The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-21 00:00:00

THE LATE 21171. JOSEPjI- STTLR GE.

BiltaiiNGAM,r-if
daTy Evening.
The remains of Joseph Sturge- were borne to their
last resting place, the graveyard of the Friends
Meeting.hoose in this town, at half. past 10 o'clock
this morning. The simplicity of Quaker fashions
forbade an opportunity of a public funeral. The
inhabitants of the town in which Joseph Sturge
hadfor nearly forty years resided were anxious that
his funeral should be a•public one, without dis Play,
but simply expressive of affectionate regard. The
mayor (Sir John Ratcliff ) waited upon the next
brother of the deceased, Mr. Charles Sturge, and
consulted him on the subject; but the family were
opposed to ostentation of any kind. In these cir-
cumstances nothing was left but for the inhabitants
to show their respect in their own way, and that
took so natural and simple, yet spontaneous and'
genuine a form, that there was no mistaking its
intention, or the motives which prompted it; in
fact, it has been truly said that such a funeral was
never seen in Birmingham.
The mourning procession left Mr. Sturge's late
residence at a quarter-past 10 o'clock, the distance
to the place of interment being a mile and a half;
it was followed by nearly forty carriages, containing
the relatives and friends of the deceased, and, after
it left the gates, it was headed by a procession of
more than three thousand gentlemen, three abreast
—men of all ranks, creeds, and shades of distinct ion
in the town. This procession was headed by the
mayor and by the Rev. Dr. Miller, rector of St.
Martin's, the mother church of the town. In the
midst of, a heavy rain, the shops being closed, the
procession moved slowly to the Friends' Meeting.
house. Before it reached there more than twenty
other carriages had joined the mournful cavalcade.
The burial ground was thronged by members of the
Society of Friends from all parts of the country.
Mr. Bright, M.P., was present at the funeral.

METROPOLITAN BOARD OF WORKS.

The weekly moeting of the Metropolitan Board
of Works was held yesterday in the Court of Com-
mon Pleas, Guildhall ; Mr. J. Thwaites in the

chair.
The financial statement showed a total balance
of X 75,432 Bs. 10d.
OPENING OF TENDERS FOR THE CONTRACT FOR THE
SOUTHERN HIGH LEVEL MAIN DRAINAGE.
The board proceeded to open tenders for the con-
tract for the Southern High Level Sewer, the
engineer's estimate for which was £212,457. This
work consists of a main line and a branch. The
main line will be five miles eighty feet, commencing
at Deptford Creek, and terminating near the
Plough Tavern, at Clapham. The branch line also
commences with the existing Seffra Sewer at
Deptford, and will run for a considerable distance
parallel with the proposed main line of sewer, ter-
minating with the rise of the Effra at Dulwich,
and extending for a distance of 4 miles 520 feet.
The tenders were opened, and the sums were as
follows : —Moxon, £211,000 ; Trust, £223,122 ;
J. Phillips, £193,169 ; Hill and Co., £204,534 ;
Myers, £242,700 ; Walker and Co., £227,540 ;
Downs, £229,160; Lavers, £230,000 • J. Diggle,
£215,000 ; J. Jay, £247,200 ; V. Webster,
£215,379 • Smith and Knight, £268,661; Norris,
Elling, and Co., £213,873.
The board then resolved themselves into a com-
mittee. On the re-admission of the public. the
Chairman announced to Mr. John Phillips that his
tender was accepted, subject to the usual inquiries
as to the sufficiency of his sureties for the due per-
formance of the work.

After some routine applications under the
Building Act had been disposed of, the board
adjourned.

GOVERNMENT ELEC2RIC TELE-

GRAPHS.

The electric telegraph is an agency which has
not been altogether neglected by British Govern-
ments. Some small use was made of it during, the
late Crimean war; and in the more recent war in India
it has unquestionably been turned to (rood account.
But that any Administration has yet sultiently com-
prehended the advantages which are to be gained by
its means, or has sought to secure all these advantages
for the country, we must entirely deny. Even as an
auxiliary to the defence of this island, for which it
is so eminently applicable, how little has it been
yet adopted ? The Government have under their
own control one pair of wires putting them in in-
stant communication with Woolwich, Chatham,
Sheerness, and Deal ; and they have another pair
extending to Portsmouth and Gosport, from which
a branch is led off to Aldershott ; and these are
all which belong exclusively to them. On the
other hand, notwithstanding all our talk of
coast defences, there is no direct electric
telegraph communication whatever between such
places as Brighton and Portsmouth, Dorchester
and Exeter, and so forth. Yet what could possibly
be more necessary, in case of our coasts boing
menaced, than a continuous chain of telegraphs
along our shores, connected at all points with the
seat of Government ?

If we turn our eyes to our possessions abroad,
the facts are no more cheering. Up to this
moment successive Governments have utterly
neglected to put us in direct and independent
telegraphic communication even with Gibraltar and
Malta—important as those possessions are, and
seriously as they would be endangered by some of
those naval combinations of which we have lately
heard so much! View the matter with as much
lenience as we may, it is still manifest that sub-
marine telegraphs to such places as those have be-
come as essential to the security of our possessions
as fleets and armies themselves, and that every hour
of inaction in respect to them is attended by terrible
responsibilities. It is little less than sheer fatuity to
rely upon despatch vessels, and other like means of
communication in this day, with an instrument like
the electric telegraph in cur hands. It is not less
absurd to trust, as we are now trusting, to lines of
telegraph which are as 'much in the hands of those
who may any day become our enemies as in our
own.

What appears to us to be necessary Is, the
instant establishment of a Government Depart-
ment designed expressly and exclusively to
work out and put in operation a system of
electric telegraph communication, either apart
altogether from commercial undertakings of a like
Anaptuerrem,
aoureinntssotianfre
ppt:rud electricians i connectionor telegraph ‘vengi-
neers
itl the
is henceforth.. tidispensable. Hitherto the
p or a practice
employment
porary
Government-
miss them whenever it has been thought, and
We need not say that no kind of Government
work can be done well or economically under
such a system as this. There must be security,
must be permanence, in all such occupations ; and
in none more than that of which we are now
speaking, because there is no occupation in which
experience, and the skill which springs from it,
are more indispensably necessary.
These suggestions are made in the earnest hope
that something useful and reliable may be attempted
in the shape of a Government organisation with-
out delay. We refrain from entering into con-
siderations of cost, and matters of that kind, for
fear of encumbering a ery simple but, as we
believe, important suggestion with needless details.
The only hint of
rteheemkninedndon to
tahtaitwewitlhlehereven-
ture to give is a m
Govern-
ment to see, in laying down cables of their own,
that efficiency is not sacrificed by excessive
economy in the construction of their submarine
cables. The cable from Malta to Corfu, for ex-
ample, is much too fragile. One eminent electrical
engineer informs us that £l5O a mile should be
spent on a cable for connecting our shores with our
Mediterranean possessions, and that for this a cable
excellent in all respects for the purpose could be
produced. Another mentions a much lower amount
oprermmuchile, at
this
issucffia
bclinnt . p
aßrut
ite
umlqai
re tli
shoulder it costbe madelittle
and laid down without ilelay.-11feekamcs, Maga-
zine.

OR
A an ad-dßittioinLaDliNpuG;v7yilnlge
officerAdni Admiralty
are
ding still larger quantities of
Sardinia, to ass
of our ships of war than are at
for the frames
Italian oak,
obtained.
Even now, when the timber is tp.ed
present
s it is cut, without any time being allowed
air7:l;:ilsbo:ll3stE Rstooo Fn
s
for thedseemasanondin!
jorfelteesff
apgl
ay z falls considerably short
of the
ON TO GLORY !—The French papers relate the
following :—A corporal jumped into a hackney coach on
the boulevards; "NVhere to ?" said the coachman. "To
glory," was theanswer. The coachman scratched his head
and looked puzzled. " Ass that you are," said the son of
Mars, " don't you know the Lyons railway station ?"
THE RAILWAY WORKS IN THE PUNJAUB.—Our
readers will perhaps be surprised to learn that the railu ay
works in the Punjaub have been—stopped. The moment
Sir J. Lawrence's back is turned in India the supremo go-
vernment and its advisers have suddenly discovered that
the line laid down by Mr. Brunton, and so cordially ap-
proved of by Sir John, is objectionable.—Lahore Chronicle,
April 17.

SHIELDS, Thursday Night.—Tho French full-
rigged ship Notre Dame des Victoires, which struck on tl •
bar of the Tyne this morning and grounded, part of her
cargo and coals having been cast overboard, has been got
off and brought into port this evening. She appears to 1e a
good deal strained. She had a pilot on board in proceeding
to sea. He states that the master informed him that the
vessel drew 10 feet 3 inches, and there being 20 feet water
on the bar, he ventured to take the vessel out. An imp ir
will be made as to the water the vessel really draws.
A Clam: I fir OF HISTORY !—Wc learn from
communication made to a contemporary
the curious his-
torical fact, that a spoon, whose handle contains a facial
:epresentation of William and Mary, has lately beep
teshead Observer.
lre
twogedfromeenthture
ißesive_eraWaear, where it had been immersed
luring