The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-14 00:00:00

handed. Unassisted she went forth to war and to
victory. Being sole master of the situation the Em-
peror 'Napoleon chose his opportunity, and offered
an armistice—improved the armistice into a peace.
We had no voice in commencing war, so we have none
in concluding peace. The Emperor began without
us, and he has ended without us. If he had not
the help of our counsels at the beginning,so neither
is he hampered by our opinions at the end. For
this the policy of the late Government deserves the
severest censure of the nation. The blood of Eng-
lishmen must boil at the pitifulness with which the
whole question has been treated and at the discredit
of the position which by such conduct we have
been made to occupy. Napoleon re-enters Paris
covered with glory. He has never lost a brittle—
never shrunk from a crisis. He has refused acces
sion of territory, he has fulfilled his mission in
Italy, and he now returns to his palace. The pro-
clamation of Milan takes effect to the very letter.
Austria in her moments of reflection will hate Eng-
land with even greater bitterness for having given
her a worthless sympathy, and to that extent
strengthened the hands of the enemy. Happily the
Cabinet that inflicted this lasting damage on Eng-
land's reputation, and shut her out from a noble
place in Italy, has paid the penalty of its wicked
blunder ; and the honour of England as to its
foreign relations is now in safer keeping.

RAILWAI S AND PUBLIC COMPANIES.

ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH COMPANY.

The Right Hon. Stuart Wortley, Chairman of
the Atlantic Telegraph Company, met a number
of the principal citizens of Glasgow on Tuesday in
the Religious Institution Rooms, for the purpose of
making a statement in regard to the present posi-
tion of that company. The chair was occupied by
Mr. James Hannan.
The CHAIRMAN said they all knew the object of
the meeting, and he had therefore simply to intro-
duce Mr, Stuart Wortley, who would explain the
position of this grand national attempt, if he might
so call it, to span the Atlantic. The attempt which
was so far successful clearly proved that the plan
could be carried out. _ _

Mr. STUART WORTLEY stated that his principal
object in asking them to meet him was that he
might have an opportunity of affording them the
fullest information of all that had been done, was
doing, and was likely to be done, by those who had
the direction of this company, He said,—You
are aware that the present direction, more.especi-
ally since it has been to some extent reconstructed,
is not responsible for any errors which may
have been committed at the outset of this company.
I think it would have been wonderful if in the
first attempt of so great an enterprise as this some
errors had not been committed; but our object has
been, since I had the honour of being connected
with the direction, to take such a course as would
prevent the recurrence of those errors, and protect
the company and their resources from any waste
consequent upon ill-judged and ill-advised proceed-
ings. During the last 12 months the directors have
gained much additional experience, and a large
number of inventions for improving every element
of the enterprise have been, and are still being sub-
mitted. It is within the range of possibility cer-
tainly, if not of probability, that the old cable may,
by the application of science, be resuscitated : but,
at the same time, I do not think there is much
chance of available assistance being got from it.
The very laying of that cable in itself was a great
success, and if we eventually should succeed in lay-
ing a cable efficient for its purpose, and lasting
in its conditions, we shall owe much to the
great exploit by which it was ascertained that
it was possible to lay a cable across the Atlan-
tic which should convey from one shore to
another the thoughts of men as quickly as the light-
ning that flashes through the heavens. It hasbeen
recommended to us that we should adopt the route
by Belleisle to Blanc Soublanque, instead of by
Valentia to St. John's. We have made full inquiry
into the merits of this route, and I may read to you
the following letter from Capt. Becher, the hydro-
grapher to the Admiralty, on this subject :
" Hydrographic-office, Admiralty, June 25.
" My dear Sir,—You ask me my opinion as to the danger
of an electric cable through the 'Strait of Belleisla. I have
never been in that strait, but after knowing what that I
experienced officer, Admiral Bayfield, has said on the sub-
ject of its navigation, I think there cannot be two opinions
among naval men, that it cannot be considered safe there
from one day to another, owing to the irregular and rocky
character of its bottom, the general current down from the
northward through the strait bringing numerous icebergs,
the tides on each shore keeping the ice drifting either way.
All this would tend to place a cable in perpetual danger
from the ice in motion; and then, should it be fixed (which
it may be occasionally), the part where it lands would incur
the additional risk of being torn away, frozen in it, from
the shore whenever the ice moves—a pleasant prospect for
shareholders I think that would be, and nothing more likely
to happen ! So that, what with ice in motion or fixed, the
current, and the tides both ways, the depth varying sud-
denly from 70 to 20 fathoms, on ice and rocks, the poor cable
would have an unquiet and hard bed. Have nothing to do
with it, I might enlarge on these several difficulties, but
depend on this, there is no exaggeration in what I have
stated, and that, ifyou adopt the Strait of Belleisle, you
will regret some day not having followed the advice of
yours truly, " A, B. BECHER."
"Cyrus Field, Esq.
I could multiply authorities, but they are unanimous.
That distinguished officer, Capt. Back, who made
one of those wonderful Arctic expeditions, told me
personally that the notion of going by Greenland
or Iceland to Labrador was perfect madness. There
is a third route mentioned—namely, that by the
Azores, which I think is not at all a likely
route, because the whole of the mid-Atlantic is
altogether unsurveyed, and where a survey was
made no bottom whatever was found. Besides, we
know that the Azores and the Canary Isles are
volcanic, and, therefore, there would be great dan-
ger in attempting to lay a line in their direction.
I have been collaterally fortified by a simultaneous
application from the British Association and other
men of science, urging on Government the necessity
of surveying, for the purposes of submarine tele-
graphy, the whole of the Atlantic. Mr. Wortley
said that the following number of despatches had
been transmitted by the Atlanric Telegraph :
From Valentia to Newfoundland, 97 messages, con-
taining 1,102 words, containing 6,476 letters. From
Newfoundland to Valentia, 269 messages, contain-
ing 2,840 words, containing 13,743 letters. Total
366 messages, 3,942 words, 20,219 letters. The
telegraph was in operation only about three weeks
during that time. Probably the most of them were
aware that it conveyed not only the message of
congratulation from the Queen to the President,
and from the President to her Majesty, but also the
news of the conclusion of the Chinese treaty. It
also conveyed to the anxious friends of the passen-
gers in the Europa the news that her passengers
were saved. It conveyed two messages from the
Government of this country for the purpose of coun-
termanding the embarkation of two regiments from
Canada for India, and which probably saved the
country a sum of £50,000 or £60,000. They felt
the great difficulty of raising further capital, and
found it was perfectly impossible to get any addi-
tional capital without the assistance of Government.
In the instance of the Red Sea Telegraph the Go-
vernment granted an uncdnditional guarantee of 4
per cent., wholly irrespective of the chances of suc-
cess, for the purpose of promoting the great national
object of electrical communication with our Indian
empire. They thought, therefore, that GO\ erment
would give them a guarantee of the same nature; but,
from some cause or other which he was unable to de-
scribe, a change came over the minds of those in the
Government, and they said that they might be called
upon to deal with the resources of the country for
the encouragement of commercial speculation if
they extended that sort of guarantee. He then ex-
plained the arrangements that had been come to
with the Government, the terms of which have
already appeared in The Sun. The shares which
were originally fixed at £l,OOO, had now been re-
duced to £5, in order to make the enterprise as
popular as possible. They had appointed new officers.
Mr. C. F. Varley, who in connection with the first
company showed great talent, was consulting
electrician, and Mr. Latimer Clark was engineer to
the company. It had been an important object of
his to enlist the feelings of some of the most distin-
guished men in the country in their favour, and he
was happy to say that he had succeeded in getting
a limited number of gentlemen, who, though very
unwilling to be named officers of the company, had
agreed to allow their names to be published in the
shape of a consulting committee. In the first place
they had at the head Professor Thomson, who from
the first had given his best assistance to this enter-
prise. The names of the members of the consulting
committee were—Robert Stephenson, M.P., F.R.S.,
&c., Isambard K. Brunel, F.R.S., &c. ; Edwin
Clark, C.E. ; G. P. Bidder, C.E. ; John Ha wlishaw,
C,E., F.R.S.; James A. Longridge, C.E. ; Professor
Wheatstone, F.R.S. ; William Allen Miller, M.D.,
F.R.S., and Dr. Tindall, who was under Professor
Farady, as ofile2r of the Royal Institution. They
would therefore have a committee of men of the
most scientific ability. The first thing we intend to
do (said Mr. Wortley) if we can raise £30.000, is
immediately to attempt the raising of the old cable.
Fist of all, we shall endeavour to raise the ends of
the old cable, and shall also endeavour to discover
where its defects are, and whether it is possible to
resuscitate it, or whether we can raise so much of
it at either end as will remunerate us and cover the
expense of raising that portion of it at least, and
probably leave something over to the company. I
have applied to the Admiralty to have three 'ships
endeavouring
lying at Newfoundland, near St. John's, and we
have every reason to believe we shall get the as-
14st:once of these vessels in raising
next thing will be to lay the new cable. We shall
not commit the PFI•or of
the
againcable.
to Thelay
lay
the cable ourselves. He then alluded to the inten-
tion of the directors to 111811143 value of the