aquarium, in the show he has boxed up by the
mouth of the Seine: in which the ladies and
children may be daily horrified by the contortions
of living samples of Hugo's pieuvre, and
lobsters in their black habit as they live.
But with all his airs about agricultural implements,
we cannot congratulate Jack on having
become a first-rate landscape gardener
yet. He has had all the local grandees in their
scarfs; civilisation has been duly toasted in
petit bleu; a gentleman from Jersey has
cemented the alliance between the two great
nations of the earth, with an oration of the
smallest wafer power; and what with bands of
music, a widely diffused taste for seeing anything
and everything, magnificent phrases, and
reduced fares, the Sailors' Show may pull
through to the satisfaction of the speculative
gentlemen who have governed it.

We confess, as nautical students, to a decided
preference for the Sailors' Show out of the box,
which encompasses the "Maritime International
Exhibition." At the risk of being set down as
dunderheaded, the chiel who has taken these
notes remains fast in his belief that the International
Maritime Exhibition which is spread over
spacious highways around the docks of the
Liverpool of France is a much truer, much more
instructive, and much more honest one, than
that Bazaar crowned with the eagle and the
tricolor which is planted by the dusty Boulevard
Imperial, in the interests of shop-keeping,
rather than of navigation, past, present, or
future. The commissioners who talk about
helping forward civilisation, and include bullfights
in their programme, are not trusty guides
to our dull British mind, even when they
come backed by an approving nod of
Alexandre Dumas père. Whom Heaven preserve!

A SPECIAL WIRE.

IN the department of electric telegraphy, as
in many other things, the Americans have long
been in advance of us. They spend more money,
and use the wires much more lavishly for the
transmission of intelligence to the newspapers,
than we do. The New York journals are
specially remarkable for their enterprise in this
respect, and they frequently accomplish achievements
which leave the journalists of this country
far behind. This is specially the case
during the sittings of congress. Day after day
whilst, the session lasts, ten or twelve closely
packed newspaper columns are transmitted
between Washington and New York. These
include the speeches of the principal speakers in
the debates, the political letters of the special
correspondents, and all the accidents, crimes,
gossip, and general news, which can be
collected.

Although the English press has been excelled
by the American in this respect, there has of
late been such an united move in the direction
of employing the telegraph more freely and
frequently, as to promise something like a revolution
in the future. The Scotch and Irish daily
newspapers have already inaugurated the new
era, and are accomplishing marvels in their own
way. They are striving, and with very
considerable success, to collect the latest current
news of each day, for publication in next morning's
issue. London being the great centre of
all intelligence is of course made the head
quarters. Three Irish and four Scotch
newspapers have each what is called a "special
wire"—that is, a telegraph wire between London
and Dublin, or London and Glasgow, as
the case may be, the exclusive use of which
the newspaper commands from seven o'clock in
the evening until three o'clock next morning.
The telegraph companies merely let or "farm"
the wires for a certain amount, and, beyond
providing clerks to work the instruments, take no
further charge or responsibility. The work of
collecting the news devolves solely upon the
newspaper proprietor, and this part of the
undertaking is alike the most troublesome and the
most expensive. London is daily and nightly
swept for rumours and offences, and the utmost
diligence is displayed to collect everything of
interest that transpires.

There is a little staff of officials employed on
the work. Reporters, sub-editors, leader writers,
special correspondents, have each their own
defined departments; and what information
they collect and transcribe is nightly despatched
to its destination for the delectation
of next day's readers. Whilst parliament is
sitting, the chief portion of the material is
procured at Westminster. During important
debates, the speeches of the great men are reported
in full and sent off the same night; it has
sometimes happened when Mr. Gladstone or
Mr. Disraeli has been delivering a long oration,
that the compositors in Edinburgh and
Glasgow were putting into type the first
portion whilst the last was being spoken. On
one or two occasions when Earl Russell's reform
bill of 1866 was trembling in the balance, the
Edinburgh editors attended the House of Commons,
wrote their leaders, and sent them down
by wire to the capital of Scotland.

The principal Scotch and Irish journals may
thus be said to be reported, sub-edited, and
sometimes edited, in the metropolis, so far as
regards the most important part of their
intelligence. The labour, care, and anxiety, expended
on the accomplishment of this object are much
greater than is ordinarily supposed. And
everything is done at full speed: the economising
of time being as vital and important as
the economy of space on board a ship of war.

Half an hour often decides success or failure.
Towards the small hours of the morning
it is a race between time and the telegraph.
The critical period is between midnight and two
o'clock in the morning. A good deal of the
most valuable of the day's intelligence arrives at
the instrument room during those two hours,
and then is the time to see the clerk upon his
mettle. Perhaps the Prime Minister has made
a great speech at half past ten o'clock, at the