s, with large commerce, and
with numerous manufactures of great value. Beyond it 250 miles is
Ningpo, with 300,000 inhabitants, and thriving manufactures of silks.
Eighty miles north is Shanghai, a city of not less than 200,000
inhabitants, and possessing a larger inland or native trade than any
other in China. Yet between these great marts there is no telegraphic
communication whatever,--nor, indeed, is there a line in any part of the
whole Chinese Empire. The company proposes, therefore, to connect these
great commercial cities, and, having done that, to carry on its line to
Nankin, with its 400,000 inhabitants, and thence to Pekin, which has a
population of 2,000,000, and is the capital of an empire spread over an
area of 5,000,000 square miles, and containing more than 420,000,000
souls, who pay to the Government an annual revenue of $120,000,000. It
may well be understood, that, for Government purposes alone, a line of
telegraph thus extending between the chief cities of China will prove of
incalculable value, alike in its use, and in its profits to those who
erect it and receive its income. The enterprise is a great one, but its
reward will be great. Its successful accomplishment seems to be well
assured; and New York may expect presently to claim the honor of first
giving to the oldest of existing empires the beneficent invention which
the newest of nations created, and at the same time of taking the final
step for the completion of the one great line which is to put all the
countries of the earth in instant communication.

A line from Calcutta to Canton is already undertaken by an English
company, with due authority from the British Government.

In Australia there are now in operation twelve thousand miles of
telegraph-wire. This Australian system, which is at present so purely
local and isolated, is nevertheless expected to be brought into
combination, by alternating submarine and island wires, with the Chinese
and Russian line above described.

The statistics of the telegraph-lines in Great Britain show not only an
increase in the number of lines, but a great augmentation in the amount
of business transacted. In 1861 there were 11,528 miles of line open for
public use; in 1862, 12,711 miles; and in 1863, 13,892 miles, comprising
65,012 miles of wire. Last year, the number of stations was augmented in
like proportion; and facilities were offered for the transmission of
telegraphic dispatches at no fewer than