"magnificent experiment" is a phantom in the
sea; but a very solid reality upon the earth.
It has gone down with eight hundred thousand
pounds sterling, as costly food for fishes; but it
has left its mark in the national account-books.
The country is saddled with thirty-six thousand
pounds per annum for half a century (a guaranteed
dividend of four and a half per cent per
annum, upon the before-mentioned capital),
representing an amount of nearly two millions
sterling, even if we say nothing about compound
interest. The contract for this half-hidden
monument of official folly was so recklessly
made, that no one—not even the usual
"man of straw"—is fixed with any responsibility.
The details of the scheme set forth that
the cable was to be divided into six sections—
three in the Red Sea—Suez to Kossier, 254
knots; Kossier to Suakin, 475 knots; and
Suakin to Aden, 630 knots; or, in all, 1359
knots of direct distance; and three in the Indian
Ocean—Aden to the Kooria-Mooria Islands, 716
knots; Kooria-Mooria to Muscat, 486 knots;
and Muscat to Kurrachee, 481 knots; or, in all,
1683 knots: making the total length of the two
lines, 3042 knots. Messages had been transmitted
between Suez and Aden for about nine
months, and separate sections of this line had
been worked for eighteen months. The line
from Aden to Kurrachee had also been worked,
by means of translation, at very good speed;
but the whole distance from Suez to Kurrachee
was never worked throughout. If, however,
for Suez we read Stock Exchange, and for
Kurrachee, we substitute Downing-street, we
shall obtain very different results. The whole
distance between these two latter important
points was worked with most marvellous success.
The laying down, or "paying out" (a
most significant phrase in the present instance),
was without a flaw; the messages sent were
duly received, and duly recorded, docketed, and
pigeon-holed, after the fashion of red-tape. The
clerkly work was absolutely faultless, as the
letter-books, diaries, and Treasury minutes will
show; but beyond this the business presents a
fog-bank—a dreary waste. The barren ceremony
of manufacturing and submerging the
cable might have been shuffled through, even
more unsatisfactorily than it was, for any active
superintendence that the government gave to
the undertaking. They guaranteed the dividend;
or, in other words, they gave away the
public money, and there they seem to have
fancied that their duty began and ended.
Government made a subsequent attempt to wriggle
out of its own agreement, and was only called
to a sense of its duty by the higher moral
sense of the country.

The real secret history of this Red Sea failure
will most probably never be written, because it
is not likely that any individual or journal unfortified
by exceptional profits on a telegraphic
contract, will brave the costly and uncertain law
of libel. One Blue-book has added a little to our
knowledge of these submarine transactions, and
another promises to inform us further; but as the
chief actor in the Red Sea farce, MR. LIONEL
GISBORNE, is dead, an important tap of evidence
is necessarily frozen up. In the mean time, we
use the narrative contained in Mr. CHARLES
MANBY'S very able summary of a long and important
discussion at the Institution of Civil
Engineers on this subject.

In the year 1855, application was made to
Messrs. Glass and Elliot by the late Mr. Lionel
Gisborne—better known, perhaps, as the
government engineer who surveyed the Isthmus
of Panama, and forgot to mention the mountains
—who represented himself as acting under
the authority of her Majesty's government,
for information to enable him to prepare
estimates for a telegraphic line to the East. On
his assurance (we are quoting Messrs. Glass and
Elliot's words) that the firm to whom he applied
should be placed in a position to tender for
the execution of the work, when he had completed
certain arrangements with the Turkish
government, the necessary information was given
him, accompanied by specimens of submarine
cables. Upon this, Mr. Gisborne proceeded to
Constantinople, and obtained the necessary
firman from the Sultan to lay down the Red
Sea line. Shortly after his return to England,
these concessions were placed at the disposal
of a body of gentlemen, who formed themselves
into a company—the Red Sea Telegraph
Company—for the purpose of laying down the
lines. In the month of August, 1857, the
directors of the company called upon Messrs.
Glass and Elliot for information, and to ask that
firm to tender for the execution of the whole, or
one half of the line. The required information
was furnished, and a prospectus, founded on
Messrs. Glass and Elliot's estimates, was issued
to the public. As certain statements, however,
appeared in the public journals, to the effect that
it was impossible to lay a cable in the Red Sea,
from its great depth, and other causes, an insufficient
amount of capital was subscribed, and the
project flagged.

In this state of things, Messrs. Glass and
Elliot suggested an application to government
to cause a survey to be made, with a view of
testing the truth of these statements. This
course was adopted, and the Cyclops was ordered
on the expedition, and instructions, forwarded,
on the firm's suggestion, to the Admiralty,
through the hydrographer, were sent out to the
officers in command of the ship. The result of
the survey having been considered satisfactory,
a fresh attempt was made by the directors
to carry out the line. The undertaking had
not proceeded further, before it was found
that the agreement between Mr. Gisborne
and the directors of the Red Sea Telegraph
Company had lapsed by a few days; and
on being called upon to renew it, he consented,
but insisted that in addition to the
fifteen thousand pounds agreed to be paid
to him as consideration for the "concessions,"
he should be appointed engineer to
the company, and that the whole of the
work should be given to Messrs. Newall