The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-27 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

-

Tl3lES.—Within a few hours of the time when
these lines are published the world will probably
witness the completion of one of the grandest and
most beneficent enterprises of the age. Yesterday
at noon the Great Eastern was but 80 miles from
the rendezvous which is the end of her voyage ; she
was in only 130 fathoms water, and unless some
unforeseen calamity take place, London and New
York ought to be in telegraphic communication by
to-morrow morning. So wonderful an event may
excuse almost any hyperbole of congratulation. The
genius and enterprise of this country have com-
pleted a work which transcends not only experience
but fancy. Men hardly arrived at middle age re-
member a time when such an idea as an instanta-
neous communication between the two Continents
would have been looked upon as the wildest dream.
Even of late years there have been sober, calculating
people who have considered the laying of an Atlan-
tic Cable to be a mad enterprise, destined to sink
many hundred thousand pounds of capital belonging
to sanguine investors, and to remain for ever to
form a chapter in the " History of Human Error."
The immense distance to be traversed ; the great
depths at which the cable must be submerged
during part of its course ; the abrupt variations in
the bed of the ocean ; the chances of storm and fog
and iceberg, of defective construction, which might
perhaps be only detected when too late, of machi-
nery a little too stiff or heavy, which might snap the
cable by a sudden jerk, of clumsiness in some one
employed, which might frustrate all the calculations
and all the pains bestowed on the work—these, and
the many accidents which no human foresight can
entirely guard against, made some prudent people
incredulous to the last. There were not wanting those
who said that if ever a telegraphic message was sent
from London to New York it would be sent nearly
round the world, by way of Russia, Siberia, Beh-
ring's Straits, and 'Western America. On the other
hand, the faith and courage of the projectors have
been beyond all praise. From the first inception of
the enterprise there has been a body of able men
who have never doubted that a cable might be laid
and made to work. Year after year they have
gained a clearer conception of the task, and matured
the plans which have ended in this magnificent suc-
cess. Submarine cables have been laid on so large
a scale and under so many various conditions of late
years that the Atlantic Telegraph has had the ad-
vantage of a great accumulation of facts. The
Mediterranean lines and the sea section of the Indian
line have been full of instruction on the subject. In
some parts of the Mediterranean great depths have
been traversed, and the effect of these on the cable
has been well noted, and hints are also gained as to
the best system of laying down a line. But the
ocean which rolls between Ireland and Newfound-
land has given the most complete, though the most
costly lessons. Years roll by so quickly that it is
difficult to realise that nine of them have been de-
voted to Atlantic telegraphy. Not, indeed, that
there has been a yearly expedition ; but the first
expedition was in 1857, and since that time the plans
and experiments have never ceased. We believe it
is about twenty years since the proposal to construct
an ocean telegraph between the two Continents was
made ; but the scheme was too bold, and the ex-
perience in such matters too slight, for either the
Government or the public to undertake the work.
But year by year cables were laid in the principal
narrow seas of the world ; one had been worked from
Varna to the Crimea, and one was promised which
should deal with the greatest depths of the Medi-
terranean. While the Old World was thus gaining
the benefits of ready communication, it was not
likely that either England or America would neglect
the momentous question of their own union. To join
the two continents by such a line as had been laid
down between England and France or England and
Ireland was an obvious idea, but it needed men of
talent and courage to conceive it as a practical en-
terprise, and to enter energetically on the work.
This, however, was done, and in the summer of
1857 a company had been formed, 2,500 miles of
cable had been manufactured, and two of the finest
vessels of war in the world, the Agamemnon and
the Niagara, were ready to steam away with it.
This earliest attempt was doomed to end in speedy
disappointment. 'The expedition started amid the
applause and the premature felicitations of the
public, but ill-success attended it. When the ships
were but a few miles from the coast, the cable,
which the Niagara was paying out, became en-
tangled in the machinery and parted. The squadron
returned to recover what had been laid down and
to join it, and then went again on its way. But
want of experience was fatal. As the ship came on
the sudden declivity in the ocean bed, .where it
descends from 400 to 1,700 fathoms, the weight of
the cable made, an increase of retarding pressure
necessary. The machinery, though devised with
great skill, appears not to have applied and re-
laxed this pressure with sufficient readiness, and
the cable snapped. There was an end of the
expedition for that year, but in 1858 another
squadron set forth, with improved appliances and
far better founded hopes of success. The ships
freighted with the cable were again the Agaraem-
..

it) 0

will
non and the Niagara, which were accompanied 14
the usual attendant vessels. The first voyage
long be memorable in the annals of seamanship:
The tremendous storm in which the over-freighted
cl
Agamemnon nearly perished was recorded at th
time in the columns of this journal, and the descrip-
tion will be fresh in the memory of most of our
2
readers. The squadron returned to port, but set
forth again in a few days on what may be termed
t
the fourth cable-laying voyage. On the sth
11
August, 1858, the first telegraphic messagewasse
under the Atlantic. It was at the time of the s
Cher-
bourg Fetes, and it was impossible not to draw
comparison between the pacific work which Englat.
' had borne the chief part in effecting and the wit.
like constructions of our neighbours. But again di'
appointment was to follow, the more bitter because
success had been actually attained. Her Majesnd
actually talked with President Buchanan, and
news came about a collision between two steam
The congratulations were at the highest and loune,
when an ominous indistinctness was observed ill the
signals. People in Trinity Bay were evidently said
ing something, but Valentia could not understan
it. For nearly a month the powers of the cable
lingered before they completely expired. The Au.,
sulation of the wire gradually became more faulty,
till at last, on the 4th of September, the power of
For sevenh
transmitting messages entirely ceased.
years no new expedition was sent forth, though
future success was being prepared by careful exPe.,
riments, by an improvement in the manufacture of
cables, and by observations of other submarine
lines. At last the Great Eastern sailed with 2gouvvr
miles of wire on the 15th of July last Year. the
the daily progress of the ship was watched, how
doubts of the timid gave way to confidence as every
24 hours seemed to bring her nearer to assured w
ed,
cess, how, when the communication suddenly cease_,
every supposition that could avert the conviction
entire failure was indulged, and how at last every
hope was destroyed by the return of the Great
Eastern herself with the news that the cable ."7t
parted in mid-ocean, will be long remembered.
last the victory is won. Amid the fogs of the Nevi
foundland Bank the Great Eastern is slowly Deal;
ing Trinity Bay. In shallow water and so near trje
coast there can hardly be any further danger to
cable. If even it were to break, it could, it is sa"
be grappled for and raised without much difficultY'd
So far as human foresight can judge, the Old all
the New World will be in telegraphic comp:tunic:l
tion before to-morrow night. The prospect °pert,
to the world by this achievement is so raall„ei;
lous that any attempt to describe it must give
chive
a faint and feeble picture. The two most
and energetic nations of the globe are placed !,
hourly communication. The Governments
England and the United States will be able w
converse rapidly and freely, removing ruis,cflelir
ceptions should they arise, and transacting d
affairs without the delay of a voyage dull;
which the face of events may be changed. a° tot
mercantile interests of both countries the gain za
be immense. We can well conceive the capitalito
of England and America being anxious to resb"Ot
ventures for the success of the enterprise, fer.,tnot
success will be worth millions to them. Anura
only will this country gain by its ready commull':
tion with the United States, but also by the fa,,°. a
ties which the telegraph will give for corresponallTl
with British North America. These countries °d
the north and the whole region far away westvracru
to British Columbia and California will assurethye
be before long in hourly communication with ..
is .ke
Old World. Indeed, now that the great enterpli,
completed, there can be no doubt that in a,fie..
years the entire globe will be spanned by the
graph wires, and the news of the planet will be gilled
every morning in the London papers. The Ada%)
makes the only great break in the continuity of t $
land of the globe. The three old continents air
single mass. The wires may be carried from 0111 e;
gapore over island after island until they re,ad
Australia. In the New World they may be 13-g
easily from Labrador to Patagonia. By bridgo4
the Atlantic these two great systems are brougur"
into connection. It is a great work, a glory O° it
age and nation, and the men who have achieved
deserve to be honoured among the benefactors
their race.
HERALD.—The statements made in both Houses Of
Parliament last night dispose of Mr. Beales' Pr°el,,,je;
=lion. We know now that the revisingibarrio
of Trafalgar-square was guilty of—a naseericePl;
tion : and that when he sent out the " sandwiches
which startled half the town on Wednesday even•
i o
ing, he did so on the strength of the amiability
the Home Secretary and the audacity of his own rc,
Be
quest. That it was a misconception we bale a
doubt. But, as the Home Secretary characterisfer
it, it was a very extraordinary one. The request,
permission to hold a meeting in Hyde-park on Woes
day next—an afterthought of Mr. Beales'—'vat
made in writing late in the afternoon ; and at ab°l3o
the same time which Mr. Walpole received it t
assent of the Government was announced, and the
he
triumph of Mr. Beales was duly placarded ip
streets and magnified in Hyde-park. pddly
enough, one of the members of the Reform
League—if we mistake not much more of a wojA,
ing-man's friend and a Reformer than Mr. 1.7,
mond Beales, Mr. Holyoake—thought it his duty
to call on the Home Secretary, and protest again d
the proclamation put forward by Mr. Beales ; and
so the whole triumph of the League over law st
order, in the person of the Home Secretary, "
an end.

CHIEF BARON KELLY.--A preliminary meet
was held at the 'White Horse Hotel, Ipswich, on Af°''°lllly+
~
to take into consideration the best means of giving an apt
propriate reception to the Chief Baron on the Ist of Augil;
next, and the following resolution was unanimously
agreed to :—" That it is desirable to meet the Lord Chief
Baron, on his entry into the town, as one of her MaiestS
judges, to escort him to the Assize Court." A eottni-
was appointed to carry out the intentions of the meetly!'
MILITARY MANCEUVRES ON THE RHINE.--Plll
some military manceuvres near Strasburg, a few clays bs-ij
a pontoon bridge was thrown across the Rhine
minutes.

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Births.
BRANDON—On the 25th inst., at Point House, Putney, 3111'
H. Brandon, of a daughter.
,n,bertt
HIBBERT—On the 25th inst., the wife of Fred. D. Ja.""
of Bucknell Manor House, Oxfordshire, of a daughteter,
ROBERTS —On the 16th inst., Lady Roberts, of a claugh,i of
WARD—On the 25th inst., at Oxford, Mrs. G. S. War",
a daughter.

Marriages.
POSTER—DENNEY— On the 25th inst., at Christ Olio,
Highbury, Michael E. Foster, Esq., of Bishopsgate,
to Henrietta, only daughter of the late Win. De
n°-
Esq., of Coggeshall, Essex. 0 r-
ROSE—PYM -On the 25th inst., at St. George's, D-e,--jsq.,
square, Philip Frederick, eldest son of Philip Rose, -"cja,
of Rutland-gate, and Rayners, High Wycomb,,,,e Iplivra
to Rose Annie, daughter of the late Rev. Win.
rector of Willian, Herts, and niece of the late r•"
Esq., of The Hazells, Beds.
Deaths.
DANIELS-On the 24th inst., at 54, Welbeck-street, 05V°11‘..
dish-square, Win. Daniels, Esq., aged 85. a of
FROGGATT -On the 24th inst., Henry Froggatt, l'srigoe
Rose Lodge, Tulse-hill, Brixton, Surrey youngs;rey,
of the late T. Froggat, Egq., of Sutton Lodge, °Li-
aged 45. *
F• 13"
JOHN-On the 24th inst., at Windsor, Major George _gcl
St. John, Military Knight of Windsor, late of tliv
Regt., and third son of Gen. the Hon. F. St. Jobe. of
PERKINS On the 24th inst., Augustus S. Perkins, Vsl"
54, Old Steine, Brighton, aged 57.•
TENNANT—On the 24th inst., at The Elms, Retford, 31_re' i3rs;
Tennant, head of the firm of Tennant Brothers, brew
aged 49. Loseie'
YOUNG -On the 24th inst., at Laverock Bank, ..,90
mouth, Morayshire, Alexander Young, late captta.-
Sutherland Highlanders.

London : Printed and Published by WILLIADIAN,n 1127
of No. 112, Strand, Pouter. at 'Una* SUN Othee, '. of
Strand, in the Pooh:let of: the Savoy, in the COWO/
Middleees. —Friday, July 27,1866