The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1857-05-07

tons of the next day as much OF the proceedings
of the British Legislature as may be interesting
to the American public. Parliament usually ad-
iourns at two O'Clock in the morning, but as the
difference in time is about FIVE hours, the people
in New York will receive the doings OF the sages
of Westminster at about ten or eleven o'clock IN
the evening, New York time-that being several
hours before adjournment, and quite as early as
they generally receive the proceedlngso OF Congress
All the money and commercial news of Paris and
London will be published the samea as II they were
American cities.
What will a message cost? is a very important
question. The British government, guaranteeing
the company their patronage to the amount OF
seventy thousand dollars per anhum, has liked the
highest rate at four shillings Cor one dollar) per
,0ord. This will be divided between the stations
as follows From London to Cork, sixpenee ster-
ling; across the ocean, two shillings and sixpence;
from Newfoundland to New York, one shilling
four shillings in all. The difference in these rates
and those Of American inland lines may be readily
perceived. when we state that a newspaper col
umn telegraphed from Washington to New York,
costs about S75-and the same amount tele-
graphed from London at the proposed rates, would
cost two thousand dollars.
The thousand little messages, practical or
romantic, bullying or begging, pathetic or
amusing, savage or afectionate, announcing ar
rival or departure, illness or health, wealth or
poverty, which are constantly flying from one end
of America to the other, making the batteries
leap in unison with the pulsations Of thousands
of hearts, will be sent at the same rate. A des-
patch which costs forty cents from Boston TO New
York will cost ten dollars from London to New
York. The newspapers will Of course combine
together to meet the enormous increased expenses.
In London, tidings from St. Petersburgh in one
direction, and Bombay in another, will be hourly
coming in; and from Wall street to Calcutta the
records of the stocks and prices one day will be
read in the London papers OF the next, and a
flood Of news from ali the great cities Of Europe.
Steamships will not be looked for as they now are,
but as slow coaches they will be valuable only as
bringing in files of old newspapers, and just as
the spider setting in his web, touches a few threads,
and by and by sucks all the juice out Of a fly, and
leaves only the wings, legs and bones to be picked
at leisure, SO will the telegraph operators sit spi-
der-like in their web Of wires, and suck and di-
gest all the news each day from the worlds news,
for the nutriment of commerce..
Such are a few of the facts in relation to this,
the greatest undertaking of the century. We
have but little doubt as to the result. In six
months less than from the present writing, New
Workers can send messages to their friends in
London and receive answers from them on the
same dav. When the battle of Waterloo was
fought, it took from Sunday till Tuesday evening
for the news to reach London. Rothschild got
the tidings six hours before the government, and
made millions by buying stock, after which he
sent his information to the Kings minister. No
more such delays in future. There will soon not
be a battle fought on the broad earth, but the re-
suits of it will be known in New York and Lon
don in a few hours.
It is not improbable that during the next twelve
months the electric telegraph will be continued
West to San Francisco. The United States Con-
gress, among it's last acts in March, voted $780,
900 for constructing a military road from the
Mississippi to San Francisco, and for carrying the
mails over it. And no one, who knows the adj
vantages of the telegraph will doubt that it will
be constructed and used as soon as the road is
ready for use. New Orleans, New York, London,
Paris, St. Petersburgh, and perhaps even Calcutta
will then be brought within q minutes space of
San Francisco. But commercial enterprise will
not stop there. The same spirit of restless enter
prise which has crossed the Atlantic will yet cross
the Pacific and bind the mighty Empire Of China to
America. 1t needs not the vision of a seer
to foretell that, if the Atlantic telegraph is sue
.cessfully laid, the cay is near at hand when this
ocean will have its Geographic cables crossing its
bed, and hating at the island groups which are
scattered over it, and we Of Honolulu may live to
witness the day Of its completion.
What will be the effect Of this great telegraphic
revolution on the trade, m and evangelical
ton of the world is an interesting question, on
which the curious can speculate. One great fact
will be established, that every portion of the
globe to which the telegraph is carried will know
almost simultaneously whatis transporting in every
other, and the worlds pulse will throb and beat
with JOY or sorrow as though it were but one vast
congregation; and the next generation will call
themselves wiser, and wonder how their fore
fathers CROPPED along the worlds highways with
out the knowledge and science which they enjoy