The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-01 00:00:00

Tavern, the Marquis of Conytigliam in the chair.
Covers were laid' for -700 persons.' Ameng those
present were—Field-Marshal Viscount Coieber-
mere, Earl of eauchatn.p, Lord G: Paget, C. 8.,
Viscounts Ingestre, Tenapletown. and Te•ripl-niore,
Earl Mountcharles' Lord de 1t s, Col. Parker,
Gen. Hail, Sir W. Wynne, Hon. H. S. Law, Col.
Oakes, and.Lieut.-Col. Hogg.
The Vuited.. 'States ''steam-frigate Susquehana,
Capt. :Sands, after- saluting the Grand Duke
Con,tantine's flag, as noticed jet our report of his
Imperial Highness's visit to (),ibortse, proceeded to
Gravesend The followin g par ticialarswith reference
to the construction of this -frigate may interest our
readers:--eShe has four tubular:boilers fitted athwart
ships, with upright tubes, the water lying around
them. These boilers were-const noted oil anew plan
by the chief engineer of the United State's' navY, and
were made at Baltimore; this is the first-chip, wi h
:he exception of the Merrimac, which haS been fitted
with them. Her average cousumption of coals (of
which she stows away 1,000 tons) is about 35 tons
for the 24 hours which amount produces an aver-
age stred of 10 knots,an hour under 'steam alone.
Her -eylinders are 6 feet in diameter, 20 feet stroke,
carrying frome.l2lb. 18Ih, pressure of steam, 151 b.
being the average ; average revolutions, 15 or 16..
She has several officers on board, who have come
over 'to this 'country to render theieassistance in
laying drwrt_the great Atlantic-telegraph cable.
,The Agamemnon, Master Cemat4ander Cornelius
Neddall, reported as havinglert:,(Or.Brken-
' head,' was re-called" when betvreeif the -treat -Nom
end the 'Mollie, in consequence of a telegraphic de-
spatch from the Admiralty, ordering her to remain
at the Nore until further orders. She is to take in
that portion of the cable intended to have been,
taken by the Niagara, and the Sr. Jean D'Acre is
to proceed (when ready) to Birkenhead.
The Cyclops paddle-wheel steam-frigate, Lieute-
nant-Command,r Joseph D iyinan left beerness
on Saturday last, for the purpose of taking sound-
ings of the line along which it is proposed the great
Atlantic telegraph cable should be laid down.
The Cumberland, 70 guns, Capt. J. B. Dickson,
left Sheerness yesterday, in obedience to a tele-
graphic order from the Admiralty, for Portsmouth,
where she is to rernain until her full complement
of men has been obtained.
A general muster and inspection of the steam
squadron of reserve at Sheerness will take place to-
day.

LAYING DOWN THE TRANSATLANTIC
TELEGRAPH CABLE.

The following statement has been addressed to
the directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company
by Lieut. Francis Higginson, Esq., R. N. :
The importance of the subject ou which I address
you will account for and excuse this exclusively
busincss communication.
I have no desireto be considered one of the overwise
but all men of common sense admit that experience
constitutes the wisdom of the practically observant.
More than 40 years have elapsed since I became a
seamen ; and from the time electric telegraph cables
were invented the best means of laying them down
appeared to me an object which merited practical
study, and mature professional consideration.
When the earliest abortive attempts were made
with the first cable between Doverand Calais, in 18;il,
I pointed out in a correspondence with the Govern-
ment (still producible) the inadequacy of
the means then used, and at that period invented
an apparatus (registered as a design, December,
1851, as can be ascertained at the registration of
designs office), of which it may be sufficient t.) say,
that-is details have been more or less adopted in
the fittings of all steam vessels since employed for
laying down such cables, without recompense to
the inventor.

With this, however, I am aware you have no-
thing whatever to do, and merely mention the fact
to prove the extent of my labours and research
only further premising that, although the ma-
chinery of my inventoo, properly modified to meet
varying circumstances, would easily have accom-
plished in every former instance the desired end,
within comparatively short distances of one or two
hundred miles, it, as well as other proposed me-
thods, will necessarily require a different applica-
tion of principles and powers, and many additional
indispensable adjuncts, to provide against any at-
tempted laying down a cable between Britain and
America turning out a complete failure, attended
by the inevitable loss of all such portion of the
cable as may be incautiously submerged, for rea-
sons hereafter specified—meaning, of course, if the
methods heretofore practised, and apparently about
to be repeated in the Niagara and .Agamemnon,
are persevered in.
I beg leave at the same time to state my thorough
conviction of the practicability of your undertaking,
provided the necessary additional means are adopted
—having myself in 1851 reported to the govern-
ment that a magnetic telegraph could be laid down
with safety and facility between any two given
pieces, however distant, and offered personally to
superintend the operation, as can be proven by offi-
cial correspondence of that date, which I am ready
to produce to verify the facts. With proper mate-
rials properly applied I retain the same conviction
still, and am therefore deeply interested in your
ul image success. But no man, or set of men, how-
ever zealous, skilful, or experienced, can accom-
pish that which is practically impossible, and such
I aver will be found any attempt made to lay down
a cable between Britain and America, in the old,
pay and go, drum, stopper, compress, and stick-it-
out style, which has heretofore effected the work
undertaken in various instances, even for short
comparative distances, with so much difficulty, and
never without serious and expensive mishaps.
I conclude you have not based tiny of your cal-
culations as to distance, or the track to be followed
in laying down your cable, upon soundings recently
said to have been obtvined at perpendicular depths
(in fathoms) of one and a half, two, and two and a
half miles. Because, without imputing to officers
iu our own navy (who allege they have sounded at
seven and eight miles depth !), or to the members
of other services, more than having them elves been
deceived, in supposing they have so struck sound-
ings, it will be conclusive to point out, both modern
science and actual experimeet dernons rate, that
long before any such depths could be reached, the
deep-sea lead (or any heavier weight which a lead-
line would be strong enough to haul up again as it
neared the surface) must necessarily have displaced
its own specific gravity, in so dense a medium as
water, and consequently at once then stop, remain-
ing suspended, equilibrated, or, as usually termed,
afloat, all line payed out afterwards being merely
slack taken by the vessel's drift or motion, and. the
line's own triflingly greater weight than water,
wherein rope will coil and sink, until either drawn
after the ship horizontally, or the lead-line itself
gradually reaches by descent its own weight-point of
flotation.
I have myself seen a heavy gun (a cannon) dis
mounted, slung, and lowered, at first by a hawser
in a snatch-block, from a vessel's mainyard operly
secured, decreasing the size of the rope as the gun
descended, until the rode or line became quite slack,
and then the submerged cannon was towed. some
distance by, a boat, hanging only by a piece of two-.
inch rope, proving the gun had indeed displaced its
specific gravity, but not that soundings were ob-
tained. The inference intended to be drawn, there-
fore is, that there need be no apprehension of your
cable chafing on the bottom in greater depths than
two hundred fathoms, ae its weight will not, with
the surface preteented, immerse it more, in oce ins
such as the Athentic, whose average depth may be
estimated at about four miles ; consequently extra-
ordinary provis ion for weighing, or precautions
against chafe, need only be made at the extremities
as the ends app roach the land ; whilst as regards
security by submersion against accidents, two hun-
dred fathoms dow'?' will be as effectual as if your
cable could sink to the antipodes.
The selection of. screw-propelled. fillips to lay
your cable down would certainly appear not to be
the best, as the laeiness and known uncertainty
with which screw vet saels draw astern, or make a
sternboard, presents on obvious though not per
haps insuperable objection to their employment,
for such purposes ; wli Ist paddles can be backed to
regulate or obviate a train at any instant with,
certainty and precision. . After the cables are joined
there cannot be a doubt tt at every possible care will
be taken to have plenty 'f slack ranged, and all
other means adopted to pay. out and give cable as
required ; that the officers -.will also, only very gra-
dually, get way on the Niag era and Agimernnon ;
but with all such precaution's, it must be remem-
bered, that to the adverse me imenturn of two mov-
ing bodies of, say 4,000 tons eA ch, calms on the
slightest check would present pea sensible resistance,
but be as inevitably carried awa v as a cob web ex-
tended between two cart-horses di awingin different
directions. The Agamemnon and Niagara will un-
doub'edly do, to lay out the cab're, when all addi-
tional requisites are furnished ; i
hiltn future cases
paddle steamers should be preferred, for the rea-
sons defined.
The principle likewise appears inexpl;.cable uon which p.
it has been decided to rend the cables to sea, join, and
then run thear out from a central ii(*et—as seamen