from the Government at home and the
effects of diplomatic intrigue on the Continent. The
Euphrates Company sent out an engineering staff
to Bagdad to commence the experiment, and it was
found that Great Britain had not at that time the
requisite influence at Constantinople to obtain a
sanction for their proceedings. Subsequently,' it
was intimated that the Turkish Government would
make the line themselves, at least 'so far at; it was
to run through Turkish territory. This resolution,
in the midst of the raging jealousies of that region,
might not be undesirable, but every one knows
what is meant by the execution of a project by the:
Turks. Every step will be impeded by secret in-
fluences, and even if these were absent, want of
money would always be the cry. Has anything yet
been done, and, if the Turks have actually made
a commencement, have the Indian Company under-
taken their portion of the work from Bussorah to
Kurrachee ? Looking at the ecenomy and rapidity
with which lines are now laid down in all quarters
of the globe, the fact that the construction of this
communication to India should threaten to be a
matter of almost interminable struggle and per-
plexity is utterly humiliating. Modern experience
has made it so easy that it will read like a satire
in the history of the time that, with the welfare of
an empire of 200 millions at stake, the preservation
and maintenance of an army to be secured, and the`
richest commerce in the world to be promoted, we
had not either the activity nor skill promptly to lay
down between that empire and the seat of the Im-
perial Government a few coils of cable that would
bring them together. If men could see the mis-
chief resulting but for a single month from the
absence of this means of intercourse they would get
a more terrible conception of what may be lost
through routine indolence and folly than has ever
before been presented. If news of any great dis-
aster were to reach us, we should fall upon our
knees and entreat Providence to avert such events,
and no one would think of asking whether we had
ourselves done everything to avert them by using
the means that Providence had already given us.
Taking the commonest argument, it would be a
limited computation to state the money loss from
' the absence of an Indian telegraph during the past
year at 10,000,0001. 'or 15,000,0001. sterling, 'tined,
apart from our military expenditure,. the commer-
, cial saving from the existence such a line during
the recent crisis would have been enormous. As to
the brave lives that would have been preserved,
the anguish of family uncertainties that would
have been spared on both sides, the prestige that
our swift neighbourhood would have created among
the natives from one end of the country to the other
—all these points are of course beyond calculation.
By sluggish minds they will never be recognised at
all, and these persons will suffer no self-reproach ;
but if the people of England generally have 'any
keen sensibilities they will not again let the duty be
lost sight of. Even the thought that Havelock
would have heard, at all events, of the first burst
of his country's gratitude if this means had been
open will help to sharpen their sense of the conse-
quences of indifference ; and if they will at the
same time think to what an extent the lessons
already enforced might have been increased if any
disaster analogous to that sustained by Gen. Wind-
ham had fallen upon the force under Sir dolin
. Campbell, or if our ranks had been more eAen-
t sively swept by sudden disease, so as to give urgency
to the demand now received for continued rein-
forcements, they will be able to form a sufficient
idea whether, . while neglecting the advantages
which science has placed in her way, the nation
- deserves to be exempted from the usual calamities
that are the penalty of wilful blindness.