The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1869-07-16
Landing and Landing Places Of the
French Ocean Gable. l.

French Ocean Gable. &
Our readers will observe that the dis
patch elsewhere announcing the splic'
ing of the French Ocean Gable with the
shore end is dated "St. Pierre, Mique-
lon." About twenty. five miles south
of New Foundland are three small is
lands belonging to France, named res
pectively Miquelon, Langley Cor little
Miquelon) and st. Pierre-thes three
constituting a French colony under the
name OF Miquelon [propounced nearly
as II spelled "Mee>keh-I long" with the
accent on the last-syllable.) A tels-
graph station is established on the
smallest of these islands; st. Pierre,
pronounced. nearly as If spelled Sang
pe-air, accentlng. the last;) and another
cable Is to be laid thence to Dnxbnry,
Mass, some five degrees south, and
fourteen degrees west OF st. Pierre.
Thcss three French islands have an
area OF eighty-five square, miles and 10
population Of over two thousand. They
are rocky and produce but scRnt veg
citation, the Inhabitants supporting
themselves mainly by fishing. Dux-
bury, which is to be the american
terminus OF the line is situated on
Plymouth-Harbor, an inlet of Massa-
chus.tts Bay3 thirty miles asouth OF
Boston. It contains. a population Of
twentY!fiy hundred, who are chiefly
engaged in ship~buildIng,- commerce.
and fishing. 81 B.Aa Q Sae1I
Whether the Telegraph l. Company
will proceed at once to lay the connect
ing cable from-St. Pierre TO Duxbury
has not yet been, indicated Some
difficulty exists. In the lack OF q
charter from Congress; and g letters
on the subject have passed be-
tween Secretary Fish and the French
and British Ministers at Washington.
The Secretary and Attorney General
Hoar are understood to concur in opin-
ion that while the cable may Of course
be landed on the coast of the United
States, 1t cannot be operated without
authority of Congress. The matter of
granting this authority was before Con.
gress when 1t adjourned; but owing
doubtless to the pressure of multifRri-
Gus matters deemed of more impor.
lance: no action was taken. A fool
ish report was started recently that
the landing of the cable in Massa-
chusetts would be prevented by a
revenue cutter, but a telegram from
Washington denies 1t, and 5indi-
Gates that the Government will
take no action, but await the as
sembling of Congress. It ia pre-
sumed there will be no objection on the
part Of Congress to grant the necessary
authority, unless 1t should prove to be
a fact, as now rumored, that the French
company has been swallowed by the
company owning the English line.
There might then be some objection to
granting any favor to that company
as being a monopoly. We have no
idea, however, that the French Govern
ment will permitan English company
to own or control this line. Whether
the company will take the risk of ope-
rating 1t, or even landing it,, in advance
OF Congressional authority, remains to
be seen. Considering that the compe.
tition of this line with the English cable
Is greatly needed and cannot fail to
benefit the American public, we should
regret tosee any technical difficulty al
lowed to interfere with either the COM
pletion of the French line to our shore
or with it's use afterwards.