The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-04 00:00:00

The Atlantic Telegraph.

The Anglo-American Times says :—Our even-
ing papers now give the morning news of Wash-
ington,—and in New York the earliest issue may
contain the morning news of London. As the
telegraph beats the sun by some hours in its race
westwards across the Atlantic, news, when received
at New York, will be of a date not yet arrrived,—
a time which for them is still in the womb of futu-
rity. The statement appears almost incredible, but
it is a fact that shortly will lose all its novelty, and
be accepted as a thing of course. The greatest
benefactors of the world are not those who are held
in the highest honour. Often the world has accepted
the gift, after persecuting to death the giver,—and
few of the great inventors and mechanical benefac-
tors of society have reaped other than the bitter
harvest of prejudice and spite. The conception of a
cable to span the broad Atlantic, and connect the
two continents, was worthy of a great mind. Like
all other grand undertakings, failure was the burden
of the prophecy. The scheme was denounced as
wild, visionary, absurd,—a sink for capital, and a
task for lunatics. As effort after effort ended only
in disastrous failure, the evil prognosticatorsbecame
assured, and " I told you so," was echoed from one
end of the land to the other. • The world is apt to
accept the fruits of the victory, and to forget both
its own part and that of those who had fought the
fight and conquered, not only over nature, but over
the world's prejudiced opposition. Who invented
the Prussian needle-gun ?It has made the King
the greatest monarch in Europe,—overthrown a
mighty military despotism, and united a divided
Germany. We all know the tremendous results ;
but who knows from what brain emanated the idea ?
The cable itself furnishes an example of grand results,
coming from an unseen source, and in this typifies
but too truly how the inventors and framers of an
incalculable benefit sink out of sight and out of
mind, leaving their work to enrich an ungrateful
world. The cable lies silent on the bed of the vast
Atlantic ; it hangs over precipitous rocks, spans
vast gorges, or is entwined in the long weeds which
the seas so lavishly produce. The cod on the banks
of Newfoundland and the turbot on the coast of
Ireland rub against it as they seek their food ; the
lobster and the crab crawl over it ; but, from oue
end to the other, not one sign is visible to a human
being of the mighty engine for conveying thought
between the two populous continents. Silent and
motionless lies the vast achievement. Not one im-
posing sight conveys to the ignorant the smallest
idea of power. To them the result is bewildering,
but the means are contemptible. " Knowledge is
power," and in this wire is the best proof yet fur-
nished of the fact. Knowledge also is required to
make men recognise and award to their truest bene-
factors their just meed of praise. Paltry as appears
the means—silent, motionless, and unseen—yet the
work is the grandest which has been accomplished
in our age. Slight as is the link, it is the strongest
that could bind the nations ; vast as is the length,
it is in truth the shortest that could connect two
peoples. We stretch our hand across the Atlantic
and grasp that of Brother Jonathan with a morn-
ing salutation. Literally it annihilates distance,
and brings the empires within talking range. We
do not see as we speak. Still we communicate per-
sonally, and tell each other what we do now, and
consult each other what is prudent and right we
should do.
That a means so simple should produce a result
so great is due to the fact that we are not over-
coming nature, but adapting nature's vital life and
force to our wants. As knowledge increases so
will increase our means of directing nature's bidden
powers to our own ends. The services of men who
devote their lives and succeed in their object directed
to such an end should be recognised by their country,
and the highest rewards should be freely given to
them. Whatever may be done by
England to show
her sense of gratitude for the successful accomplish-
ment of this wonderful undertaking, we hope that
America will recognise the great service of her in-
domitable champion in the cause, and place Cyrus
W. Field in a high niche in her Temple of Fame.
The Pall Mall Gazette remarks that the Atlantic
Telegraph by which America and Europe have
been brought within a few minutes of each other is
at last a fact—after inconceivable labour, repeated
disappointments, and enormous expenditure of
capital. It is not easy at first to realise the social
and commercial results which will ensue from the
achievement of this great enterprise, or the social
and commercial difficulties which will attend its
sudden disorganisation, if, like other enterprises of
the same sort, it should work efficiently for a time
and then break down. The prices at which its
shares are quoted now, in the hour of its success,
are not such as to prove that English capitalists
have any great confidence in the permanence of the
undertaking which was yesterday brought to a
successful issue. We cordially wish, however, that
those who have risked their capital in it may be
richly repaid for their meritorious adventure.

We extract the following from the Star : —To say
that the completion of the Atlantic Telegraph is the
great news of the week is about as striking and