The Sun.
London, England, 1857-08-27 00:00:00

THE INDIAN TELEGR IPII.

What is the subject upon which at this moment
the greatest interest is felt by the population of
these islands ? What wish with reference to public
affairs has been most universally expressed during
the last two months? These questions can be an-
ewered without a minute's hesitation. If there is
one ardent and absorbing desire pervading the
whole nat. on just now it is the desire to know what
is passing in India—to know it from day to day,
without uncertainty in the intelligence or suspense
in the communication—to feel that we are omitting
no exertions through ignorance and losing no op-
portunities through delay. Nor does the occasion,
momentous as it is, appeal to public spirit only.
Private affections are extensively involved in the
matt r, and the fate of our countrymen, for whose
safety prayers are put up in our churches, furnishes
a subject of unceasing anxiety to thousands of
households throughout the kingdom.
If by these observations we have quickened the
emotions of our readers we have something in
reserve for their satisfaction. To be as brief as pos-
sible on such a point, we simply state that there are
persons now prepared at a very small expense, in a
very short time, and by methods which seem pal-
pably practicable, to bring India into such con-
nection with England that whatever is known one
day in Calcutfa may be known that day week in
L mdon. Of course, the agency is that of the Tele-
graph ; there is nothing knew in the principle,
.but
there is something very striking in the coincidence
by which the facilities iu question have been created.
At the south-eastern corner of the Mediterranean
basin lies the port of Alexandria. From Suez, at
the opposite side of the narrow isthmus .which con-
nects Africa with Asia, to Aden, our own settle-
ment, at the outlet of the Red Sea, the d s'anca
is less than 1,500 miles ; frOm Aden to Kur-
rachee—the most convenient port •of India—
the mileage is about the same ; so that the
space to be traversed between Alexandria, a point
almost at our door, and ICurrachee, a town stand-
ing on the Indus itself, assumes no very consid-r-
-able proportions, and is besides divided admirably
for the purposes in view. But thousands of miles
of cable are not to be had at a moment's notice.
As it happens, they are. The Atlantic Telegraph
Company, in the exercise of their discretion, have
decided on not immediately renewing the attempt
to connect England with the United St :tea, and
their cable is.disposable for a similar enterprise in
another direction. We said the cost would be
small. The fact will be admitted when we state
that 300,0001.—little more than the amount of
which a single railway company was robbed by a
single servant—will link Alexandria with Aden.
The c ,nnexion of Adeu with Kurrachee will be
more costly by 100,000/. • but 700,0001. would
complete- the business ; and so plain are the pros-
pects, and so confident the projectors, that London,
it is distinctly averred, could be brought within a
week's distance of Calcutta almost as soon as the
troops now leaving these shores will arrive before
Delhi. To speak more precisely to the point, we
are assured that this most desirable communication
can be actually established before the end of the
present year.
What hinders, then ? Not money, when 400
times the amount has been spent upon British
railways only. Not money, when a million could
be raised for alum t any scheme imaginable. Season
the morsel properly to commercial palst s, aiid men
are found rolling in riches up to their chins. But,
though your true British merchant will give, spend,
or even squander without scruple as appeals arise
to his sympathies or his tastes, he will not make
an unpromising investment or haz ird a single
shilling against the maxims of trade. Business
is business. Ask him for a gift If a thousand
pounds, and you may get it ; but recommend him
to stake 101. in a bad speCulation, and lie flatly
refuses. Now, the Indian Telegraph as a mere
commercial project has not a sufficiency of attrac-
tion. India itself is unsettled, and the greater the
necessity for the communication the less would be
the inclination to the investment ; besides which,
our greatest telegraphic enterprise has just this
moment been suspended. So on 'Change it might
reasonably enough be questioned whether the
Indian telegraph in itself promised that amount and
certainty of remuneration which would command
the capital required, —in other word, .notwith-
standing the extraordinary popular ity and- eminent
utility of the design, it might not as a commercial
undertaking find the necessary support. Announce
it as an impending fact, and no words can be strong
enough to paint the universal satisfaction ; intro-
duce it as a business speculation, and the question
is, what will it pay per cent. ?
The old method of meeting theSe exceptional cases
is, of course, a guarantee,—a proceeding by which
certain governing authorities supply. through their
own sureties that certainty which the enterprise
itself does not seem to carry. Is it we. th while to

give this guarantee under present eircunistinces
Let the reader recall a few facts to his mind, and
consider. The outbreak which disclosed the true
character of the Indian mutinies occurred on the
10th of May, and the gravity and extent of the
emergency were developed by the two successive
mails. Not till the end of July did we fully learn
that the apparent insubordination of half-a-dozen
regiments meant the desperate mutiny of an entire
army, and that in the struggle before was really
represented, not the correcam of a refract.:ry bat-
talion or two, but the grapple of an enormous,
though disorganised, host with the few but cou-
rageous supporters of Government and order.
Now, if an Indian telegraph had been in operation
we should have been saved all, or nearly all, our
successive stages of misconception, and should have
done at first what we did at last. We began
with despatching four or five regiments to India,
whereas the demand has already absorbed between
20 and 30. To compress the whole case into half-a-
dozen words, these mutinies have been estimated as
threatening a cost of some 20,000,000/. ; and could
any investment he more promising than the appli-
cation of less than a twentieth part of this sum
to the establishment of such a communication as
might most materially modify the expenditure of
the whole ? As we, have made up our minds to
vindicate our posit:on in India by the absolute re-
assertion of our supremacy, the whole question is
plainly a question of time ; and time saved is money
saved, here as everywhere. The restoration of order
in a single province of Bengal through the agency
of this telegraph a month sooner than would other-
wise have been the case would go far towards a re-
imbursement of the whole outlay ; indeed, the
money might possibly have been saved at once in
a single lump if these • means of despatch had
enabled us to protect the Indian treasuries from
plunder. Even then we have hardly stated the
matter with sufficient force, for after the arrival of
reinforcements has secured the communications bF-
tween Delhi and Calcutta, •and after Alexaudri.
haS been connected, as it might ieldily be, with
Constantinople or Malta, there is no reason why 24
hours should not suffice to put us in possession of
every event on the banks of the Ganges. If we ask
our readers to contrast such a position with the in-
cidents of delay and suspense now experienced we