The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-27 00:00:00

The New Atlantic Cable.

During the last few days the Telegraph Con-
struction and Maintenance Company have begun,
in real earnest, work upon the new Atlantic cable,
Little had been done since the return of the expe-
dition in August last, as there was no reason why
the cable should be ready very much sooner than it
will be needed. The Great Eastern still lies at her
moorings in the Medway, with the remainder of last
year's cable on board ; and this will again be used
during the present year, when that part of the cable
which will have then enjoyed a twelvemonth's rest
on the bed of the Atlantic will be grappled for. Cap-
tain Anderson will once more have charge of the
big ship, and he will again, have the invaluable as-
sistance of Mr. Halpin, the chief officer. Mr.
Canning and Mr. Clifford will be, as in last
summer, in charge of
.the laying of the cable, and
Mr. De Sauty will be again in charge of the electrical
department. Thus, so far as skill goes, there is
everything in favour of the success of the coming
expedition, which will set sail in the beginning of
June, bearing with it the good wishes of all
Europe. As at present arranged the Great Eastern
will carry the new cable, will lay it to Newfoundland,
will there coal and return to the mid-Atlantic, where
she will, with her consorts, grapple for the lost end,
the locality of which can be ascertained within a
quarter of a mile, through the observations taken
last summer by Capt. Anderson and Capt. Mori-
arty. It is not intended that the part of the old
cable which now lies in the Great Eastern's tanks
shall be again stowed in her hold on the outward
trip. It will be carried in another vessel until it is
needed. The grappling will be done in this way.
Three vessels, including the Great Eastern, will be
provided with grappling apparatus. Last year, it
may be remembered, the grappling was done with
makeshift appliances. In fact, the grappling lines
were only buoy ropes, and the swivels which broke
while the cable was being hauled up were never in-
tended to bear any such strain as that to which they
were subjected. In the new grappling tackle there
will be no swivels ; perhaps even no shackles. Each
line will be, if possible, in one place, certainly not
in more than two joined together by a strong
shackle. There is, therefore, little fear that if the
cable is grappled, of which there can be no reason-
able doubt in the mind of any one conversant
with the subject, it will be brought to the
surface. And there is the more probability of this
because the cable will be grappled in three places,
at intervals of about two miles. One vessel will
grapple, and, if necessary, cut her end by means
of a steel blade set in the grappling iron ; the
middle ship will haul up, and the third vessel will
also raise the cable to lessen the strain. There
will therefore be three bights on the cable, or two
bights and an end, and this end will be prevented
from slippling by the formation of the grappling
iron in which the cable will be jammed. No one
connected with the project appears to entertain
the slightest doubt about the success of this section
of it. When the end is recovered and a message
sent through to Valentia, as a test of the electrical
condition, the splices will be made with the cable
now lying in the Great Eastern, and then all will
be plain sailing, except in case of another accident
similar to that of last year, when all would have to
be done over again ; but this would be the worst
damage. If one grappling is successful there
is no reason why a second should not be, and evenr
a third and a fourth, if it should come to that. The
laying of the old cable may therefore be considered
a certainty, so far as anything about cable laying
can be certain. But hope deferred will probably not
make sick the hearts of shareholders beyond next
July.
The new cable, which is to be laid first, is very
different in appearance from that of 1865. That
was black, but not at all comely. This is fair to see,
in point of colour, but rough withal, and fibrey—to
coin a word for the occasion. But, save that there
is no dark composition soakedinto the Manilla hemp
which forms the covering of the outer wires, this
cable is identical with the last. So far, however, as
strength goes, the new rope will bear a strain of
from 15. cwt. to a ton more than that of last year ;
and, as is obvious, this additional strength may just
make the difference between breaking and holding,
if it should unfortunately be necessary to haul back
to the ship at any time. The reason why it is pos-
sible to dispense with the composition for coating is
that in the new cable the outer or protecting wires
are galvanised. About 160 miles of the new cable
have been already made, and when all the machinery
is set to work, as it soon will be, the manufacture
will proceed at the rate of 100 miles a week. By
working overtime this immense speed could be nearly
doubled ; but, of course, overtime will be avoided if
possible. In all departments of the machinery the
capacity has been much increased since last year.
For instance, there are double the number of tanks
which hold the core of the cable ; and there is one
new machine which alone turns out four miles per
day of completed cable.
It is unnecessary to enter at any length upon a
description of the process of manufacture, as the
subject has been so frequently treated in these
columns, but a short summary of the method may
not be useless. The core is received from the gutta-
percha works on great reels, four coats of gutta
perch enveloping the seven copper wires which form
the conductor ; and these reels are at once placed
in tanks until required. An ingenious machine coats
this core with Manilla hemp, prepared with a com-
position ; and this rope is coiled away in tanks until
required for the next stage. The ends of the galva-
nised wire for the outer covering are united by scarf
joints, which are cut in a die, then whipped with
smaller wire and brazed, so that the joint, if well
made, becomes actually stronger than the wire.
This wire is then covered with five strands of Ma-
nilla hemp, of which four tons a day, spun and
reeled on the premises, are now used, and this quan-
tity will be shortly increased. The machines which
twist these strands round the wire will produce from
160 to 180 miles per day, eight or nine miles being
finished by each machine in the ten hours during
which the men are at work. The unfinished cable,
which we left in tanks, is then put on one of the
large machines, and 10 strands of this Manila
covered wire are twisted round it, the spiral being
1 in 12. As it leaves this machine the cable is
finished, and is conducted to the large tanks, in
which it will be under water until it is payed out to
the hulks for conveyance to the Great Eastern. .
In a mile of the cable there are, therefore, besides
the Manila which holds the composition, seven
miles of copper wire, four miles of gutta percha,
ten miles of galvanised wire, and fifty miles of

Manilla spun yarn. That is to say, again exclud-
ing the loose Manilla which laps the gutta percha,
in every mile of the cable there are seventy-one
miles of material. Obviously in putting such a
mass together the greatest care is requisite, and
Mr. Clifford and his assistants at the works of
the company have plenty to do in rooking after
the men employed. The operatives who make
the joints in the wire, and those who spin the
Manilla yarn, and those who attend to the machines
that twist the yarns round ',the wires use separate
premises, and are not admitted into the works in
which the core is bound with hemp and wire and so
completed. The men who coil the cable in the great
tank wear soft shoes, supplied to them by the com-
pany, and their weight has no appreciable effect
upon the structure of the cable, which lies in white
flakes, that look not unlike ordinary Manilla rope
coiled down on a ship's deck. Every working day
now for three months the manufacture of the At-
lantic cable of 1866 will proceed. Who is there
that does not wish it success ?—Herald.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

---0- - -

TIMES.—The practical turn of the national mind
is perhaps that quality upon which we are most dis-
posed to pride ourselves, and everybody is ready to
declare that it reaches its highest development just
where it should—in the House of Commons, the
embodiment of our national ability and strength.
Everything that is done there has an immediate
effect, and is directed to some definite end. We do
not debate on an Address in answer to a Royal
Speech for a whole month ; we do not indulge in
prophecies of " the manifest destiny " of the Eng-
lish people and read pamphlets for two or three
days together ; we discourage professional dis-
quisitions on things in general. These may be
done by a French Legislative Body, an American
Senate, an Italian Chamber of Deputies, but they
are unknown at Westminster. The debate of last
night was, it must be confessed, a strange com-
mentary on our familiar boast. Mr. White's
motions in favour of economy and retrenchment
were withdrawn, as it was perfectly well known from
the beginning they would be, and three or four hours
were spent in discussions which came, and which
throughout were expected to come, to no con-
clusion. A Social Science Congress could not have
been more absolutely theoretical, more completely
given up to mere talk. Mr. White made one single
practical suggestion, but althoug'n many members
rose after him who sympathised more or less with
his views, no one had a good word to say for the
Sessional Committee on the Estimates which he
proposed as a check upon excessive expenditure.
The debate on economy, in fact, came to nothing,
and we fear it was one of those which will not
bear fruit hereafter. Mr. White was laborioas and
persevering, and at least one part of his speech
might easily have been made exceedingly effective.
In dointing out the inconsistencies between Mr.
Gladstone's private utterances and his official action
as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. White carried
his audience with him. There was, indeed, reason
in the charge. Mr. Baxter on one side, and Sir
Stafford Northcote on the other, took it up and
enlarged upon it. Mr. Gladstone himself attempted
to explain the apparent contradiction between his
words and his deeds, but his explanation could only
apply to one of the speeches which he had "pre-
sumed" to utter. When he told his constituents at
Liverpool that he was not satisfied the expenditure
of the country had been reduced to
the lowest point
consistent with honour and security, it is obvious
that he was complaining of the estimates brought in
by the Government of which he was a member, and
adopted by the House of Commons, and not of some
daring attempt of a private member to raise the
salaries of the Post-office letter carriers. When,
again, he charged the late House of Commons with
having authorised an expenditure never before
reached in a time of peace, he simply echoed Mr.
Cobden's epithet of the " prodigal" Parliament, and
managed to protest that he was " a sad good Chris-
tian in his heart," however much his actions belied
his aspirations. In attempting to explain away the
natural construction of these sentences last night,
Mr. Gladstone seemed in danger of assuming the most
terrible of characters, " us homme incompris," and it
is the more necessary to point this out because the
responsibility of an exaggerated expenditure does
rest between Parliament and the Ministry, and not
wholly with the latter, as might be inferred from
the Chancellor of the Exchequer's latest opinion.
When estimates have been introduced and ac-
cepted by the House of Commons, the latter be-
comes particeps criminis with the Government, and
its easy indulgence makes the path of retrenchment
more hard. Mr. Gladstone was, therefore, quite
justified when in past years he appealed from the
House of Commons to the country, provided only
that he had indeed used every means to prcmote
economy himself. It still, however, remains to
be seen how far his economic zeal will carry him.
The two resolutions brought in by Mr. 1V bite
declared that we spent too much, and that we drew
the means of our expenditure unjustly from the
different classes of the State. We are all more or less
convinced that there is some truth in the first state-
ment, and Mr. Laing's elaborate argument failed to
dispel the impression. Mr. Laing proved, indeed,
conclusively that our total expenditure hadincreased
at a less rate than that of our neighbours in France,
Belgium, or 'Tolland, attributing the general in-
crease to the revolution in the science of war and
the rise in prices consequent on the gold discoveries.
But this consolation, indifferent at any time, was in
truth fallacious. He forgot to take into account
the large proportion of our expenditure which is
fixed and unchangeable. The total amount may
have increased no more than 10 per cent., but the
interest on the National Debt has not increased
at all, while the cost of the army and navy has risen
from fifteen to twenty-five millions, or 661 per cent.
Mr. Laing was more successful in his refutation of
the notion that our system of taxation bore unjustly
on any class of taxpayers. The precision of his ar-
gument contrasted very favourably with the vague
statements advanced by Mr. M‘Laren in confutation
of it. The legislation of the Reformed Parliament
has liberated almost every industry, and freed every
article of necessary consumption from taxation. The
few imposts which have been left affect only objects
which may properly be described as articles of com-
fort, if not of luxury, and are imposed upon them
at very reduced rates. Bread, butter, salt, cheese,
eggs, are absolutely free ; the tea duties and the
sugar duties have been reduced; the malt duty—
though yielding a large return tothe Exchequer--
adds but little to the price of beer. Food is untaxed,
clothing enjoys an absolute immunity, so does fuel
of all kinds, and the approaching removal of the
last relics of the timber duty following the aboli-
tion of the Excise duties on bricks and glass and of
the window, will leave the means of shelter free
from any impost. The primary necessities of the
workman can thus be satisfied without their price
being enhanced by the intervention of the tax-
gatherer, and his labour is unfettered by any legisla-
tive restrictions. The vast increase in the consump-
tion of primary luxuries attests the benefits of the
legislation of the last quarter of a century. The
legislation in question must not, indeed, be regarded
as a boon, it was but an act of justice ; it freed the
lower classes from invidious taxes and burdens, but
it has left them bearing a just share of the national
obligations. Mr. Laing very appropriately referred
to the fact that the United States' Revenue Com-
mission had recommended the adoption of our system
of taxation as economically satisfying the necessities
of Government and doing justice to the several
classes of the people, and the fact is indeed unde-
niable that if we analyse the proportion of the in-
come of the workman and the millionaire which is
absorbed by taxation, we shall find very little dif-
ference between them. Though we do not expect
any practical benefit from the discussion of last night,
we must not be supposed to condemn the practice
of levelling a broad resolution at such an abuse as
extravagant expenditure. We only regret that in
this instance it was not aimed more efficiently. The
House of Commons cannot pursue the Executive
through all the details of administration, but it can
and often does give a significant hint on the general
necessity of retrenchment. Mr. Gladstone last night
paid a high tribute to the late Mr. Joseph Hume,
arid yet it is very doubtful whether any considerable
saving was effected by his amazing industry, acute-
ness, and assiduity. Mr. White's review of the
practical working of retrenchment in detail must,
however, be deemed conclusive. It shows, by what
has been done, what can be done in Committee.
In a dozen years we have stopped the building of a
chapel in Paris, abolished a Register of Sasines in
Edinburgh, and cut short the career of the travelling
buyer of the National Gallery ! These are large
exploits, especially when contrasted with the expen-
diture of the period. We can, however, call to mind
an occasion when a general resolution was followed
by a considerable reduction ; and although it would
be dangerous to abate our vigilance in watching
separate votes, experience shows that it is by general
resolutions that large results can be obtained.

HERALD. —ln bringing forward the naval estimates
for the year 1866-67 Lord Clarence Paget has hardly
fulfilled the confident prediction made by the organs
of the Government of the economy of administration
which would be applied to every branch of the pub-
lic service under the new Ministry. Now that the
American civil war is over, with all apprehension of
the troubles that seemed likely to arise from it ; now
that there are no longer any disturbances in Italy,
when there is no jealousy of Russia, no rivalry with
France, it might seem that retrenchment, if advisable

at any time, might have been applied to the esti-
mates for the navy, if only to the extent of a few
thousands of pounds by way of a beginning and an
example of a peace establishment to the rest of the
world. The British navy is, however, still kept up
to the war footing. We are quite willing, for our
own part, to admit the principle that even in time
of peace it is desirable, as a measure of security, to
maintain the supremecy of this country at sea by
keeping up a larger naval force than that of any
other naval power, or even any two other naval
powers combined. In these days of armour ships a
Minister who should willingly lag behind any other
country in promoting the construction of the only
effective engines of maritime warfare would be guilty
of a serious dereliction of duty. But why talk to
us of economy, when the necessity for such an arma-
ment is not only admitted, but acted upon ? WhY
promise m a reduction of the public burdens, wile!n
schemes for the enlargement of our dockyards and
the fortification of our arsenals are presented to o 5
side by side with a proposal for a paltry reduction
of some 500 men in the personnel of the navy ? The
friends of the Government have promised for them
what they are unable to perform, and preferred a
claim to applause on false and dishonest pretences.
The naval estimates for the year amount to a
sum of £10,388,153. Those for 1865-66 were,
£10,392,224, showing a petty saving e"
about £4,000. The real saving last year,
as compared with the year before, was £35,000,
but the estimates for 1864-65 were increased by 3
supplementary vote of £61,000 for increased reur-
ing allowances and £220,000 for the purchase of
Mr. Laird's rams. In the year to come it is esti-
mated that there will be a saving in the ordinal
expenditure of some £360,000, owing to the dimi-
nished number of ships building, or to be built, and,
to the reduction of the force of seamen by 550, of
marines by 400 men. This reduction, however, is
counterbalanced by an excess -of £356,000 in the
vote for dockyards, basins, and works. In the
course of three years these will involve a further
outlay of more than one million sterling. Such
rigid economists as Mr. White might thibk the
apology offered by Lord C. Paget for the mainte-
nance of this enormous naval force very lame and
unsatisfactory. It does certainly seem rather ab-
surd that the chief arguments brought forward for
an annual expenditure of ten or eleven millions of
money should be the fact that British merchants in
China complain of being harassed by pirates, and it
is considered advisable to proceed with the " open-
ing up" of Japan by mhintaining a large naval
force in the Inland Sea. If Chinese pirates and
Japanese Daimios are the only enemies that the
British Government has to contend with, it might
be imagined that a small fleet of gunboats would b 3
sufficient for both, and might be commissioned at 3
cost of a million a year or thereabouts. On such
low grounds as this the maintenance of an immense
force cannot be defended for a moment. It is be-
cause we wish to keep up our moral position by our
positive strength, to show to all comers that we are
ready for them, and more than a match for them,
at any time, that we keep afloat the largest navy in,
the world. The activity displayed during the la!G
few years in the construction of ironclad ships Is
made to excuse a diminution in the estimates for
that branch of shipbuilding during the coming Year'
In this department, however, it is very much to
be regretted that so small an advance has been
°f
made since last year. Our 55 wooden ships °I.
the line, our 37 frigates, our 26 corvettes, and
sloops, which figured so bravely on old naval re'
turns, are now unhappily regarded as so many tar"
gets to be demolished in time of war by ironclacisl
which would riddle them through and through whsle
themselves invulnerable. The ironclads are the fleet
of the future. What progress has our Admiralty
made in the construction of the only vessels on which
we are now able to rely in time of war? At the eon
of 1865 there was a fleet of 29 armour clad ships
completed. We shall have now 30 of that class
afloat, an increase of one, and that only promised
us by the Ist of April. One more is to be expecte.
soon after that time. Then what have the Adel'',
ralty been doing in turret ships? To what pureese
have they turned that invention of Captain Covift
Coles, which is acknowledged on all hands to be the
most perfect adaptation of the principle of awl
clad shipbuilding, the most formidable method 0
warfare ever proposed? We have three turret shil
the Royal Sovereign, and Mr. Laird's two rams, a 11,..
three pronounced to be only fit for coasting service'
While the Americans have been building a whei'd
fleet of seagoing turret ships, affirmed by Mr. Donald
Mackay to be more than a match for all the navies
of the world, we have positively not one. The
miralty, we are informed for our comfort, are abe",t
to commence the construction of a seagoing turret
vessel, to be called the Monarch. Lord C. rage.;
gives us a descripticn of this vessel, -which is still
nubibus, or hidden somewhere in the brain of the
Chief Constructor of the Navy. She is to be of
burden of 5,099 tons, to carry two turrets, in each
two guns of 22 tons weight each, and also two 100:
pounders, one fore and one aft. She is to bepla,tl
with 81,in. of iron, and to be worked by engines
1,400-horse power, at the speed of 14 knots an
hour. No man can say how this ship will
out when completed. Perhaps, like the ItoPid
Sovereign, she will be ignominiously condeinne,..
to " coast service." We can have no
deuce whatever in the construction of a turret a
ship under the auspices of a board which has 11,0
gratefully dismissed from its service the only in.:!e
who thoroughly understands the matter, for
offence of having criticised its proceedings the
columns of this newspaper. Capt. Cowper Coles
_i_
assisting in the construction of turret ships for I'l'3.
most every country in the civilised world but his ,
The British Government has determined to use %
invention, and cast adrift the inventor. trilio's
that it may not fare so badly as the son of Dxdaihi..
who was shipwrecked in making trial of a olaclve
nery which he had not learned to use rightly et,
do not wonder that the statement of Lord C. Pag:
and his admission that we have not yet one sby
going turret ship, was commented upon severelY
Sir John Pakington and the speakers who folloW'j
him in last night's debate. One and all condeno7t.
the treatment of Capt. Coles by the Governtoevie
Mr. Samuda tells us, for our consolation, thattio
have only ten ships fit for the first line of ba!tdd
among all our armour-clads. If any war she,er,
come upon us inopportunely, and our fleet be ell
powered or sent to the bottom by an enemy ,30
prepared with turret ships, the Government tlmbijo
taken ten millions a y ear out of our pockets for to.
maintenance of the navy, 'and expended it so Al
wisely as to leave us practically defencelesStp
seem deserving of something worse than mere Irj.
reproof.

Foreign Mail Packet List

MAILS DUE.
Australia and New Zealand, via Southampton. VS' ,6
Ditto, via Marseilles gar. .• •
Brazil and Cape Verdi, by British packet Mir* 6.2.
Ditto, by French packet Oar' „4,
Cape of Goad Hope, Ascension, and St. Helena...JO!t'
China, Penang, and Singapore, via Southampton gar' 67.
Ditto, via Marseilles Feb'
Falkland Islands .
Gibraltar, via Southampton
5
India (Calcutta), and Ceylon, via Southampton.... Mat'
Feb-
Ditto, via Marseilles ••••
b
Fe
India (Bombay), via Southampton,
mar. 10
Ditto, via Marseilles
Mauritius, via Southampton
...... gar. 1°•
Ditto, via Blarseil e 3
Newfoundland .......Di0r' 6A
Portugal ...... • •• •. laar
Ditto, by private ship to Lisbon..
United States and British North America, by Bri- „g,
Usti packet -
Ditto, by United States packet, via Southamp-
ton
Ditto, via Curk 2.
Ditto, by Canadian packet, via Londonderry.. Mar• .6
West Cdabt of Africa. Madeira, and Teneriffe Diab
West Indies and Pacific (except Bahamas, Cuba, 28
and Mexico
Cuba and Mexico
Bahamas, via New I ork.
Bermuda, ditto ..... Feb.ueat

INr•