The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-02 00:00:00

compiled from the Appendix No. 10, and from
page 10 of the Report of the Committee of the
House of Commons, which will clearly indicate the

.Tue statc of thr.s enf,r

There cannot be a moment's doubt as to the
enormous and peculiar advantages accruing to Eng
land especially, from the application to the sub-
marine cable of the magical powers of the electric
telegraph. That marvellous application of a mar-
vellous power virtually brings together and binds
into one homogeneous mass, the whole of our vast
and hitherto scattered colonial possessions. Re-
collecting what it is that is reallysignified by the
title of the British Empire, remembering that the
nucleus of that mighty dominion is geographically,
and, when viewed simply in regard to the superfi-
cial area of its dimensions, comparatively speaking,
but an insignificant fraction of the whole—lt be-
comes obvious upon the instant that anything giv-
ing the Government of these realms almost the
attribute of übiquity, at any rate the capacity of
all but nearly instantaneous communication from
their centre to their circumference, must have a value
in a manner priceless of its kind, certainly beyond
the reach of computation. Already, moreover, we
may speak without extravagance of this extraordi-
nary advantage as one which is actually even now
secured to us. The grandest obstacle of all anywhere
discoverable has been vanquished-41i at is to say,
the greatest breadth of salt water that need any-
where be traversed, in order to link toge-
ther continent with continent—hemisphere with
hemisphere. The Atlantic overleapt, or rather
underleapt there remains nothing whatever
to cause us, for a single instant longer,
to remain in doubt as to the most astonish-
ing power now lying within the grasp of human
ingenuity...that of threading the wholet surface of
the globe and all the depths of the various seas and
oceans with a wiredrawn network, enabling man-
to talk from one extremity of the earth
to the other by means of the vibrations of
the magnetic needle upon a dial-plate. The Atlantic
—two thousand miles across from shore to shore—
has been spanned ; and with a tongue of lightning
Valentia talks to Newfoundland. Having accom-
plished so much, there remains no fear as to the
future achievements of engineering in the laying
down of similar cables hither and thither at our
own free will and pleasure, wherever and when-
ever it may appear desirable to do so. Telegraphic
lines to the East Indies and Hong Kong, to
the West Indies and Australia, become henceforth—
as we remarked only the other evening—merely a
question of time and money. Our power to lay
them we have proved. Audible and occular de-
monstrations exist at this moment—proofs that
may be seen and heard in those oscillating and
clicking needles upon the dials of the telegraph,
here in Ireland, there at Newfoundland. It is beyond
the need of argument—this astounding capability
We have now only to decide upon the routes to be
adopted upon the seas and rivers—the islands and
continents to be traversed. We have only after-
wards to calculate the cost, and to estimate accu-
rately which cable would be most lucrative—and
the thing is done. " Give us rope enough"—and
the globe is bound together by a copper network
more wonderful in every way than the iron net-
work previously ramifying north, south, east, west,
in Europe and America, especially through what is
called the railway system. It is a magnificent incen-
tive, truly, to the enterprise of the Anglo-Saxon race
—that of bringing its scattered millions into instant

communication. It is like getting rid at once of
all the estranging influences of emigration to places

hitherto. sooner ,%.• 1"-**-
were bringing our remotest colonists bacli- again
to the mother country, to the old fatherland.
It used to be said of our neighbours across the
Channel—" Prance, it is Paris." As epigranunati-
cally and truthfully it might be said again, now
that the submarine electric telegraph is secured to
us as a system—" The British Empire, it is Eng-
land." For from this point of ground, upon this
small island home of ours, on this veritable standing
place of ARCHIMEDES, we may now, as a race, reso-
lutely plant our feet, and—move the world! Move it,
with the thrill of the electric current conveying the
mandates of the supreme Government to the limits
of the empire, under the waters of the great deep,
to the remotest shores of either hemisphere.

Erin-go-Wagh ! We trust that our friends of
the Green Isle -will not think we have forgotten
them because we have not specially adverted to
Irish wonders or Irish news of late. We confess
that,with its VICEROY and petty Court,lreland ought
to come in fog more distinct notice, occasionally, than
amalgamated Wales or affiliated Scotlana ; and just
now the social, religious, and commercial surface of
the sister island seems to be somewhat more stirred
than usual. There are, or have been, Viceregal
progresses, and the progresses of Cardinals, and the
progresses of Mr. SPURGEON too, and the doings
at Valentia and at Galway, and the very potatoes
themselves—all inviting public attention. We had
almost forgotten—pardon us, Ulster ! the conflict
between the Presbyterian General Assembly and

the War-office, and the capitulation, on tern's, of

General PEEL. The Assembly was as considerate
to the vanquished Secretary as Lord PALMERSTON
and LOUIS NAPOLEON to Russia, and the dignity
of the General was graciously considered by the
Irish followers of JOHN KNOX.
First, then, we must eat, and Irishmen must eat
—potatoes when they can—they being as much an
institution of the Ireland of this century as the
rival Churches, the Viceroyalty, or the favourite
beverage and the pig. Well, this year potatoes
promise better than they have donee since they re-
volted, and rotted, and refused to feed their plan-
ters, and sent them by hundreds of thousands to
Canada and the States, by hundreds, alas, to untimely
graves, and fairly repealed the English Corn-laws,
and broke up Conservatism, and scattered English
parties to the winds, and inaugurated the present
sub-division of parties and Government by minori-
ties, and laid necessity on Tories to turn Reformers.
Let no man then despise Irish potatoes—should they
prove restive, and rot again, what politician would
answer for the consequences ? M present they are,
as we have said, better behaved than usual—ln-
dian corn may keep on the other side Gf the water,
and Ireland will rejoice in her potatoes, and
wheat to England, and spend the moneyseinlid
inther_
provements, and employ her peasantry, and all will
be as merry as Father WHALE will let them.

1 But Father WHALE is now a star only of the
second magnitude. A live Cardinal in red or scar-
let is peregrinating the country, and receiving uni-
versal homage. Ireland must thank England for
him—to Westminster belongs the honour f being
the see of a Cardinal Prince ; and so she venerates
the representative of the Vatican, that she does no t
intrude upon his retirement by public meetings and
greetings. Ireland honours after its kind, and that
kind is papal, and, as she terms it, Catholic, though
we do not understand the catholicism of ignoring,
or anathematising, or consigning to " uncovenanted
mercies" the more educated and enlightened half of
Christendom. But Catholicity is a matter of
opinion ; it is a matter of fact that the gay Cardi-
nal—gaily dressed, we mean—is thronged around
and feasted, andfeasts himself and drinks toasts—to
the POPE and to the Roman Catholic Church, but not
—as report negatively with —to QUEEN VICTORIA.
Why should he ? Did she not sign a worthless