SUBMARINE COMPANIES. 



Canterbury, Deal, Dover, Calais, Paris, Brussels, and Antwerp ; 

 despatches, however, being forwarded to England from all con- 

 tinental stations. 



The tariff for all single messages between London and the 

 Continent is 8s., in addition to the Continental charge for trans- 

 mission between the Continental station to or from which the 

 message is transmitted, and Calais or Ostend. If the message is 

 sent to or from any provincial town (except Dover), there is an 

 additional charge for its transmission between London and such 

 town. 



280. The originators of the novel and bold project of submarine 

 electric communication are stated to be the Messrs. Jacob and 

 J. W. Brett, brothers, of Hanover-square, London. Their first 

 propositions were addressed to the English government, and were 

 directed to the deposition of a submarine cable between Holyhead 

 and Dublin, which they offered to undertake if the government 

 would make them a grant of 20000^., for which, of course, the 

 State would have for public purposes the free use of the line. 

 This offer was declined. 



The next propositions, addressed to the French and Belgian 

 governments, were attended with more success. An exclusive 

 privilege was granted by both governments, to which the English 

 government acceded for the 'use of such submarine conductors as 

 the parties should succeed in depositing, and in consequence of 

 this, the companies were formed, by which the project has since 

 been realised, and the cables already described between the 

 English coast near Dover and the coasts of France and Belgium, 

 near Calais and Ostend, were laid, by whieh London, Paris, and 

 Brussels have been brought into and now are in instantaneous 

 electric communication ; and through these capitals the whole 

 Continent, wherever telegraphic wires have been established, has 

 been put in connection with the United Kingdom. 



281. The actual celerity with which correspondence can be 

 transmitted between London and parts of Europe more or less 

 remote, may be judged from the fact that the Queen's speech, 

 delivered at the opening of the parliamentary session of 1854, 

 was delivered verbatim and circulated in Paris and in Berlin 

 before her Majesty had left the House of Lords. 



Messages have been sent from the office in Cornhill to Hamburg, 

 Vienna, and, on certain occasions, to Lemberg, in Gallicia, being 

 a distance of 1800 miles, their reception being acknowledged by 

 an instantaneous reply. 



282. It is satisfactory to be able to state that measures are being 

 taken by many of the most important continental states to extend 

 the benefits of telegraphic communication by multiplying the 



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