The Sun.
London, England, 1850-09-27 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,—I have read in The Sun of this day, an ac-
count of the loss of the Superb steamer and of eleven

yes.

The latter calamity is attributed to the same cause
as in several recent instances—namely, to the boats
being lowered down without having the plugs in.
Before suggesting a simple and sure remedy for
such a common and yet dangerous oversight, I may
explain to your non-nautical readers that " plug-
holes" are apertures made in the bottoms of boats to
allow the escape of any water when the boats are
hoisted up, and that the "plug" is taken out for that
purpose and replaced when the boat is lowered down,
though, as we have just seen, in moments of danger
the " plug" is sometimes forgotten. My own expe-
rience furnishes many instances of boats so lowered,
though in men-of. wars' boats, even should tie plug
be lost, we soon find resources not in the power of a
crowd of frightened passengers.
My suggestion, then, is that all passenger vessels
should have their boats fitted with valve plugs to
open outwards an d not inwards, a contrivance (as
every common pump• maker knows) both simple and
inexpensive, and analogous to the valves now used in
steamers.
The cost certainly would not exceed ten shillings,
and, as many lives would be saved, surely the law
might require such outlay from all owners of vessels
carrying passengers.
Being much engaged in other matters (trying to
save another ship), I must beg you to excuse haste,
and, I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,
E. PLUNKETT.

Travellers' Club, Sept. 26.
[A simple remedy might be adopted to obviate
thi, too often fatal neglect. Let a small chain be
attached to the plug and fastened to the bottom of the
boat. The plug would thus be readily found in any
emergency, whether by day or by night.—En. Sun]

THE IRISH EXILES.
JOHN MITCH EL. The last account of poor
Mitchel is supplied in an Australian paper, which
announces the arrival of the Neptune convict ship at
Hobart Town, and states that John Mitchel had re-
ceived his ticket of leave, and on account of his deli-
cate state of health will be allowed to reside at Both-
well, where he can enjoy the society of John Martin.
TEREN CE 13ELLEW .I.‘ll.lANus.—This gentleman
obtained permission from the Government to reside
in Launceston.—Freeman's Journal.

ENCROACHMENTS ON ST. JAMES'S AND THE GREEN
PARRS.—MEETING OF THE VESTRY OF ST. JAMES'S.
Yesterday a numerously-attended meeting of the vestry of
St. James's took place at the yestry-house, St. James's
Churchyard, Piccadilly, for the purpose of considering,
amongst other matters, the encroachments by the Commis-
sioners of Woods and Forests on St. James's and the Green
Parks, fer the improvement of Buckingham Palace, the re-
moval of the marble arch, &c. William Geeson, Esq., the
churchwarden, occupied the chair. Mr. Nelson having
strongly condemned the proceedings of the Commissioners
of Woods and Forests in reference to the so-called park im-
provements, and having charged those functionaries with a
breach of faith to Parliament, said that he would in the
first place move as a resolution "That the vestry of St.
James'asbject to the encroachments in St. James's-park as
contrary to the understanding with the House of Commons
when the grant was made ;" and then he would give notice
that he would move "That a petition be presented to Par-
liament to require the Commissioners of Woods and Forests
to deposit plans and give notices of any proposed alterations
in the property belonging to the Crown and the public, as
required by individuals or public companies under the stand-
ing orders of Parliament." Mr. Watkins seconded the reso-
lution. After some observations from other speakers, all of
whom, with one exception, stated their approval of Mr.
Nelson's views, that gentleman, for the sake of regularity,
withdrew his moti n, and gave notice of the more practical
one, calling on Parliament to insist on the Commissioners of
Woods and Forests giving notice, and putting in their plans
of any alterations in accordance with the standing rules of
Parliament. This course having been assented to by the
meting, it shortly after separated.
THE ERECTION OF MODERN WAREHOUSES.—If
our country readers desire to know bow we get up buildings
in London, we would recommend them to a sight which at-
tracted our notice in passing down Wood-street the other
evening, where we found a crowd of persons watching the
progress of a gang of labourers working by gas light, to
complete an additional large building for the Messrs. Dent,
Allcroft, end Co., the wholesale glovers. The effect of the
men busily occupied amidst so novel an illumination upon a
skeleton scaffold, which thus appeared more than usually
fragile and mysterious, was certainly curious, and froM the
rapid and buccesM'u 1 termination of their duties, may lead to
the adoption of this plan of " double ganging" to many
buildings like unto this, where the most extensive trade
operations are carried on, and where the cessation of business
but tor an hour would be attended with serious inconvenience
to a widely spread connexion.
SPIDERS A CURE rou AGUE.—Seeing a note on
this subject reminds me that a few years since a lady in the
south of Ireland was celebrated far and near amongst her
poorer, neighbours for the cure of this disorder. Her
universal remedy was a large house-spider, alive, and en-
veloped in treacle or preserve. Of course the parties were
carefully kept in ignorance of what the wonderful remedy
was. Whilst I am on the subject of cures, I may as well
state that in parts of the county Carlow the blood drawn
from a black cat's ear, and rubbed upon the part affected, is
esteemed a certain cure for St. Anthony's fire. —Notes and
Queries.
An interesting discovery has just been made near
Fontenay, between Soissons and Compiegne. A great num-
ber of Roman antiquities having been found in digging, the
workmen were instructed to continue, and soon came to the
foundations of Romau buildings covering a surfac of mare
than 34,000 metres, and 4iyichici into moo than 200 r991)10

THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

As a mere mercantile adventure the electric tele-
graph has in England proved comparatively a failure.
Its practical results have disappointed expectation,
and thus the most wonderful discovery of modern
times is to us almost without utility, and serve s, in-
deed, for the most } art simply to excite wonder at
the marvellous feats achieved by modern science. It
is talked oi; wondered at, and neglected. In a coun-
try teeming with population, and that population
bound together by the most intimate social and com-
mercial ties, the means of rapid, easy, and cheap corn,
municstion would seem to rank among the chief ne-
cessities of life. When, therefore, we behold offered
to such a community a mode of corresponding that in
dispatch surpasses the wildest flights and imagina-
tions of fable—which, whtle thus miraculously
expeditious, is also easy and safe—and find,
nevertheless, that this great seeming advan-
tage is generally neglected, we are driven
to inquire into the causes of so extraordinary a re-
sult. Turning our attention to other countries, in-
habited by nations in a similar state of civilization,
with the same habits, subject to the same wants, and
employing in all things similar appliances and means
to the furtherance of their ends, public and private,
we behold a result in this one particular wholly
different from that which our own country presents.
If we look to our brethren on the other side of the
Atlantic, and bear in mind the circumstances peculiar
to them—those, in fact, in which their condition is
different from our own,—we shall be inclined yet
more to marvel at the dissimilarity in the conse-
quences of the discovery to two people so situated. In
the United States of America the electric telegraph
is now a common necessity, and cf general use.
It is spreading over every part of the vast territory
belonging to the Republic, and as a mercan-
tile speculation it is said to have proved eminently
successful. Now, if we consider the scattered
state of the population, the small proportion it
bears to the extensive country they inhabit, and
the nature of that country, we cannot fail to
admire and applaud the sagacity and energy evinced
by the Americans in their immediate adoption, and
successful and general application, of this most won-
derful and, in their bands, most useful invention.
And if we compare their employment of it with our
own, we must acknowledge that we have reason to be
astonished, grieved, and ashamed. We may select
one instance as an illustration of the success which
has attended the discovery in the United States ; and
we make this choice because of the great difficulties
which have been encountered and overcome. The
Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois Telegraph Company, we
are told, has already one thousand miles of line in
working order, and this through a country covered,
not with human dwellings, but dense and almost
impervious forests—thus exhibiting another and a
striking instance of the mode in which the
.latest
discoveries of modern science are made sub-
servient to the wants of communities at the
very commencement of their existence. Half
a century since wild beasts, and still wilder
Indians, wandered over the lands now traversed in
perfect security by these frail wires, the mysterious
agents by which human thoughts and desires are
made to travel in fact as rapidly as they are con-
ceived. This transition from a wild and barbarous
condition to that of the most elaborate civilization
has not been gradual but instantaneous. Civiliza-
tion has not here at first dimly dawned, then slowly
advanced, gradually working its way against opposing
difficulties to its ultimate perfection, but has at one
bound leaped into life, surrounded with every appli-
ance and means which the existing knowledge of man
has devised for ministering to his wants and his en-
joyment. The railroad and the electric telegraph,
the steam-engine with all its multiplied variety of
uses—in mills, in boats, on rivers and canals, and in
ships on lakes that in fact are inland seas—
every sort of machinery, every chemical discovery,
all practical discoveries, in short, have been imme-
diately adopted, improved upon, and to the very
utmost employed in these new States, all of which
have been founded within the memory of living
men ; and in nothing has this immediate applica-
tion of noble arts been more manifest than in the
use of the electric telegraph. Let any one place
before himself the map of the United States, and
trace the distance that intervenes, for example, be-
tween the cities of New York and Cincinnati; and
then let him regard the character of the country all
along that extended line—the boundless forests, the
wide, deep, and numerous rivers ; the lofty moun-
tains that must be traversed by the wires which con-
nect the two cities we have named. Again, from
New Orleans to New Yerk the route is just as diffi-
cult ; yet here again we see that the obstacles have
not prevented communication, and to our astonish-
ment we discover that there is a more rapid and con-
tinued correspondence between people residing in
Louisiana, New York, and Massachusetts, than be-
tween London and Bristol. Is there not here cause
for wonder and regret ? When we remember that the

discovery thus employed was made in England—that
the people of England have quite as great a need of
rapid intelligence as those have who dwell in America
—that we have greater wealth and equal intelli-
gence and energy—we are driven to ask, Why
have we not made the same use of this great in-
vention ? We may be told that the enormous
distances at which people live from each other in
the United States is the one great reason for their
general adoption of the means of communication
afforded by the telegraph. Undoubtedly, the difficulty
of travelling and of personal communication does
enhance the value of the discovery, but the distance
must greatly increase the cost, and the thinness of
the population must tend to diminish the return to
the outlay of capital. In such circumstances we
should therefore expect that the charges upon com-
munication would be proportionally great, and that in
England, where the distances are much less, and the
population much more dense, the number of commu-
nications would be very much larger in proportion to
the sum expended or the miles of line laid down, end
the sums charged upon communication much less,
than those of America. Yet the very reverse of this
takes place. The charges are very small in the
United States, and as a consequence the communica-
tions are very numerous, and thus the frequency of
the use pays for the greater expense of the lines ; and
herein we suspect lies the cause of our neglect
of this instrument of communication. The post
travels rapidly, is cheap, and the commu-
nication, therefore, between persons living at
no very great distance apart is sufficiently easy
and expeditious to make us unwilling to incur a very
heavy cost even for a more rapid means of corre-
spondence. If, however, this more rapid means
were also very cheap, the use would become a habit,
and the frequency of the employment of the tele-
graph would quickly repay its outlay. In fact, the
principle of small and frequent returns would hold
good in this instance as 41 so many others, and our
telegraph adventurers have hitherto partially failed
because they have made their communication far too
costly. There is, however, another point of view in
which this wonderful invention may be regarded,
and in which it will be seen to be capable of being
made subservient to still greater social improvements
than any which have yet been achieved. The con-
stantly increasing commerce with America, and our
growing relations, social as well as commercial,
with her people, render a rapid communication with
the American continent of increasing importance.
This necessity of trade and society may be made
the means of a great improvement in one part of
our country, which certainly much needs enlighten-
ment and assistance—we mean Ireland ; and her
geographical position nsay be turned to use not
simply to increase the rapidity of our correspondence
with America, but to her own good. From the
west coast of Ireland to America a voyage by steam
might be performed in so short a time as to ba mea-
sured rather by hours than days. If packets were
to sail regularly between the nearest harbour on the
western coast and Halifax or New York, and there
were direct telegraphic communication between that
Irish harbour and London, news might be trans-
mitted from the borders of the Mississippi, and ulti-
mately from the western coast of America, to every
part of Great Britain and Ireland in less than a week.
If, in addition to this telegraphic communication, a
railroad were carried across Ireland from east to west,
all who prefer travelling by land would take their
final departure from the Irish port, rather than in-
cur the inconvenience and annoyance of the longer
sea voyage which is necessary if the voyager start
either from an English or a Scotch port. The
fastest liners would in that case not be those which
sail between Liverpool and America, but Irish
vessels would enjoy that distinction and advantage,
and the moral benefit to Ireland resulting from such
constant contact with men of other countries would
be incalculable. In such a state of things we should
little dread the influence of the Synod of Thurles, or
look with anxiety upon the astronomical teaching of
Dr. Cullen. The electric telegraph and the railroad
would soon put to flight the whole conclave of Car-
dinals, with the Pope at their head, even if attended
with sill solemnity by the whole Catholic hier-
archy of Ireland. This plan of thus communicating
with America has long occupied the thoughts of
statesmen and merchants, and now, we are told, en-
gages the attention of our Government ; and cer-
tainly the Executive authorities in Ireland could not
better employ their power than in ascertaining what
are the difficulties in the way of achieving this great
national work. A tenth-part of the sums that have
been squandered upon making and unmaking useless
roads, and in perfecting costly and unnecessary sur-
veys, would have enabled us long since to ascertain
the proper route for this great national railroad and
telegraphic line, and we might now be prepared to
begin the making of a road instead of surveying it.
Still, entertaining the idea is a great step in advance.
Tiates

The London penny savings bank has 7,859 de-
positors, with 49,516 deposits; arid the anmint re-Ceiyed elute
eta 0001 eat lam Dm 2,0174