'Telegraph and travel. A narrative of the formation and development of telegraphic communication between England and India, under the orders of Her Majesty's Government, with incidental notices of the countries traversed by the lines.' [‎24] (57/782)

TELEGRAPH AND TRAVEL.
the Friend of India, dated the 6th April, 1854. Con-
temporaiy opinion is always of value when obtained
from a reliable source. In this case the high character
of the paper needs no evidence : but there is further
evidence than any contained in its columns to show that
the published eulogium was merely an act of justice :—*
" There is one officer who has been concerned in the successful
introduction of the Electric Telegraph, who has never received
his due meed of approbation from the public. To Mr. Stewart,
while acting as Superintendent of the experimental line, is due
the credit of making all those arrangements which are so es
sential to success, yet are so seldom appreciated. Partly from
the absence of any tangible result, and partly perhaps from the
impression that so very young an officer could lend no serious
aid to the work in hand, his services have been overlooked by
all except his superiors. Yet his task was by no means light.
The line was to be extended at once to Lahor, a distance of
1,280 miles ; Dr. O'Shaughnessy had expressed a wish that
depots should be established at seven different places, and
Government and the public were alike known to be feverishly
impatient for success. Meanwhile, each successive ship dis
charged in Calcutta a portion of the materials required. Forty
artificers arrived. Then came tons of wire, and miles of wire
insulated with gutta-percha, besides the machines for straighten
ing the lines. Thousands, or we may say hundreds of thousands,
of posts were to be fixed at equidistant places all along this
immense line, part of which runs through a tract where bain-
boos are only known by name, and where timber is an almost
unattainable luxury. Then all these posts were to be grooved.
"They_were to be set up 'properly,' a phrase which will be
readily comprehended by those who know what it is to instruct
native artificers to act according to rule on a work of which they
do not know the object or the reason. Lastly, all this was to be
effected in a country where there is but one road and no rail
ways,— where delay is a habit, and unconscious disobedience
perpetual,—and by an officer with no authority over anyone
l;i