SUBMARINE TELEGRAPHS

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 102, 12 October 1858, Page 3

SUBMARINE TELEGRAPHS

(From the Leeds Jifercury.) A pew , years, ago, when the first wires of the electric telegraph where laid down by the side of some English and American railways, it Was probably as little anticipated that this agency \yould soon bind together England and America, or England and India, as on the first discovery of ; the steam engine it was anticipated that the ponderous masses of iron which now fly hissing and screaming across the country at the rate of fifty orsixty miles an hour, would supersede the heavy tubs which then dragged their course fro.m London to Edinburgh in the course of somewhat upwards of a week. Yet the change has come. Instead of a lightspringed coach toiling up hills at the back of four steaming horses, a long unwieldy string of carriages whirls along the top of huge embankments, or in the hollows of deep cuttings, along fearful viaducts, or through hideous tunnels, and after putting every bone in danger of being shattered to pieces, lands its living cargo less shaken than by a ride in a London omnibus.at the other side of the island. So also with the electric telegraph. Not content with bringing London and Aberdeen into momentary intercourse (the utmost that anybody at first anticipated), it has already spread its net-work of communication beneath the smajler seas that separate us from Ireland and the Continent; so that in the stormiest weather, without the slightest risk of sea-sicknessi we may learn the events that have happened five minutes ago in Connaught or Vienna. Nor is this all j the Black Sea, for once in. its dreary existence, wa3 made •sensible of modern civilisation, and had its ancient reputation of hospitality put to the test Iby being required to accommodate 250 miles of telegraphic wire during the period of the Crimean war. But though the telegraph may be au infant Hercules, it still is an infant. Indeed, compared with its 4 future destiny, it is quite a little child, tied to its mother's apron strings. Like ancient navigators, it has only learned to creep along the shores, or to steal stealthily over narrow seas. It dreads the ocean, with its yawning deeps, and rocky ridges and shifting currents, just- as the predecessors of Columbus or Vasco da Gama shuddered with superstitious dread At the thought of its trackless wastes, its fearful tempests, and the ages of terror and mystery in which it was enshrouded. And truly these are no slight obstacles to overcome. The bed of the ocean is filled with mountain ridges as steep and vast, valleys as deep and rocky, precipices as frowning, and chasms as awful, as those which appal and delight us in our land scenery. It is not along a smooth vast plain that the lines of the electric telegraph will have to lie; its course will be over mountain heights and down horrid cliffs, which if ever raised up to become portions of the earth's surface, will tax the nerves and

energies of guides as bold as those of Chamouni. --Towards the American shore indeed, the bed of the~ocean, shelves* gently and evenly away, but from aboil I mid ocean to within a few degrees | west uf Ireland, a wild and rugged tract inter-, venes, whose depth varies from about twothirds of a mile to almosfT^hree miles and a half below the level of the ocean.jfet.all this modern science has learnt to overcome,"and probably within a few weeks of the time we write, the vast <:Qils of wire now cumbering the decks of the Niagara and the Agamemnon will connect the shores of Europe and America.

Nor is it only to the west that this annihilation of time .is dcs tined to travel, From Hull, which is chosen as the pole of the new Magnetic world, the wires .will soon, spread t& Hamburg and the whole German and Russian systems of telegraph. Advices may fee passed from the house of Messrs. Sharp and Go-ahead, in New: York, to the firm of Petchkotch-ski Bruder, in Dantzic, in less time than it takes to find a a policeman when annoyed by an organ-boy. And still the -wo-rlcis not completed. Literally the electris telegraph destroys the effect of distance in the transmission of news. It takes away the element of time in the calculations of mercantile men. A London firm can hear of the failure of a' Dublin firm quite as soon as a house in Lombard-street can hear of the failure of a house in Oheapside. Distance, so far as the transmission of news is concerned, ceases to have any effect—it is an inappreciable force, an accident, _an immaterial circumstance. jNow, there is- no reason why the immense .advantage which this confer, both in political and in mercantile questions, should be limited to any particular sphere, or to any particular quantity of communication. The success which will probably follow the new attempt to lay down the ■electric telegraph to America will have the effect of dispelling all talk of difficulty and impossibility for the future. If then such lines should be proved to be possible, there is mo reason why wires should not be laid down between the uttermost parts of the earth,—why India and Australia should not be as easily spoken as Bradford or Liverpool. The advantages are incalculable, 'the expense moderate .(trifliug compared with the expense attending most other modes' of communication), and no reason can be given wliy a'much larger proportion of the interchange of thought and news now daily circulating over the glohe should not be carried on by this agency; But without anticipating the time when an abstract of last night's Melbourne Argus shall foe hung up in our news-rooms, we may at least venture to hope that no great effort of prophetic foresight will be required to behold the day when Indian news shall be communicated red hot in the morning papers, If the peopte of this country are ever expected to feel any stirring interest in Indian affairs, the news must come fresh from the forge; Events that "happened six weeks ago have a dash of stateness in them which, to appetites fed on last night's debates, is almost as offensive as last week's bread to one who breakfasts on hot rolls and butter. To most people India is a myth. News from India is like news from another world, and of another age. Until recent events burnt themselves upon the memory, it required an effort ;o'f mind to think, of news-so old as of anything -winch really effected us. This feeling the te'egraph would afc ; once annihilate. India would be within our reach, within talking distance. Her customs, her laws, her interests, would. become living realities, instead of imaginable fables. The measures of our Government in India would be almost as interesting as the measures of our Government in England. . An act of oppression ia Calcutta would excite almost as warm indignation as an act,of oppression in Leeds or, London. As to the advantages commercially of such coni' raunication, they Very much .resemble those which spring from its use in Europe; and as pur trade with India increases, so will the value of the telegraph be more and more felt.

There are "two lines proposed—one by Turkey in Asia and the Persian Gulf, the other by the •Isthmus of Suez, the Red Sea, and the Arabian Gulf. The latter is the longer; but) as it seems to us, the less liable to interruption. Eventually, when commerce has sufficiently developed, there can be little doubt that the utmost energies of both will be put into requisition. But at present it seems a grievous blunder to be standing, like an ass between two "bundles of hay, making no use of either. Immediate and close communication with India is one of. the greatest wants of the day; and we are continually putting off the advantage because instead 6f only one-way of supplying the want, there happen to be two. The Red Sea scheme could be carried into effect in a single year; the wires once laid, little or no interruption could: be antis cipated, and as the wants of the Government or of commerce required larger means of communication,' new lines might be made either by the same route or .by the Persian Gulf. Three things seems to be especially needed,—that the telegraphic communication should be entirely in our own hands, that it should have its principal stations at points through which the stream of our commerci&l intercourse with India usually passes, and'that it should be completed in the shortest possible time. The first object we have already gained, though not without many news-;; paper remonstrances,, against the folly with;' 'which the Government would have handed uiL

Over to the mercies of a single despotic Continental State. Still the object is hot completely, gained if any part of a live passes through a country we cannot control. .A line from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates is liable at any time to be broken by,an unfriendly Pasha or .a marauding Sheik. We never could feel certain that the message we were sending would not be like the message which Jones's ghost brought to Sally Siinpkins, " cut off in the middle," with one end ia Calcutta and the other in London. Whatever may be said of the difficulties of the Red Sea, the- sword of an Arab Sheik is sharper than the edge. of a coral reef, and the word of an Arab Sheik less to be trusted than that proverbially faithless navigation. As to the second point, it is clear that at present the main stream of iuteroourse with India is through Alexandria and by Aden, so tliat whatever advantages a telegraph by the Persian Gulf may possess when that line of communication has been made practicable for travellers, its advantages at present are in this respeut far inferior to those .of the Red Sea route. But perhaps the main point in favor of the telegraph by Alexandria is that it could be more quickly completed, and that is in itself a sufficient cause to recommend it to the people and the Government of the country. We sincerely, hope that this most desirable object miy be no further delayed; but that the sanction of Government will be speedily given, and the great work of connecting England with her Eastern Empire will be accomplished before the close of the next year, , .

Shocksof earthquakes have been felt at Argaston, South Australia, and in its neighborhood.