The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-18 00:00:00

THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH.

Scarcely a night passes without some member of
either. House nsing,to put questions to Ministers as
to the arrangements which have been or are to be
come to bfthe. Government with regard to the
Atlantic Telegraph Company, and as to the nature
of the guarantee which is wanted or will be given
to aid the old company in raising their new capital.
Though, of course, perfectly regular in a Parlia-
mentary sense, yet anything more irregular as to
facts and figures than both these questions and
replies have been it would be difficult to
imagine. Members of the Legislature, es-
pecially in the Upper House, are occasionally
very severe on the statements of anonymous

newspaper correspondents, yet it is no exagge-
ration to say that when it is a question of facts or
figures more inaccuracies are uttered in the Lords

and Commons in one night's debate than could be
found in the columns of the Times fdr a month.
Thus, when the noble Premier in good set terms, a
few nights since, explained the nature of the gua-
rantee which has been given to the Red Sea Com-
pany, he distinctly stated that the terms of the 4;
per cent. were entirely conditional on the line being
laid iu workine, order, and until which time the
responsibility of the Government did not begin.
Now, so far is this from being the case, that 4t, per
cent. interest on £BOO,OOO capital of the Red Sea
Company has actually been paid by the Treasury
since the company was formed, and, what is more,
the Treasury must continue to pay it for the next
50 years, even if the wire is never laid or never
worked at all. But, in addition to this kind of halt.

debate upon the subject in the House of Lords,
more questions have been put in both houses as to
monopolies, dividends, other companies, guarantees,
&c., till the whole subject of telegraphic communi-
cation has become gradually merged in the most
dense official obscurity. The real state of the case,
notwithstanding, lies in a very small compass, and
may be summed up by stating that the Atlantic
Company recently applied to Government to have
the same terms of guarantee extended to them as
were already granted to the Red Sea Company.
The agreement entered into between the Red Sea
Company and the Treasury is in substance as fol-
lows :—The Treasury undertake to pay a dividend
of 4l per cent. per annum on the capital of £BOO,OOO,
without any condition whatever as to the cable
being in working order, or, in fact, as we have said,
ever working at all. The surplus, profits of the
company above 41 per cent. from the working of
the wire when laid are to be divided into three
parts. One part goes to increase the dividend of
the shareholders, one part towards the repayment
of advances from the Government on dividend ac-
count, and one part towards a reserve fund of
£BO,OOO for keeping the wire in repair. The divi-
dends cf the shareholders are not to exceed 10 per
cent. per annum. The tariff of charges is to
be fixed by the Treasury. The Treasury also reserve
to themselves the right of taking possession of the
line in case of default in the orioinal completion of
the wire, the Treasury, in so doing, to repay the
shareholders at par, with all interest at the rate of
41 per cent. The wire is to be laid to Aden imme-
diately.
The Atlantic Company proposed to Government
to guarantee their attempt to raise new capital for
another effort by entering into conditions similar
to these, but this proposition the Treasury met with
a direct negative, on the ground that the Govern-
ment were resolved to give no further guarantees
which were not made conditional upon the wire
being laid and kept in working order. If no other
companies were in the field, and au unconditional
guarantee were necessary to assure the money-
market that a fresh attempt to cross the Atlantic
would not end in a commercial failure as ruinous as
the last, then, unquestionably the Atlantic Com-
pany would have a claim upon the Government,
which under such circumstances they would be
bound to recognise. This case. however, as it stands
at present, is very different from this. The result
of the attempts made last year have showx conclu-
sively that, with proper precautions and a properly
constructed cable, a wire may be laid between Eng
land and America with as much certainty of suc-
cess as a railway bridge can be carried across the
Thames, If the Atlantic Company had never done
anything more than demonstrate the certainty
with which such an undertaking, hitherto consi-
dered almost impoSsible, could be achieved, it would
still have effected the most important results for
commerce and for science. The effect of this easy
solution of the difficulty has been apparent for months
past. The leading submarine cablemakers are now
willing to contract for the successful submergence
of an Atlantic wire, taking all the risk of loss or
damage upon themselves. This is certainly strong
evidence of the feasibility of the undertaking, but
a stronger still may be found in the fact that
before the late cable had been a month useles's
two companies were organised, each distinct from
and opposed to the Atlantic Company, and each
proposing to lay cables between this country and
America, though by different routes. It was, of
course, the fact of these companies being in exist-
ence and willing to undertake to lay a cable with-
out any guarantee at all that at once decided the
Government in refusing the application for uncon-
ditional assistance front the Atlantic Company.
According to every rule of political economy, it is
wrong to give an unconditional. guarantee to any
company. To give it, above all others, to the old
Atlantic Company would be simply tantamount to
offering a premium for a repetition of the same
squabbles, mechanical blunders, and engineering
oversights to which the failure of the present cable
may be distinctly traced. Upon no principle of
justice could the Government give a preference
guarantee to any company while two other com-
panies were not only willing, but one is now actually
preparing, to carry out the same object at their
own risk and expense, without troubling the Go-
vernment in any way. The proposal of the Atlantic
Company, therefore, for an unconditional guarantee
was at once very properly refused. The Government
in turn,lowever, offered to give a guarantee of 8
per cent. on the entire capital of £430,000 as long
as the wire continued in working order and its pro-
fits from the transmission of messages did not
amount to that sum. But in return for this assist-
ance the Treasury required the Atlantic Company
to give up the injurious monopoly which has been
granted to them for 50 years, and which gives to
them only the right of landing submarine cables on
the coast of Newfoundland.
The history of this monopoly is briefly this:—The
idea of an Atlantic Telegraph was first started in
America, not so much with a view of getting news
from Europe as to make a very insolvent telegraph
company in America, through which the Atlantic
cable would then work, pay handsome dividends.
Stimulated with this notion of getting 25 per
cent. out of nothing, four or five American gentle-
men naturally much '.nterested in the success of
such a scheme had interviews with the local Go-
vernment of Newfoundland, with whom, in a short
time, they contrived to make a most excellent
bargain. That it was a very good bargain may be
judged from the fact that the 50 years' monopoly of
landing cables in Newfoundland is about the least
part of it. In an unguarded fit of liberality the
authorities of Newfoundland gave not only this
monopoly to these five American gentlemen, but
they gave in addition 100 square miles of good
land,
and guaranteed them besides 5 per cent. in-
on a capital of £50,000 for
w'ires across parts of the island.
teerievestting in seergpmeptuilit3'
All these indiscreet grants were confirmed by the
Imperial Government at home, in the usual routine
which approves everything till the blunder is dis-
covered. Having thus secured themselves and
made all snug, the five enterprising Americans
aforesaid proceed to call in the assistance of British
capital and science to carry out their plans. This
was the origin .of the Atlantic Company in Eng-
land, and one of. its first acts was, of course, to
purchase from the Americans the sole right of land-
ing cables in Newfoundland. The purchase of this
right from a Transatlantic Company cost the
Atlantic Company, we believe, £75,000 sterling.
The Government now, as one condition of their
granting assistance, require the Atlantic Company
to give up this monopoly, which most unquestion-
ably should never have been granted, and which
now is found to work most injuriously upon the
interests of other companies preparing to submerge
cables to America. This monopoly the Atlantic
Company have to a certain extent consented to
abandon ; or rather to give back to the Crown the
lease for fifty years under which it would exercise
its exclusive privileges. The other condi-
tions upon which the 8 per cent. will be granted
are not now definitely known, to the public at least,
though of course they are under the consideration
of the Atlantic Company.
As regards the old cable at Valentia, no change
has taken place in its condition; in fact, it cannot
vallium Valuable be worse, In ease of a fresh wire being laid the
old one would undoubtedly
tlyo
be
this limited for the
return current, but, except extent,
there are no hopes of its ever being further utilised.

Tines.

The National Gallery, Edinburgh, ishto e opened
on and after the 22d, though the permanent and complete
into operation till the 6th April.
Therearrangements
are etnhtisv
Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday,
aemdeofr not.
free
day comes,
(Saturday) given each week, admission
being on© free
sog el en
ivenfiourga small charge on two other days, and
on Wednesday evening.
THE PARADISE OF POLICEMEN.—In the Jed-
burgh Town Council exception bas been taken to the prin-
cipal policeman of the burgh leaving the town and going
into the country to hunt rabbits. There being no offender
to hunt up rabbits afforded occupation to the said official,
The council, without dividing on the question, thought it
would be more like a policinan's duty for him to remain at
his post, He was sirgularly expert at the work.