very admirable description of the system has been written by one who has given much study to the subject:

66

Twenty miles of pneumatic tubes are terminated in graceful curves at what is called the tube-board," which runs along the entire length of the central gallery, and at each of the thirty tubes thus represented is stationed a smart boy-attendant. Each tube is fitted with an elaborate and costly brass apparatus for regulating the pressure and vacuum to be applied to it, and with an electric bell for signaling purposes. The 'carrier," in which the messages are inclosed for transmission, is a round tube-like box made of gutta percha, and covered with several coatings of felt, so as to make it nicely fit the pipe through which it has to travel. The messages are rolled up tightly and placed inside the carrier, either singly or in half-dozens, as the pressure of business requires. The carrier is inserted in the mouth of the tube, pressure is turned on by the attendant, and away it goes, round the curve which takes it up nearly to the roof of the gallery, down through the flooring to the level of Newgate Street, until, speeding its way along busy thoroughfare and quiet court or alley, it reaches its point of destination, where it will probably ascend to the top of the building in which the office is situated, apparently for no other purpose than to descend again into the basement and project itself under the very nose of the messenger boy whose duty it is to uncork" the messages and run with them to their final destination. The operation takes longer to describe than most carriers occupy in travelling from St. Martin's-le-Grand to their destination; and we need scarcely point out that by simply reversing the process-i.e., by exhausting instead of charging the tubes-carriers are drawn or sucked inward, as easily and quickly as they are blown or puffed outward.

66

It is somewhat surprising to learn that practical telegraphists realize more and more that the increase of cheap telegraphy between various parts of London is more likely to lie in the extension of the tubes than otherwise. Pneumatic telegrams" which could be sent closed as a letter and delivered as they are received would certainly be found of great value, lending themselves to a large class of correspondents who do not care to commit their secrets to telegraph clerks, however skilfully contracted and disguised or transferred to imperfect cipher. So long ago as the sitting of the Commission on Telegraphs in 1876, we find that this topic was made prominent. Mr. R. W. Johnston, on being asked the question: Have you at all considered any form by which telegrams might be sent to the public without any loss of facilities, and in a

NEW SERIES.-VoI.. XXXIV., No. 6

cheaper mode to the Post Office?" answered:

I have been considering that in London, at all events, for the purpose of a cheap local telegraph rate, the pneumatic system might be largely extended; my impression is now, and has been for some time, that London will never be properly served, telegraphically, until the pneumatic system is very considerably extended. I think that at Charing Cross, for example, to which point we have two large tubes of considerable capacity now going, we ought to have a sub-central pneumatic station, with tubes laid to the House of Commons, which would also include an important office in Parliament Street, and likewise that in Westminster Hall, and also to Piccadilly, which would include an important office in Piccadilly Circus, and probably also 'an office in Regent Street; and by these means I think that cheap local telegraphy might be secured. The cost, no doubt, would be considerable at first, but the advantage as regards a system of communication of this kind is, that the cost of laying down, at all events, is final, because there is practically no limit to the "life" of a pneumatic tube, and we know that underground wires deteriorate almost as much as over-house wires.

Is it not likely that a large expenditure may have to be incurred in the metropolis in putting down underground wires instead of overhouse wires?—I do not know that the expenditure in the area which I contemplate for the pneumatic tube system would be as great as the expense in other parts of London, but no doubt it would be considerable.

And again, in answer to the following question : "Do you mean this pneumatic tube to be applied simply for sending telegraphic forms, or for sending pneumatic letters also ?" he said:

I can readily conceive of a system whereby a telegram can be written-say in an office in the city-and put in an envelope instead of writing the name of the addressee inside the message, and the envelope would be stamped with the proper payment of the telegram, and sent through the tube and delivered, without any clerical expense whatever.

Further question:

By that system of pneumatic letters, would you not save a great amount of clerical labor and clerical charges ?—Yes; a very great deal. And might not the expenditure upon those tubes, although the capital might be considerable, be repaid by saving the cost of clerks and other persons?—I should say so.

Have you been considering, also, the quesdinary telegrams throughout the country ?-I tion of sending a less amount of words in or

have been considering, as a corollary of the proposal made by me in a report which, I think, has been printed and laid before the Committee, that we should abandon the system

of getting the sender's address in the form as

an address, and adopt the practice which pre

vails upon the Continent, and also, as it would

49

appear from Colonel Robinson's evidence, in India, and simply require the signature; if we have the address, let it be put upon the form as a mere record, and not for any purpose of signalling.

But, supposing the sender desires his address to be sent, do you not think that a little extra payment might be made so that the address might be sent ?—Yes; I think so.

Will you hand in that form you suggest?— I will.

According to this form, the signature of the sender is at the end, and the space between is divided into two parts; the address upon the left, if it is not to be telegraphed, is not paid for; whereas, if the sender wishes his address to be telegraphed, it is placed upon the right-hand side?—Yes; it is placed upon the right-hand side, and if the sender wishes it to be sent it must be paid for.

Do you think that form would practically give to the public all the facilities which they now possess and be a great gain to the Post Office?—Yes; I do. I am quite satisfied that our present system encourages the senders of many telegrams to run to waste with regard to their addresses.

When you speak of the direct advantage likely to arise from the adoption of that plan, are you referring to a direct increase of revenue or in the way of liberating the wires?— Not so much in direct revenue as in liberating the wires; there would be some direct revenue of course.

The pneumatic system has been for some years in use in Manchester and Birmingham, and was recently extended to other four of the principal English towns; and has now a length of tube at its command exactly ten times greater than what existed ten years ago. London alone, as we have seen, has upward of 37,000 yards, or more than twentyone miles, of leaden pipes buried beneath its streets, through which open telegrams are being sucked at all hours of the day and night, which seems astonishing; and yet practical men say that the system should in London be very largely extended.

Other countries have availed themselves of the golden opportunities which the evidence given before our Commission suggested; and we regret that, as regards" pneumatic letters" (télégramme fermée), we in England are precisely in the same position as before. We read as follows in a recent article on the subject, and we may well be sorry at the losses and failures on our own part which it points out :

Whether the German Post Office officials have been studying a report intended for our own postal authorities we do not know, but it

"

would appear that the pneumatic letter system. or blow-post, as it is characteristically termed, is in operation in Berlin at this moment, and is in course of being considerably extended. The system, when complete, will comprise twenty-six kilometres of tubing and fifteen stations. The tubes will be of wrought iron, having a bore of sixty-five millimetres, and they will lie about one metre below the surface of the ground. Wrought-iron tubes are the exception in our pneumatic system, the method generally adopted being a leaden tube inclosed in a cast-iron pipe. We are, of course, unable to pronounce upon the merits of the two systems, although it would appear, on the face of the matter, that the freedom from corrosion, and the smoother surface afforded by such a workable metal as lead, are all in favor of an easier and more rapid working. The exhausting machines and apparatus required for working the Berlin system are situated at four of the fifteen stations. Both compressed and rarefied air, or a combination of the two, are employed in propelling the carriers,' or boxes, into which the telegrams, or letters, are placed, and steam-engines of about twelve-horse power are used in condensing and rarefying the air. Each of the four main stations has two engines, which drive a compressing and an exhausting apparatus, and large containers, or reservoirs, are used for the condensed and rarefied air. The tension of the condensed air is about three atmospheres, and that of the rarefied about thirty-five millimetres of mercury; and the former, heated to 45 degrees C. by the act of compression, is cooled in the reservoirs, which are surrounded with water. The letters and cards which have to be forwarded are of a prescribed size, twenty being the complement assigned to each "carrier." From ten to fifteen carriers are packed and forwarded at a time-a sort of pneumatic train," in fact; and behind the last "vehicle" is placed a box with a leather ruffle, in order to secure the best closure of the tube. The velocity of the carriers averages 1000 metres per minute, and a train is despatched every quarter of an hour, each of the two circuits or routes into which the system is divided being traversed in twenty minutes, including stoppages. The entire cost of this novel and apparently complete system is estimated at 1,250,000 marks; and it is always well to remember, in speaking of the cost of a pneumatic system, as compared with that of an ordinary telegraph, that the outlay is as nearly final as possible, there being practically no limit to the "life" of a pneumatic tube, especially if it be constructed of lead and protected from external injury by an outer coating of 3d. in Berlin, or about one-fourth of the cost A " blow-post' letter appears to cost of a telegram, and the average time of delivery in any quarter of the city is stated to be one hour. Admitting our own Metropolitan telegraphic system to be perfect as far as it goes, it is perfectly clear, from the report of the Select Committee already referred to, that a cheaper rate that Is. for local telegrams is not to be hoped for so long as the costly machinery of wires, instruments, and clerks, is maintained

iron.

for telegraphing over distances readily compassable by the pneumatic system. What strikes us, on reading an account of the Berlin

system, is that these pneumatic tubes afford an opportunity of combining the postal and telegraph services, in such a way as to confer a maximum benefit on the public at a minimum of cost. At all events, it will hardly be doubted that what is necessary and possible in Berlin is more necessary, and should be equally possible, in London; and it would seem to be positive economy to replace the wires, which are now happily being removed from housetops in all directions, by leaden tubes to be filled with air, which costs next to nothing, rather than by iron pipes full of a costly and perishable combination of copper and gutta percha.

With regard to the general question of reduction of telegraphic rates, the Commission say in their report :

In declining at present to make any recommendation for a general reduction to a sixpenny rate for short messages or for local traffic, the Committee are guided by the pres ent condition of the telegraph service of the State. When the clerks in the office have be

come accustomed to the management of their own instruments, and when, by a more enlightened system of training, they have an intelligent, instead of an empirical, knowledge of the work they have to perform, the Committee do not doubt that there will be a large increase in the capacity of wires and instruments to transmit more messages than at present. Constant improvements in instruments are being made, and it is difficult to place a limit to the future capabilities of telegraphic operations. Automatic telegraphy, if the work be continuous, gives a greatly increased capacity to a wire, and by a proper combination of this system with hand-worked instruments, the capacity for work of the various offices will be considerably augmented, but at present they might break down under any enlarged strain of work, produced by a sudden development of the system. It is due, however, to the Post Office authorities, to say that they are constantly improving their telegraphic capacities for work, and that even now messages are transmitted with an efficiency and regularity which, a few years ago, would have been deemed impossible.

One great point should always be borne in mind, that the postal telegraph system differs from a purely commercial undertaking in this, that as it was taken over by the State primarily for the convenience of the public, all increase of traffic which can be brought about without loss to the revenue adds to the national value

of the system. Moreover, as the existing wires and staff are capable of undertaking a considerably increased traffic, and as it is impossible either to maintain or get rid of superfluous wires and operatives without heavy expense and loss, the desirability of developing the telegraphic traffic of the country up to the full capacity of the system seems to your Committee to admit of no dispute.

Mr. Fawcett, when waited on by a

deputation whose object was to urge a reduction of telegraph rates, practically retreated under shadow of the Treasury. With his views of political economy and progress, he must have felt certain forms of official restriction somewhat painful; for there can be no doubt that there is a great deal of truth in the passage which we shall now venture to quote :

Those who oppose the introduction of sixpenny telegrams on Mr. Fawcett's plan are reduced to this argument. They object to the reform because they insist on the telegraph department earning more than three and a half per cent on its capital. Such a contention, however, is untenable, even on Mr. Fawcett's own showing. At the beginning of his speech we find him arguing that it would be unjust to tax the people en masse, so that some of them might get cheaper telegrams-in other words, work at a loss for the benefit of those rich unjust that the telegraph department should enough to use it. Surely by parity of reasoning it is also unjust to compel it to earn a higher profit than that necessary to make it pay expenses, for that must mean the imposition of a tax on the senders of telegrams for the benefit of those who send none.

And again, with quite as effective argument:

Mr. Fawcett seemed to think that his hearers might be disappointed at the effects of the contemplated experiment upon the national revenue. But, whatever might be the immediate result of the reduction, it is perfectly certain that the loss involved by the sixpenny rate would be very soon made good. Moreover, admitting that the item of expense cannot be lost sight of, it is not, in such a matter as this, of paramount importance. The requirements of the country are the first thing which the government have to consider. If the argument of the purse had triumphed, we should, as Mr. Fawcett's analogy hinted, never have had the penny postage system. That reform entailed for thirty-three years a loss of revenue. The two cases are not, of course, completely parallel. The necessity of sixpenny telegrams can hardly be compared with the necessity which existed half a century ago for the institution devised by the philanthropic genius of Sir Rowland Hill. Yet if it can be shown that the demand is as pressing and as general as the memorial of the Society of Arts stated, a tolerably conclusive case will have been made out for the coucession.

If the recent serious difficulty with the telegraphists should at length induce Mr. Fawcett to consider the adoption of the mechanical, in place of the electrical, method of conveying telegrams over short distances, and especially in London, it will not have

arisen in vain, so far as the interests of the telegraphing public are concerned.

Having proceeded thus far, we shall now glance briefly at some of the statistical and monetary aspects of the subject. The extent of telegraph lines in Great Britain is, proportionately to its size, greater than that of any other European State. The length of the electric wires of France is 35,000 miles, of Russia 31,000, of Austria 29,000, and of Germany 28,000, while that of the United Kingdom is 25,000. The average number of telegraphic messages sent in Great Britain is more than double that of any of the nations just named. In France the annual rate is one message to every five persons, in Austria one to every seven, in Italy one to every six, in Russia one to every twenty-two, in Germany not quite one for every two inhabitants. In Great Britain and Ireland the number of telegrams sent every year is equal to that of the entire population. Twenty-two years ago the number of miles of telegraph in Great Britain was 3000; at the time of the transfer of the system to the Post Office there were in existence 15,203 miles of telegraphic line, and 59,250 miles of wire. There are at the present moment more than 20,000 miles of line, and nearly 110,000 miles of wire; while the number of instruments, which stood at the time of the transfer below 2000, has been in creased to upward of 8000. The combined companies forwarded among them some six millions of telegrams, and their revenue would be somewhere about half a million sterling. In the first year after the transfer of the system to the Post Office, the number of messages had risen to very nearly ten millions; in 1871, more than twelve and a half millions of messages had been forwarded; in 1872 the number had risen to close upon fifteen millions; while for the financial year ending March 31, 1874, the number cannot be very far short of eighteen millions. The total estimated revenue for the year is £1,220,000, and there is every reason to believe that the estimate will be more than realized. Thus, the number of messages was tripled in four years, and the revenue considerably more than doubled-the difference of proportion between the increase in the number of messages and

the increase in the revenue representing the gain to the British public by the transaction.

And the following figures will suffice to show how well the telegraphs pay, and how unfair it is that the public should be the losers because of the involvements of past and present, and of multifarious departments. The gross receipts from the telegraphs in 1876 were £1,287,000, while the outlay for working expenses, renewals, etc., was £1,090,000, which shows a profit realized of £197,000. We refer to the year 1876, because it was the year in which that important Select Committee of the House of Commons, presided over by Dr. Lyon Playfair, inquired into the telegraph system of the country. Passing on to the year which closed on March 31st, 1880, we find that the gross receipts had increased to no less a sum than £1,471,000, but that the working and other expenses have not increased in anything like the same ratio, owing to great economy having been introduced into the service and in consequence of improvements in the means of telegraphing. This largely increased revenue was obtained at a comparatively slight addition of cost. The working expenses had only increased from £1,090,000 in 1876 to £1,117,000 in the year 1879-1880, so that the profit for the last financial year was £356,000 The profit during the last four years has increased from £197,000 to £354,000. The result becomes the more satisfactory when we turn to the capital account. This increase of profits of nearly £160,ooo was obtained with a comparatively small addition to the capital account of about £1,000,000. During the year 1880 the progress went on in an increasing ratio, for, comparing the receipts from telegrams for the first three months with the corresponding three months of the previous year, there is an increase in the receipts amounting to £80,000.

Another way of gauging the increase may be found. The total number of telegraphists employed by the companies was about 25cc, of whom less than 500 were women; and to this number fall to be added nearly 1500 message boys, making a total of some 4000 persons. The Post Office employs nearly 6000 telegraphists, of whom more than 1500

are women, while the number of message boys exceeds 4600-outnumbering the whole staff under the companies. It thus appears that in all considerably more than 10,000 persons are employed in the telegraph work of the United Kingdom, not reckoning the "irregulars" and supernumeraries.

The great point, as we would earnestly urge, is that the question of profit is not the first question that ought to be considered in dealing with the development of the telegraph system. The

public service should be primarily studied. This thoroughly accomplished, the rest is but a matter of time. In no instance has the liberal and enterprising spirit been in the long run disappointed in dealing with such affairs; and at the present moment when discontent prevails among telegraphists, and "strikes' are even threatening, the most politic as well as the most profitable method of dealing with the whole difficulty may lie in the boldest and most generous spirit.-Fraser's Magazine.

Two articles upon the Mormon question have recently appeared in the North American Review. Neither contains a full statement of the case. The first one, presenting the side of the Gentiles, or anti-Mormon, was written by C. C. Goodwin, editor of the leading Gentile paper in Utah. It is very brief. The writer has been a resident of that Territory for too short a time to understand fully the condition of affairs. The other article is the production of George Cannon, one of the "Twelve Apostles,' and first counsellor to John Taylor, President of the Mormon Church. It gives in favor of polygamy the stale arguments with which the American people have been familiar for the past forty years. As the North American Review is extensively read in Great Britain, and as the Mormon missionaries are now active in nearly every portion of the British Empire, I have thought that a full statement of the situation in Utah might be interesting to English readers. Having for many years resided in the vicinity of Salt Lake City, both as a practising lawyer and as a United States or Federal judge, I have had unusual facilities for studying the problem which is daily assuming proportions of great magnitude in the American Republic.

Glorious and decisive was the action of the American nation in the suppression of one of the " twin relics of barbarism." The other is still permitted to overshadow a large section of this free and beautiful land. The result having

been accomplished as to the first, many even of its former advocates marvel that it was allowed to exist for so long a period. Very few are to be found who under any circumstances would advocate its restoration. Years hence the American people will be astonished that the other relic was tolerated by the various administrations of the nineteenth century. Of these twins the one that has been destroyed and the one that remains possessed many attributes in common. The most conspicuous of them is an exceedingly aggressive policy. Slavery was not content to remain within its original limits. Polygamy declines to be restricted by the boundaries of the great Territory of Utah. At the death of Brigham Young it was believed that the Mormon Church had received a severe blow. Its speedy downfall was predicted. Divided into many factions, each urging the claims of some favorite apostle to occupy the place of the departed prophet, the hierarchy was, indeed, in extreme danger of falling to pieces. But wise counsels prevailed. More was to be feared from the Gentiles than from the Saints. Several apostles were induced to postpone for a time their ambitious projects. John Taylor was chosen to the vacant presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Oppressed by old age and other infirmities, his election was nearly unanimous. To the conclave that selected him self-preservation and the retention of power formed the most important sub