The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-13 00:00:00

LEICESTESHIRE (NORTH).

The following address has just been issued by
Lord John Manners :

" TO THE ELECTORS OF NORTH LEICESTERSHIRE.

" Gentlemen—lt had been my intention to appear
before you on Saturday, and offer such explanations
of the reasons which induced the present Ministry
to accept office as might be necessary ; but a re-
cent attack of illness has compelled my medical
advisers to forbid my leaving the house for
some days to come. Under these circum-
stances I can only throw myself on your kind for-
bearance, and ask you to confer upon me, in my
unavoidable absence, the trust which I had hoped
to solicit and obtain from you in person.—l have
the honour to be, your obedient and faithful ser-
vant, 44 JOIIN MANNERS.

" July 10."
There will be no opposition.

Atlantic Telegraph Expedition.

(From the Times Special Correspondent)
VALENTIA, July .11.
The Great Eastern is still anchored at Berehaven,
and the expedition waits for her arrival—that is to
say, that until she comes the squadron cannot start
at all. Up till late last night it was confidently
expected that the splice would be made to-mor-
row, but a messenger has just arrived who bears
the unwelcome news that it may be Friday or even
Saturday before the great ship can leave. Really,
however, nothing very certain is known on this
point. It is a mere question of coaling the Great
Eastern, and the Irish labourers who have been im-
provised for this duty work with such an intermit-
tent zeal that Captain Anderson has decided that
whenever a reasonably fair quantity is stowed on
board he will at once proceed to sea and leave the
rest behind him. They are now loading day and
night, and if this labour can only be continued the
whole squadron will sail by Friday, but at present
the chances seem against it. Every day that has
passed since the thin end waslaid, with the exception
of yesterday, has shown the wisdom of having taken
advantage of the first break of moderate weather.
Since Saturday the fogs have been dense off the
coast, and the wind and rain more or less continuous,
and always quite enough to put an end to any chance
of landing under the cliffs of Foilhonunerum. The
end of the wire out to sea, however, remains safely
buoyed, and the electrical conditionisperfct. Strange
to say, the William Corry, which submerged this
portion of the rope and left it at 3 a.m. last Sunday
to return to Berchaven, where she was expected to
arrive at noon the same day, has not yet been seen
or heard of there. Whether she is still keeping by
the buoy which is some 34 miles out to sea, or whe-
ther she has mistaken her instructions and returned
to England, none can say.
Here, however, she is
not, and her absence is causing some inconvenience,
as there are 22 of the
" cable hands" on board her
who must be transferred to the Great Easternbefore
she starts. Not the slightest apprehension is felt
about her beyond the very natural one that she may
have misinterpreted her instructions. To-day her
Majesty s screw Racoon will go out to the buoy to
look for her, and
signal her back to Berehaven,
whither the Racoon is also bound.
At the telegraph house on the cliffs of Foilhom-
merum the staff are busy
just now, though not much
more so than they have been throughout the winter.
Last year's cable appears to have sunk as much out
of mind as out of sight of the general public, yet
not a day has passed since its unfortunate fracture
last August that its insulation and " conductivity"
have not been almost hourly recorded. These show
its condition up to the broken end, 1,260 miles from
shore, to be absolutely perfect. There is always a
certain amount of resistance to an electric current
entering a cable, which is called retardation, and is
measured by millions of units. A submarine wire
of a certain length can,
therefore, always be mea-
sured as it were, and its insulating and conductive
powers ascertained
to within a mile of a faultby the
time the current takes in entering the wire. These
tests, as we have said, have been carried on hourly
with last year's cable, and the result as to millions
of units has corresponded day by day in the most
remarkable manner. Of course, both its " conduc-
tivity" and resistance have varied as earth
currents arose or magnetic storms prevailed, but
nine times out of ten the resistance test has been the
same even to a millionth unit day after day, and
these tests are identical with those which would be
obtained from a perfect submarine rope 1,260 miles