It is part of Captain Sprye's plan to unite Rangoon and Hong- Kong by a line of overland wires: thus enabling news from Europe to reneh Hong-Kong before the mail steamer has finished coaling in Ceylon, and three weeks before she brings her mail to the most southerly of the Chinese ports. Of the practicability of this project there seems to be no question among persons on the spot. The Rangoon papers write in its favour, and the general body of mercantile men in the East regard it as perfectly feasible and most desirable.
Our English Government at first looked unfavourably on the
ESMOK, ON THE SOUTH-WEST OF CHINA.
(Rangoon Gazette, 19th May, 1863.)
ONE of the chief difficulties which has beset Captain Speye in his energetic attempts to bring about direct commercial communication between British Burmah and Western China, is the supreme ignorance of objectors. Sometimes the pro- vinces of China bordering on Burmah are described as being unfruitful and sterile, and the population sennty; sometimes all but impassable mountains are said to block up the way; and, among other ingenious guesses, to assist in bringing disfavour upon the project, is that started, we believe, by the Friend of India, viz., that "Famok is a myth." But there is now some chance of justice being done to the projector of this direct route. Mr. Bixby, of the Toungoo missionary establish- ment, is prosecuting inquiries regarding the South-Eastern Shan States, and South-Western China; and the result is, that such information as he has collected, inclines him to think favourably of Captain Sprye's proposition. The province of Yunan has been described to him as populous and productive, and Samoke, or Esmoke (Esmok), as a large and wealthy city, inhabited chiefly by Chinose, but partly by Shans and other races.
In our extract columns we give Mr. Bixby's letter in full from the Rangoon Times. It will, doubtless, attract the atten- tion of Captain Sprye, who is at this present time engaged in circulating among mercantile men at home the information which led to his conception of the practicability of an overland trade way from Rangoon to China. Mr. Bixby's inquiries, so far
LAND TELEGRAPH TO HONG-KONG AND THE CHINESE PORTS.
(Glasgow Herald, 14th July, 1863.)
some
A COMMITTEE of the House of Commons, taken aback by answers made to them by Brinsley the hydraulic engineer, in regard to a project under consideration, asked him abruptly what he thought Providence intended rivers for? What do I
think Providence intended rivers for?" repeated Brinsley, "why. to feed navigable canals, of course!" If Brinsley was entitled to the joke for the sake of the good philosophy in it-though the Chinese, whose commerce depends so much on their canals, would probably think that his raison d'être for rivers was quite ⚫ sufficient--much more might our utilitarian merchants be pardoned if they thought that God had created electricity with a special eye to the electric telegraph. In this mode of application it has
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proposition, and long snubbed it officially as an impracticable project. The treaty with Burmah, has, however, removed what was, in truth, the only serious difficulty in the way. we believe that if adequately pressed by mercantile bodies, like our Chambers of Commerce, the Government will be driven to take steps to remove any other difficulties, except those which should be left to private enterprise. The Manchester Chamber of Commerce has recently presented a second memorial on the subject, and Leeds has before now made representations in favour of thus opening up the West of China. Let not its energy flag.
as they have yet been prosecuted, are all in favour of Captain Sprye, and all against the crude surmises of the half informed, or else utterly ignorant people, who set themselves up for critics of his project.
(Rangoon Times, 16th May, 1863.)
FROM M. H. B., Torneo0, 4ra May, 1863.
"I noticed in your paper, a short time since, that the existence of such a city as Esmok, on the Chinese frontier, is questioned; that it was called 'a myth, &c., &c.
"I have taken some pains to ascertain the truth about it, but until to-day had been unable to get any reliable information from the Shaus. This morning I found a Shan, who came from Mung-la, opposite Estnok according to Yule's map, and, without giving hun any names, required him to give me an outline map of the country, with the names of all the principal places. Among the number of these I find Seing- sa-moke, which is, beyond question, Esmoke. It is a Shan word. Being means a Buddhist temple, or zayat, and sa-moke is descriptire of the land upon which it stands. The city is called, therefore, quite naturally, Sa-moke; and Esmok and Samoke are quite as similar, as Doo- way and Tavoy, Mau-lamyeing and Maumain, "Pyeemnico and Prome, Sittoung and Sitting, and many other Burman names anglicised.
"Sa-moke is said to be a large city, inhabited principally by Chinese, but with a large admixture of Shans, and other races.
The country around must be very populous and wealthy.
"Judging from the accounts given me by natives, Funan must be a remarkable country, both as it regards the people, and the natural productions. More complete and reliable information will be forth- coming. Such data as I have lead me to think favourably of Capsain Sprye's project."
subserved our highest worldly interests to an extent which could never have been anticipated. It has quickened all the pulses of the commercial world. It has gone far to annihilate the disad- vantages, without impairing the benefits, of distance. It has brought London nearer to Glasgow, for purposes of communica- tion, than Eaglesham or Busby, without causing our city to be obscured in the shadow of its mighty presence. It has brought the rich and fruitful countries that are washed by the bluc waters of the Mediterranean Sea within quicker reach than Campbeltown or Islay, without drawing them away from under their fructifying skies. In short, it has brought every place to which its magic wires are stretched for nearer for
purposes of supply, while leaving them all their former advantages for pur- poses of production."
There is no nation on the earth to which the telegraph has become so important, and to which it offers such splendid ad-
vantages, as our own. It is one of our grandest boasts that the sun never sets on our possessions. Before he leaves us in the evening he is already smiling on our friends in Canada. Before he has lost sight of British America his beams are lighting up the distant shores of New Zealand and Australia; he turns his eyo from Australia only to let it light on our vast empire in India; and before he bids good night to the Himalayas he is kindling the golden ball of St. Paul's Cathedral, and the gilded vanes of our Glasgow churches, and calling our teeming millions to their daily work. To connect these scattered portions of our vast empire--- to knit them together as by a beautiful and delicate nervous system, so that all the parts, with the advantages of separation, shall enjoy the advantages of proximity, and the remotest extre- mities shall feel and thrill with every pulsation of life from the central heart-this is a work which one agency aloue can effect, and that agency is the telegraph. The splendid advantages to be derived in every way-political, military, and commercial-- from bringing our colonies and dependencies into constant, easy, and rapid communication with one another, are too obvious to need specification; and our Government, we are glad to see, is becoming more and more alive to its importance.
Last mouth we called attention to the approaching completion of the telegraph wires from England to India, viá Arabia and the Persian Gulf, and to the good prospect there now is of seeing the telegraphic system of Europe and India united, by this route, We shall thus be in full before the close of the present year. telegraphic communication with Calcutta, and-wid Calcutta- with Rangoon and Shoue-Gyen (Shway-Gyean) in Eastern Pegu, over the following distances, in geographical miles :---
London to Belgrade, in European Turkey Belgrade to Constantinople
900 450
Constantinople to Bussorah, in Asiatic Turkey Bussorah to Kurrachee, in British India.
1100
1050
Karrachee to Calcutta
1155
Calcutta to Dacca
135
480
130
Dacca to Rangoon
Rangoon to Shooe-Gyen
This gives a total air-liue length of 5,400 miles of telegraph from England eastward; or, by the addition of one-fourth to cover deviations in following existing roads along the route, about 6,750 geographical miles in all. Of these, there will be 5,625 miles (that is, the entire line, save from England to Belgrade) either on British territory or under British control, and worked by English signallers. We are thus on the eve of realising what may well take its place as one of the greatest wonders, and certainly one of the most valuable achievements of this age--an unbroken line of telegraphic communication from England to Shooe-Gyen, on the south-west of China.
THE COMMERCIAL TREATY WITH BURMAH. (Manchester Guardian, 21st July, 1863.)
In the Guardian of the 18th altimo we published the text of the treaty concluded with the King of Burmah on the 10th of November. We will here notice those provisions of it which seem to us to posseas most interest to home manufacturers, merchants, and shipowners.
Article 4 of the treaty, referring to goods imported into Rangoon from any British or foreign territory, for export to the Burmese territory, stipulates that--"If such goods are declared
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There are few of our inerchants, if they look at their maps and follow the route we have described, who will not feel their mouths watering, in a figurative sense, when they find the tele- graph so terminating in Pegu. Their eyes will traverse, with eager and wistful glance, the narrow overland space that separates Shooe- Gyen from that mighty gateway of our commerce with China-- Hong-Kong; and they will naturally ask themselves wix the Home and Indian Governments, having wisely and successfully carried the wires so far, should not carry them the little farther that is thus needed to bring Hong-Kong into direct telegraphic communication with Loudon? The distance, compared with that which will so soon be traversed by the telegraph to India, is insignificant, and 120 miles of it would be over British territory. We should then, according to the detail statement of the Mossrs. Sprye hereon, have 279 miles from the north-east frontier of British Pegu, across Barmalı, by the cities of Kiang- Tang and Kiang-Hung, to Sr-mau (Esmok) on the south-west frontier of China. Thence along the imperial roads, down the Pearl and West River valleys, through six or seven of the prin- cipal Southern Chinese cities, to Canton, would be 757 miles; with 70 more from that city to Hong-Kong. These distances yield a total of only 1,226 geographical miles, or, by adding one-fourth, as before, for deviations, 1,534.
Being then on the eve of completing an unbroken line of telegraphic communication from London as far as Eastern Pegu, a distance of 0,750 geographical, or ahont 7,100 English, miles, it becomes a question of great and pressing importance, especially to our merchants and shipowners, in view of the vast interests which we now have springing up in China, whether the Home and Indian Governments should not take the steps uecessary for carrying the wires over the 1,500 miles of land that separate us from Hong-Kong. The project is not new. For several years the Messrs. Sprye, whose names are well known in connection with our commercial system in the East, have been pressing on both Governments the importance of thus extending the Indian wires, by land, from Pegu to Hong-Kong and the open ports of China; and have spared no pains in endeavouring to satisfy them and the public as to the practicability of the proposal. In anticipation of the completion of oar telegraphic connection with India and Eastern Pegu, their project (which embraces the opening up of trade with the whole of the rich inland provinces of Western China) is daily attracting a larger share of public attention; and the Manchester Chamber of Commerce have now, for a second time, memorialised the Government in its favour. Having stated its nature and extent as fully as our space allows, we may proceed, when leisure permits, to discuss its manifest merits, for England and India, over the Russian- Siberian-Mongolian line to the north of China.
"for export to other territories, and not for sale in the Burmese "territory, the Burmese ruler shall, if he believes the manifest "to be true, not cause bulk to be broken, and such goods shall "be free of duty."
Now, the western provinces of China comprise the only "other territories" beyond Burmah that can be commercially approached from Rangoon.
Another most valuable provision in the treaty, in reference to the opening of direct trade between Eastern Pegu and China across Burmah, is that part of article 7 which provides that:-- "British merchants shall be allowed to settle and to have lands
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