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of much more significance in such a matter will at once or gradually do the like; and that, in fine, by wise effort and persistence, a blind and disgraceful act of public injustice may be prevented, and an egregious folly as well; not to say, for none can say or compute, what a vital detriment throughout the British empire is such an example set to all colonies and governors the British empire has.'

The reply we have to make to this apology for Governor Eyre is, that the feelings of the English people were not drawn out towards those who were guilty of participating in the insurrection and the enormities by which it was attended, but towards those who were, or at any rate who might have been innocent. They did not sympathize with proved guilt, but they feared that many might be condemned by young officers like Lieutenant Brand on mere loose suspicion; on evidence which might have been rebutted by contradictory evidence, if opportunity had been afforded for its production. They did not think it right that any one man, however black his skin, should suffer unjustly or without full proof of his guilt. And as for the analogy of the fire breaking out in the powder-room, that did not apply to Mr. Gordon, who had voluntarily yielded himself up to justice; who was as well secured on board the Wolverine as if he had been in an English prison; and who therefore without any danger at all might have been reserved for fair trial, and deliberate execution, if on such trial he was found to have deserved it. Meanwhile funds were raised on the one hand for the prosecution of Mr. Eyre, and on the other hand for his defence; and in due time the case was brought before the court of Queen's Bench, where Mr. Justice Blackburn delivered a charge which induced the grand jury not to find the bill; but Lord Chief-Justice Cockburn subsequently stated that if he had been aware that the law would have been laid down as it was understood to have been stated, he should have felt it his duty to attend in his place in court and to have declared his views of the law to the jury. He added, and Justice Blackburn assented to the truth of the assertion, that almost on the eve of the delivery of the charge Mr. Justice Blackburn had been of opinion that the removal of Mr. Gordon was unjustifiable; though in the charge itself he had given a different opinion.

Some other ineffectual attempts were made to procure the legal condemnation of the act of Governor Eyre, and as he had been put to considerable expense in consequence of these proceedings, the conservative government decided that he should be reimbursed from the public funds. This determination was perhaps justifiable, inasmuch as the charges against Mr. Eyre had fallen to the ground; for it would be hardly fair to allow a person in his position to be put to heavy and perhaps ruinous expenses on account of acts which the great tribunals of this country had decided not to be illegal, and which therefore must be regarded by the government as warrantable, whatever their private opinion as to their lawfulness might be.

The year 1866 was signalised by a great scientific exploit -the successful laying of the electric telegraph across the Atlantic ocean. The Great Eastern steamship, accompanied by the screw steamers Albany and Medway, was employed to carry the cable from the island of Valentia, situated on the western coast of Ireland. Every precaution that the experience of the previous attempts furnished had been taken to insure success. For the first six days all went well; the sea was calm, the cable ran out steadily, the electric tests were perfect, and messages passed backwards and forwards between the land and the Great Eastern as she proceeded. On the 18th of July, when the vessel was about six hundred miles from her port of departure and one thousand from Newfoundland, a 'foul fluke' or entanglement of the cable appeared. Fortunately it was discovered in time. The running-out of the cable was stopped before the fluke entered the paying-out machinery. The knot was carefully and patiently disentangled amidst heavy rain and a strong wind blowing; and after some delay the vessel proceeded on her voyage, and safely reached Newfoundland on the 29th of July; the cable having been laid down in good order, and transmitting messages sent by it in a quite satisfactory manner. Having thus accomplished the main object of her voyage, the great ship next proceeded, with the assistance of the vessels that had attended her, to endeavour to pick up the cable which had previously been laid, to splice it, and then carry it forward to the place where the other had been landed. Some idea may be formed of the skill, patience, and perse

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verance with which this operation was carried out by a simple statement of the various attempts that were made to effect the object, and the success which at last crowned them. The Atlantic cable squadron left Newfoundland a few days after it had succeeded in laying the cable. On the 10th of August the Albany, assisted by the Terrible, succeeded in laying hold of the broken cable in latitude 51° 27′ 30′′ N. long., 38° 50′ W., and brought it up to the surface, but lost it again through the breaking of the chain. At midnight on the 15th the Great Eastern laid hold of it and brought it up five hundred fathoms, but in attempting to fasten it to buoys she also lost the rope and cable. On the 17th she once more succeeded in laying hold of it, and raised it to her bow sheaves, but in attempting to bring it on board it parted, owing to the roughness of the sea at the time. On the 19th she grappled it again, raised it eighty-six fathoms from the bottom and buoyed the bight. On the same day the Albany laid hold of the cable, but lost it again. On the 26th the Medway laid hold of it, and held it for three days, at the end of which time it parted. In the night of the same day the Albany grappled it, raised it to the surface, and attached it to buoys. On the 27th the Great Eastern secured it to a buoy, and brought on board two miles of it. On the 1st of September she grappled the cable in two places, and it was also brought up by the Medway two miles to the west of her. On the 2nd of September the splicing was accomplished, and the paying-out commenced. But we will tell the rest of the story in the words of Mr. Deane, who at the time gave a minute account of the whole transaction:

'Then came the splicing of the recovered cable with the coiled one in our tanks, and the very delicate operation of passing the cable round from the bow to the stern of the ship. This successfully accomplished, the order was given "full speed ahead;" and we soon had our screw clear and the cable streaming out in the wake of the ship; and so by eight o'clock in the morning (scarcely any one, I think, had turned-in that night) we were safely paying-out again, and the ship's head was once more towards the shore of Newfoundland.

'Our voyage after this, the great success of the expedition, was still prosperous and free from disaster. At a speed

not exceeding on the average from five to five and a half miles an hour (our engineers had been taught by experience to prefer the safe progress of the tortoise to that of the hare), we continued to pay-out the cable from the time of passing overboard the happily-made splice on the morning of September 2nd, until early dawn on the 8th. No fault had occurred, and nothing but the promptings of a natural anxiety that such should not occur had even suggested one; and as the day broke, and a glorious sunrise poured a flood of gold along the wake of the good ship still heading westward, it lighted up a scene of singular peace and beauty. One might well feel its sentiment to be akin to that influence which we may surely hope for the great work so near its accomplishment,-" peace on earth." The long line of broken headlands and cliffs and inland mountains, seen distantly on each side, told us that we were in Trinity bay. In company were her Majesty's ships Terrible and Lily, the Margaretta Stevenson, the Hawk, and the governor of Newfoundland on board the Medway; and the huge Great Eastern, which now for a second time within two months was bearing into the little land bay of Heart's Content a fragile thread of more than golden worth, to be a mighty chain between the old world and the new.

'As if to curb a too exultant feeling, it was some thirteen miles distant from the entrance of our longed-for haven that the only "fault" of any moment occurred. At six o'clock, almost as a message from Ireland was flashing through the wire, the arrow of light became darkness on the scale of the dynamometer—an indication too well known to the electrician-but, thanks to the testing arrangement introduced, and for the first time practised during the present expedition, by Mr. Willoughby Smith, the discovery of "dead earth” (that béte noire of the testing-room) was instantly made; the faulty part of the cable-unlike some defaulters—had not even succeeded in reaching the sea before detection; and to stop the ship's way, to cut the cable just forward of the ship's paying-out machinery, to make a splice with a fresh length coiled in the after-tank, and to recommence paying-out, were a mere matter of loss of the few hours occupied in these operations. Indeed, when we sat down to breakfast in the grand saloon the ship was already under weigh, and the alarm of

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"dead earth" already a matter for a grim "cabalistic " joke.

'By about eleven o'clock we were just off the entrance to Heart's Content, and the large paddle-box boats of the Terrible, which had on the previous occasion rendered such efficient service in landing the shore-end, were brought under the stern of the Great Eastern; the cable was cut and passed to the boats, and these soon conveyed the end to the Medway, on board which ship the shore-end was coiled.'

Towards the close of the year a regrettable accident occurred. On the 30th of December flames burst forth from a paint-room situated in the north-east end of the Crystal Palace, and seized the dry timber of the flooring. As it happened to be Sunday, there were fewer persons than usual about the palace when the fire was discovered, and some time elapsed before a sufficient number could be collected to endeavour to extinguish the flames, which had taken hold of the dry woodwork forming the floor of the palace; and notwithstanding all the efforts that could be made by the employés of the palace and by the members of the firebrigade, who arrived as soon as possible, a large portion of this great and beautiful national structure had been destroyed.

During the autumn and winter of this year the reform agitation was industriously prosecuted. The example set by the metropolis was followed in the provinces, and a very active agitation set on foot, having for its chief object to compel the ministers, in whose reforming intentions the mass of the people placed little confidence, to retire, and make way for another government, which would command the confidence of reformers. The most remarkable of these demonstrations was that held at Birmingham on the 27th of August, attended by Messrs. Bright, Schofield, and Beales, and, as was stated in the journals of the period, by 250,000 persons; at Manchester another monster one was held, the number attending which was variously estimated at from 100,000 to 150,000; and lastly, one at St. James's Hall, London, at which, Mr. Ayrton having censured the Queen for not affording the people, gathered in large numbers in front of her window, some mark of recognition, her majesty was defended by Mr. Bright, who, referring to the words Mr.