The Sun.
London, England, 1857-08-29 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES,

Sir,—Your leader of yesterday upon the subject
of connecting England and India by means of the
Electric Telegraph contains the following para-
graph
"Even then we had hardly stated the matter with
sufficlent force, for after the arrival of reinforcements
has secured the communications between Delhi and
Crticutta, end after Alexandria has been connected, as
it might readily be, with Constantinople or Malta, there
is no reason why 24 hours should not suffice to put us
in pn session of every event on the banks of the Gauges."
Upon this I beg to offer a few remarks, which,
however, I should not presume to do had I not
some pretensions to experience ;in the matter. I
will suggest that I am one of the oldest in the pro-
fession of telegraphs, and that I had charge of lines
in this country before the formation of any Tele-
graph Company whatever. I have made the sub-
ject of telegraphs my study and occupation here
and in the United States of America, with little
exception, ever since.
The extract above quoted supposes the f-!ct of
the completion of the telegraph through to India ;
in which case, undoubtedly, there could be no
reason why 24 hours -should not more than suffice
to put us in possession of every event on the banks
of the Ganges ; but if we are to judge from the de-
lays which have already taken place on the much
s'iorter distance, it is possible it would take still-
more time, while, in feet, an hour ought never to
be exceeded, the telegraph wire, of course, remain-
ing intact and serviceable.

I have been present in the telegraph-office,
Broadway, New York, when the European- ina.4
iutelligence hat been transmitted to New Orleans,
and a reply received in one hour and a half, and
this in the ordinary course of business with three
breaks or repeats occurring iu the distance.
Yet more even has been done in the United
St ttes by means of an instrument termed there a
" connectter"—about 1,500 miles of wire having
been telegraphed thnugh, and reply received in a
few seconds. Now this distance, 3,000 miles, is
about equal to two-thirds of the distance to India.
I myself used such a means of communication some
years ago on the Darlington line of telegraph to
ring a bell at Newcastle from York which could not
be effectd by any other means.
In this was a tete-a-tete shoUld be held between
any two points however distant, allowing, of
course, for the restrictions put on messages passing
through foreign Slates.

The apparatus fur accomplishing:this, whether it
be the " connectet" I have spoken of as used in
America, or en invention of mine some time ago
patented and called a "repeater," is no secret, and
may in any form be used by the public. I ask,
then, why in our present position as regards India,
in the event of the telegraph being coAtinued
through, should it be thought, or even for a moment
tolerated, that 21 hours should elapse before know-
ing what transpires on the banks of the Ganges.
On the subject of the proposed route to India,
with the 2,000 miles of Atlantic cable laid as pro-
posed from Alexandria to Aden, there will still b 3
required somewhere about 3,000 miles of submarine
wire to complete the whole distance: If, instead
of this, the Atlantic cable were laid from Bombay
up the Persian Gulf and Euphrates River to Bus-
, wata, and connected by overland wires along the
, " Greet Desert" ra'l to 'Aleppo, thence on toCon-
stantinople, the communication would then be coin-
, pieta without additional submarine wire.
In favour of this route I could give many practi-
cal reasons, but to meet the objections of the faint-
hearted, and also of submarine wire manufacture's,
let me Ol3erve that the Americans will soon carry
a line of telegraph over the Rocky Mountains and
Western Desert, and through hordes of hostile In-
dians—a much more formidable work than that I
propose, on a well travelled road from Bussora to
Constantinople.
This Persian Gulf route saves the use Of 2,500
miles of submarine wire. I don't mean the cost of

it—that is'not now to be thought of ; I mean the
riAs of imperfect manufacture, laying, and of in-
sulation, and other matters which at present seem
to be entirely overlooked in the manufacture and
laying long and deep lengths of submarine wire.

-`Vtiere ii
now the from Varna to Bala-
kla,va ? How long did it last effective?
The climate ou the route I propose for the over-
land wires is such that 1,000 miles can be better in-
sulated than a like length of sea wire even if suc-
cessfully laid.
111,,, distance prUpti:2o4 is less, the cost much less,
and the time required to-erect it far less than would
he allowed for the construction of a submarine wire.

If these remarks are in place—and I believe at.
this time it behoves every one who can to add a
mite to the general progress—l.trust you may give
them insertion.-1 am, sir, your obedient servant,
J. WALKER WILKINS.
6, Horshoe-court, Ludgate-hill.

TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION WITH

INDIA.

FROM A KNOWN CORRESPONDENT.

The non interference principle has been adopted
by Lot d Palmerston in cases where English capital
seeks -employment in foreign countries, the only
exception made being for electric telegraphs con-
necting the m,)ther country with her distant
colonies. These are considered, and we believe

justly, as a parallel case to 'subsidising companies
to whom is entrusted the postal service, and this
principal can be safely and judiciously applied to
telegraphs whose course is along the bot`oun of the
sea,—the common property and highway of all
nations—only appearing above ground here and
there to renovate the electric power which distance
had weakened in its submarine course. Such a
telegraph requires no maintainance ; man entrusts
his work to the deep ocean and Neptune has hither-
to faithfully guarded his trust in every case where
it has been unconditionally placed in his care.
The temporary failure of the Atlantic telegraph
tewls to prove this proposition rather than to refute
it, because the cure of failure was in the inexpe-
rienced, and perhaps, under the c'rcumstances,
unavoidable accident to the means of laying, not
the inefficiency of the cable when laid. If one mile
of subma ine can be successfully laid iu 2,000
fathoms, there is no reason why 2,500 miles should
not be laid ; it is simply a question of proper ma-
chinery and careful watching, wind and weather
permitting. It has been proved, and so far the pro-
ject of the Atlantic telegraph is full of hope, that
an electric shock will pass through the necessary
h-ngth of cable, and thus the conditions of insulation
and electric power are proved to be at man's com-
mand. Risk of laying and difficulty of working
increase, however, very rapidly when the distance
exceeds 500 mitts.

These craisidErations are of great importance in
calculating upon the possibility and probaLilty of
seeing our most distant possessions brought into
immediate contact with ourselves, and in com-
paring the relative value of overland and submarine
te!egraphs. . _ _ _ _

Last year we beard with glee that our Indian
empire had a network of 4,000 miles of overground
telegraph, placing all the principal mi'itary posts
and commercial cities within a few seconds of each
other. The daily peaceful history of Indian rou-
tine was written as though distance was no more.
Looking, however, at the length of time which
must always elapse before we can have per-
sonal access to or from India, and that the
country has hitherto been governed by opinion
rather than by actual power, it becomes
of paramount importance that opinion should have
a fair field to found its judgment upon during any
crisis when its influence must rule the storm and
decide upon the means of ruling. Ignorance of
what is doing is the surest manner of misguiding
judgment and losing moral influence—voluminous
reports and folios of statistics are the result of
ac ion and the lesson for future guidanoe7they
are facts for history, as distinguished froth ,means
of nuticina with certainty tile occurrences of the
day. We ° can wait with anxiety, but still with
suppressed
patience, the record of a mutiny ,
but
we strain every means which science and energy
places at our d•sposal to know what doing,ppwuhnaatislied. Aie
wcheetlst_
the crisis is on and the remedy
rated communication by means of steam can satisfy
the first condition ; the telegraph can alone fulfil.
him.
A on fm telegraph
ewo
ist
projectshte
l ou
the second. We subsidise steamers to carry reports
and statistics, why not subsidise a telegraph to
convey orders which may save or lose an empir€?
theottt assistance,
competing India
andia Our Premier has so decided, and we heartily agree
with
lbleymsialtadlei
ques-
tion
be foer tthhee
o on ier ehy dotLwen
throughi s
: whichaerntehdese va a.l e y of hEuphrates,tsed—r
, o
Both lines commence at Alexandria, and termi
nate at Kurrachee. Arrangements have been
made to bring the
andria, and Kurrachee is already on the network
of Indian telegraphs. The Euphrates project is sub
marine from Alexandria to Seleucia in Asia Minor ;
overland from thence- to KOorna, on the Persian
gulf vnd submarine again to Kurrachee.
The Red Sea telegraph to India is the whole