us recompense
for the amount of capital invested as the telegraph and telephone lines
in America. Considering the apparently temporary and short-lived
character of the structures erected for these purposes, it seems
difficult to comprehend the truth of this statement.

The method of telegraphic communication devised by Professor Morse has
been continued in general use in this country, but instead of requiring
separate wire for each circuit as formerly, six independent circuits are
now operated simultaneously over a single wire by the use of the
sextuplex apparatus.

(1846) REPEAL OF THE ENGLISH CORN LAWS, Justin McCarthy

After the repeal of the corn laws the tariff legislation of Great
Britain was guided by a new policy, that of free trade, and it has been
followed ever since. The reactionary tendencies of Continental Europe
after the fall of Napoleon reached also to England, where they
controlled the conduct of political affairs until Canning, in 1822,
became Secretary for Foreign Affairs. His policy was liberal and did
much in forming the public opinion that at length found voice in
Catholic emancipation (1829), in the Reform Bill (1832), and in the
abolition of slavery in the English colonies (1833). Then followed
important amendments of the poor-laws, extension of local governmental
powers in the towns, improvement of popular education, and other
reforms.

Through all this gradual progress in liberal government and public
amelioration, the need of another reform had been pointed out by some
thinkers and statesmen, and at last the condition of the country favored
the views of its advocates. The corn laws protected the English
producers by imposing heavy duties on imported grain. At one time these
duties practically prohibited such importation. McCarthy shows how the
laws operated upon the people, and his story of the memorable agitation
for their repeal and of the accomplishment of that object could not have
been better told.

In 1815 the celebrated Corn Law was passed, which was itself moulded on
the Corn Law of 1670. By the Act of 1815 wheat might be exported upon a
payment of one shilling per quarter customs duty, but the importation of
foreign grain was practically prohibited until the price of wheat in
England had reached eighty shillings a quarter, that is to say, until a
certain price had been secured for the grower of grain at the expense of
all the consumers in this country. It was not permitt