.s/A> WILLIAM S//-:.\fKNS> F.R.S. 195 



isonable profit, seemed to him an essential condition to the 

 advancement of telegraphy. Sir James Anderson had paid land 

 lines rather a high compjiment, inasmuch as he foresaw that, in 

 the case of war, the submarine lines would have to be supple- 

 mented to a great extent by the land lines, the points of land 

 being connected by means of dispatch boats. He hardly expected 

 to hear that admission from him, because if the lines were laid in 

 tolerably deep water it would not be very easy for an enemy to 

 break such a line. They would not know the locality, and would 

 probably not succeed in breaking the cable unless it happened to 

 be of a very weak description. But however that might be, the 

 traffic between this country and India was pretty well secured 

 even in the event of a Russian war. In making the arrangement 

 for the Indo-European Company's telegraph they took the pre- 

 caution of inducing the contracting Governments to make a 

 treaty, according to which the telegraph line was guaranteed as a 

 neutral property, and he had that confidence in the continental 

 governments, that although they might be at war with this 

 country he thought they would respect an absolute engagement of 

 that sort. Every Monday morning they saw a long telegram in 

 the Times, giving very inflammatory war news from Calcutta ; 

 they heard of the great enthusiasm for war, and of the desire 

 expressed on all sides to go into combat with Russia. Those 

 telegrams all passed through the heart of Russia, and there had 

 been no word of any interference with them. He firmly believed 

 that if war should break out the Russian Government would 

 respect this engagement for the sake of its own honour, and the 

 people were sufficiently under control, as it happened, in Russia, 

 not to destroy a line which the Government said was necessary to 

 be maintained. He thought it perhaps more likely, and in this 

 perhaps he did not quite agree with Sir Frederick Goldsmid, 

 that a line passing through Asia Minor, or through a country 

 where there was an immense population, would be in greater 

 danger of interruption than where the line was entirely placed 

 under the direction of one Government. However that might be, 

 he hoped with the other speakers that it would not come to an 

 actual war ; but, whatever happened, he thought our communica- 

 tion with the East was well secured. 



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