311irrlInutu1to. .
A deputation, headed by Mr. Milner Gibson, and including a number of distinguished, scientific, naval, and commercial men, waited Kam Lord Palmerston to ask assistance in surveying the line of a proposed electric telegraph to America by the North Atlantic. Mr. Croaskey said the object with which the deputation had sought an interview with his lordship, was to call his attention to the new route which had been proposed for effecting telegraphic communication between this country and America via the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, and Labrador; and to ask the assistance of the Government in carrying out a complete survey and line of soundings along the proposed line. Colonel Shaffner, who has in a great measure surveyed the line, pointed it out on the map and gave ample explanations. Captain Allen Young concurred with Colonel Shaffner in the opinion that the project is practicable. Sir Ed- ward Belcher and Mr. Pease supported the request for a survey. Lord
Palmerston, who took great interest in the explanations, asked the depu- tation to give him in writing, with a detailed statement of the number of ships required, the routo over which the survey was wished, and the time that would probably be occupied by the expedition.
Some further explanations have been published. "It is at present in- tended that the European terminus shall be in the north of Scotland, whence the cable will be laid to the Faroe Islands, a distance of 230 miles, and thence to Iceland, a short length of 280 miles more. A land line then proceeds across part of Iceland to join the submarine cable on the western coast of that Wand, near or at the town of Reikiavik, whence the cable is intended to proceed direct to the southern end of Greenland, a distance of between 500 and 600 miles ; then, crossing by land lines from the eastern shore of Greenland to Julianshaab, a submerged line leads from that town to Ramilton's Inlet, on the coast of Labrador, a distance of about 600 miles more. Short land lines then continue the whole to the shores of the St. Lawrence, and are there placed in junction with those that traverse the United States. The first part of this intended route from the north of Scot- land to the Faroe Islands presents no difficulties whatever. The depth is at no part supposed to exceed 300 fathoms, the bottom is soft sand, and, with the exception of a much-weakened portion of the Gulf Stream, there are no currents. From Faroe to Iceland the water is deeper, but the bottom is said to be good and level, and the lowness of the temperature is favourable to the insulation of the land lines across Iceland to Iteikiavik. There is said to be no sea ice on either shore of Iceland at the points selected for landing, which could at all interfere with the shore ends of the cable. From Reikiavik to the southern end of Greenland is the longest sea stretch ; the depths vary from 1000 to 1500 fathoms ; and as far as has yet been learned from Arctic explorers, and the evidence of natives, no heavy ice is ever seen grounding in the bays selected as the landins-places. From the eastern shore of Greenland the line will be carried to Julianshaab, the seat of Government, and thence direct to Hamilton's Inlet, a distance varying from 500 to 600 miles, according to points chosen for landing or departure. This is the deepest portion of the route, averaging from 1500 to 1200 fathoms. The peculiar nature of the bottom round Hamilton's Inlet, it is said, prevents icebergs from proceeding along the shore, as it is proposed to carry the line under the lee, as it were, of a ledge of rocks that intercept the ice coming down from Davie and Hudson's Straits."
The subject was discussed at the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on Monday.
Mr. P. A. Taylor has forwarded 1001., and Sir Henry Hoare has sent 501., in aid of the Sicilian Fund.
Signor Saffi has published a letter in the newspapers denying, on authority, the authenticity of the proclamation to the Sicilians, imputed to Mazzini, which we quoted last week.
Sir Charles Barry, the eminent architect, died very suddenly on Saturday night. On the preceding day he was at his post at the great work of his life, the Palace of Westminster. He was sixty-five years of age atlas death. Thus he dies before his work is done.
The Dean of Westminster, on the application of the President of the Royal Institute of British Architects, has been pleased to grant permission that the remains of the late Sir Charles Barry, RA., be interred in West- minster Abbey. The funeral will take place on Tuesday next, at one o'clock precisely. Our obituary contains a record of the death of Byron's widow. She was born in 1794, and was married to Byron in 1815. A co-heir of the barony of Wentworth, she became, in 1856, on the death of Lord Scarsdale, Baroness Wentworth by writ. Her daughter Ada, Lady Lovelace, died in 1&52.
Theodore Parker, the eminent American author, died at Florence, on the 16th of May. He passed away without pain, and conversed to the last, regretting only that he could not live to finish much work he longed to do. A report has reached Washington that Mr. Townsend Harris, the well- known and highly-esteemed American Consul-General at Japan, is dead.
The Prince Regent of Prussia will take up his residence at Babelsberg at the close of the sittings of the Diet. The Prince and Princess Frederic William will remove to their new palace at Potsdam on the 24th of May. The Count de Elontemoliniand his brother have arrived in Paris.
The yacht Cassard, built for Prince Napoleon is being prepared for sea at Cherbourg. The Prince, it is said, intends visit:ing, in the Canard, the sea- ports in Canada and in the United States.
The Queen has purchased the picture of "the Governess," painted by Miss Osborn, and exhibited at the Royal Academy.
A conversazione will take place on Thursday, 21st of June, at the South Kensington Museum, for the purpose of raising a fund for erecting the building for the Female School of Art, 1860. By the gracious permission of the Queen' the Koh-i-noor diamond, which has been re-cut since the Exhibition (41851, will be exhibited, together with a collection of ancient and modern jewellery, which the council of the Fine Arts' Club has kindly consented to provide for this occasion. The Marquis of Salisbury will libe- rally contribute the services of the band of the Hertfordshire Militia for the night. The admission will be by tickets only, which may be obtained of any member of the committee of the Female School of Art, 37, Gower Street.
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