Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/544

536 loss of profit (however splendid the dividends might still remain) on the other, we know what would be the result of their deliberations.

Important as are the sea-cables for statesmen, for strategy and for commerce, they are or will be equally important socially to keep up intimacy and swift intercourse between families half in Britain and half in India for instance, or between friends and relations in these Islands and in the great colonies. They might be made to give the sensation almost of actual contact, of holding the hand of your friend, of speaking directly to his heart. It is this interchange of personal news and private wishes, quite as much as the profound political and commercial aspects of lightning communication with all parts of the Empire, which will bind the Empire in bonds stronger than steel, easy as affection, to hold it together with unassailable power. Consequently the health and strength of the Empire depend very greatly upon a cheapening of telegraph charges. Doubtless a time will come when all our main cables of the first importance will be in the hands of Government, when they will only touch upon British territory, and when they will be all adequately protected from an enemy. Those are truly Imperialistic and patriotic aspirations. But we must never forget the grand part in bringing together, within whispering distance, as it were, the different parts of the world, and consequently of our world-wide Empire, which has been taken in the past by such Napoleonic organizers as the late Sir John Pender. It is to him and to such men as he that we owe those splendid beginnings which by means of vital reflexes from the nerve-center of the Empire have helped to fire our white fellow-subjects all over the globe with a loftier patriotism and with new, brave and broader ideals of nationality.

It was coincident with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 that the liveliest interest began to be taken in sea-cables, and a master-mind perceived their commercial possibilities. Before that time the success of the constructing companies had not been great. Sir John Pender then founded the famous Eastern Telegraph Company by the amalgamation of four existing lines, which had together laid down 8,500 miles of sea-cables, besides erecting land-lines also. A year later, in 1873, from three other companies he formed the Eastern Extension Australasia and China Telegraph Company, which jointly possessed 5,200 miles of submarine lines. From that date the extension of electric communication to all parts of the earth, over wild as well as over civilized countries, and beneath the salt water, has only been equaled by their average remunerativeness. Now there are 175,000 miles of submerged cables alone, of which this country owns no less than 113,000 miles. The history of some of these cables is full of interest, and might attract the delighted attention of the lover