From The New York Tribune. SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH TO EUROPE.

THE written history of mankind or general history as it is called is thus far simply political. It vibrates between red-tape and the long-knife. It puts cause after effect. It not only makes material industry-the hewing, plowing, digging, building, cooking, weaving man and his works subordinate to the fighting-man, the law-writer and administrator, but it omits to mention him altogether. The King builds the city. The mason is passed over along with his bricks and mortar. Mr. Webster saves the country. Mr. Clay saves the country. Mr. Jones saves the country. Mr. Smith saves the country. Mr. Brown saves the country-and so on.

The line from Ireland to Newfoundland is to be constructed by a European Company of which M. Brett, who has laid down most of the submarine telegraphs of Europe, is a prominent member. The capital of this Company is two millions sterling, and the contracts-already perfectedfor the completion of the work require that it shall be ready for operation by Jan. 22, 1858less than three years hence. The cable of this part of the line is to contain six telegraphic wires-like the great Mediterranean cable now being laid down-and is to weigh eight tuns to the mile. In laying it down of course several steamers will be required, as no single vessel could contain the enormous weight of the entire mass; but the ingenious manufacturers, Messrs. W. Kaper & Co. of London, have contrived In reading the historians one is mentally col- means of so splicing it as to render the joints lapsed at the crises which they portray. Histo- quite as strong and quite as serviceable as any rians however must have subjects. They cannot other part of the line. Thus when one steamer take the quiet growths of cultivated nature-the has paid out her portion of the cable, the end noiseless harvest-or the myriad little clinks of will be spliced upon the coil on board of the next industry's loom and hammer. Out of these steamer, and so on till all is down. Should a comes no distinct picture. Man, after all the storm arise during the process, the exceeding philanthropic talk, hates multitudes. He will strength of the cable, formed as it is of a mass of have a hero. As soon expect a novel reader to heavy iron wires wound spirally around the thick devour three volumes about a crowd without tarred envelope and gutta percha cords which some ideal maiden upon whom to bestow the contain the electric conductors, will be sufficient wealth of his erotic heart-without some ruffian to hold the steamer as if she were at anchor until to grit his teeth upon-without some fuss gene- the gale is over. Of course the work will be done rally to be rainbowed into climacteric ecstasy or in the Summer months when there is little dandarkened into dying agony-as to expect a his-ger of interruption from tempests. The cable, torian to deal with the calm, obscure generalities when once sunk upon the bottom, will remain which really make up the progress of the world. there forever, below the range of marine animals, As soon as the Devil is hissed the reader throws and safe from all disturbance. It would be diffi down Paradise Lost; as soon as Geo. Washing-cult to fix a limit to its duration after it is once ton retires to his farm he is common-place. successfully bedded. When the lovers are made happy the play ends.

Of the Company which has undertaken the cis-Atlantic portion of the work we have often We are now however about to witness some- had occasion to speak. It is composed of some thing which our old fashioned historians would eight or more wealthy gentlemen, who propose despatch in a line or a note, though worth a vol- to build the entire line from St. Johns, Newume or library or many libraries. We mean the foundland, to New-York with their own resources. telegraphic communication between America and Peter Cooper is the President and Moses Taylor Europe, precedent to its extension round the the Treasurer of this Company, and Cyrus Field, globe. This is too large a theme for any single one of its members, has just returned from Euhero. It is an idea. And yet the parties engag-rope, where he went to consummate the arrangeed in its realization regard it as already certainment with the European Company. The Ameto be carried out. The experience of the Black rican part of the line will be 1,200 miles in Sea telegraph for instance is thought to be con- length, 71 miles of which will be under the Gulf clusive, if shorter lines previously established of St. Lawrence, and the cost of the whole is eswere not. From Balaklava to Varna the wires timated at a million and a half of dollars. The stretch under water more than 350 miles, and not wires across Newfoundland will make 400 miles the slightest difficulty is experienced in using of the line, running. through a country hitherto them. There can then be no difficulty in send- unoccupied and unknown. In the cutting of the ing electricity across the Atlantic by the same path and other preparatory labors the Company means. The length of the wires from Ireland to have had 400 men employed during the past Newfoundland will be some 1,750 miles; they year in that island alone. They have been libewill lie on the sandy plain, which the soundings rally aided with grants of land from that colony, of our Government have shown to stretch from and have obtained advantageous charters and land to land for the whole distance, with the ex-grants elsewhere. From our last English jourception of about two hundred miles next to the nals we learn that the cable to go under the Gulf Irish coast, where the bottom becomes irregular and the water deeper. The actual distance is some 1,600 miles only, but it will be necessary to make a detour with the wires in order to carry them around the Banks where icebergs often ground, and where the cable might be broken by their weight and friction.

of St. Lawrence was about to be shipped, and we may accordingly soon expect to be able to receive despatches from St. Johns as easily and regularly as we now do from New-Orleans. This cable contains three electric wires only, it being contemplated to lay down another of the same size when the European wires have been brought

gone.

across and the business between New-York and only that curious interest which belongs to old London requires it. letters and old newspapers; we shall read them Meanwhile, as soon as communication is open-with pleasure perhaps, but their freshness will be ed with St. Johns, it is expected that the Collins steamers will regularly call there to take in coals The gigantic triumphs of modern science and and deliver the news. This alone will bring us industry are matters so trite and threadbare that two days nearer to Europe in point of intelli- they are now rarely referred to except in some gence, St. Johns being two days' sail beyond Hal- dinner speech or anniversary oration, but still it is ifax. The advantage of taking a smaller stock impossible to contemplate the probability of such of coal and carrying more freight will suffice to an achievement as we have described without a render this arrangement a most profitable one for glow and a thrill at its sublime audacity and its the steamers. Finally in three years the commu- magnificent uses. When events, discoveries. nication from Europe to America will become projections, business speculation, love and war. instantaneous, and then the steamers will no may all be flashed unerringly from hemisphere longer be of any value as bearers of news. When to hemisphere ten thousand feet beneath the surwe find in THE TRIBUNE every morning a co-face of the sea, stolidity itself must expand into lumn or two of telegraphic despatches, narrating wonder and delight. Where then will be time every interesting event of the previous day in and space, the ancient limitations of humanity? Europe and Asia-for the magical wires are be- Annihilated by that industrious hand and that ing extended thither also-we shall care but little scientific genius with which Man was endowfor files of journals and correspondence that ed when he was set to subdue and to rule the reach us ten days old. These can then possess earth!

WHILE and wile-Though "to wile away the time," "to beguile the time," is certainly very good English, yet that is not a sufficient reason for exploding the common explanations of while. If we look to the old usages of the word, we shall find it to be, in the Wiclif Bible, the established rendering of the Latin vicissitudo. In the Epistle of James i. 17., where the modern version has "no shadow of turning," the old version is, "no schadewe of whilenes" ("nec vicissitudinis obumbratio").

"To wheel," is to roll or turn round: while and wheel are evidently of the same family.

While, s., is "a turn, or time of taking to turn." "To while," is, to turn, or, take a turn, e. g. until dinner is ready.

Ainsworth interprets, " to while," otiari. Johnson, "to loiter; to draw out or consume time in a tedions way.'

Richardson, "to pass away or spend time in doing something merely to pass it away."

"The whiling time, the whiling moments," of Addison, do not necessarily imply tediousness. They may be spent in what our word pastime is usually employed to denote: in diversion, or amusement; so "to pass away the time, as to prevent it from hanging an intolerable burden on our hands." (See Trench, On the Study of Words, p. 9.)

Farther, the Dutch wyl is our while; and the D. verwylen is our "to while." "To while off a business," is "Een zaak verwylen."

In Moso-Gothic, and modern northern languages, "to while" is otiari, quiescere, to pass the time leisurely or quietly; and Ihre adds, "Proprie idem significare videtur, ac cessare, vel interstitium laboris facere, a hweila, intervallum >mporis."

hope I have said enough to satisfy your inus correspondent, that we cannot allow him or beguile us from our old persuasions. ad Queries.

LORD BACON AND SHAKSPEARE.

The suggestion of THETA for an inquiry why these two great contemporaries make no mention of each other, has not, I believe, produced any result. It might, I think, be very reasonably accounted for by several circumstances of dissimilarity of condition and pursuits, and especially the fact that Shakspeare died before Bacon had published, or perhaps written, any of his celebrated works, or was otherwise known than as a successful lawyer. There can be little doubt that Bacon must have seen some of Shakspeare's plays acted, and may even have read some of them in the imperfect quartos; but the first collection of them in the folio of 1623 was but three years prior to Bacon's death, who could not, till then, have been acquainted with the full extent of Shakspeare's genius; and at that late period, or even earlier, it is not likely that the great le gist and philosopher should have any occasion to allude to the great dramatist and poet. These reasons might, I think, reasonably account for the mutual silence of their works; but I suspect that Bacon and Shakspeare knew much more of each other than either had any ambition to record. We know but too well how little satisfaction Bacon could have had in recalling to notice the proceedings against Essex and Southampton, in which a tragedy of Richard II. formed a prominent feature. This tragedy, altered for the occasion, the actors were bribed to play the night before Essex's insurrection, to inflame the public mind; and I cannot but suspect that Shakspeare himself was employed by Southamp ton on this occasion, and that Southampton's long friendship and munificent patronage of Shakspeare date from this event; and if so, there was good reason why Bacon and Shakspeare should not have much liked bringing their names together.-Notes and Queries.

C.

From Chambers's Journal.
A RUSSIAN PRIEST.

but what meat! Our hunger was much more frequently appeased by ill-treatment and want of exercise than by food.

For our dress, each boursak received a frockcoat and a touloup, or sheep-skin pelisse, every three years, and a felt carpet, which served him as a bed during his whole sojourn at the seminary. A very small sum was also allowed for cap,

SOME years since, a remarkable work appeared in Russia, Memoirs of a Russian Priest, edited by Ivan Golovine. A French translation of it was published in Paris in 1849; but hitherto, so far as we can ascertain, it has remained unknown in this country. Passing events give peculiar in-boots, and linen. terest to details illustrative of Russian manners and customs; and our good monk, writing from a Russian monastery of the Order of St. Basil, says:*When this history shall see the light, it will be too late to tear out my eyes, for they will be closed by death. I shall be deaf to the reproaches it will excite. May they not extinguish the truths which I tell!"

"There were six classes in our seminary, whose studies professed to include the whole range of human learning; but the performance differed much from the promise. I was considered one of the best pupils; yet, with the exception of Latin, everything I know was learned after I left the establishment. During the latter part of my sojourn there, I was made teacher of Ger"I was born," says our anonymous writer, "in man, although I never knew a word of that lan1782, at Porkhov, of the priestly caste. My fa-guage. All our professors were monks; and the ther was a priest, and my mother a priestess-ignorance of the Russian monks is notorious. popadia-a title given to the wife of a priest, al- Amongst them, audacity supplied the place of though she does not in any way participate in learning; and if there be more merit in teaching the sacred office. From the cradle, therefore, I what we do not know than what we do, they cerwas destined to the service of the church; for it tainly possessed that merit in a high degree. is a rule, from which it is very difficult to obtain As they always had the book open before a dispensation, that the son of a priest must fol- them, and followed the pupils in their recitalow his father's profession. tions, they themselves usually learned a little in the end.

"At the age of nine years, I was placed in the seminary of Pskov. Even now, its very name "I never had much vocation for the ecclesiascauses a shudder to pass through me, at the re-tical profession; nor was my sojourn at the secollection of what I suffered there from cold. Iminary calculated to overcome the dislike I felt fancy I still see the slender wooden tower; I can at the idea of becoming a priest. Indeed, there hear the tinkling bell which summoned us to study, and the hoarse voice of the inspecting monk; I recall the gloomy passages in which we were crowded, while awaiting the opening of the classes; but the memory of the intense cold I endured, freezes me whenever it recurs. I spent thirteen years at the seminary in learning what it took me but one year to forget.

are very few individuals amongst the Russian priesthood who embrace their profession as a matter of choice. The tyranny to which they are subjected is most oppressive. In the district of Kholm, a priest had been consulted by the peasants on the question as to whether they had a right to appeal to the authority of government against the tyranny of their masters. The papa "The government allowed 2000 paper rubles wrote to St. Petersburg, to a functionary with (about £90) for the annual support of forty in- whom he was acquainted. He received an antern pupils, and the payment of some twenty pro-swer to the effect, that all discontented serfs who fessors. It was therefore not surprising that our complain are severely punished-one-half of the apartments were left unwarmed even in the depth of winter. The piercing air, when far below freezing-point, found no other corrective than the pupils' breath. In winter, our studies commenced before sunrise. We rushed pell-mell into a gloomy hall, and crowded together until the class rooms opened. In order to warm ourselves, we used to box and wrestle. The entry of the inspecting monk, half asleep, and more than half drunk, always reduced us to silence; but not content with this result, he used regularly to seize the first luckless wight who came near him, and transfer him to the porter, who had the charge of administering the rod. In this way, the innocent suffered quite as often as the guilty. There were extern pupils in the establishment, who were lodged and fed by their parents; and interns, or boursaks, who were necessarily orphans. On my father's death, which took place when I was in my fourteenth year, I was admitted amongst the latter.

"As to our food, they certainly gave us meat;

hair and beard is shorn, and they are branded as rebels and liars. The papa shewed this letter to the peasants, and for doing so, he was banished to Siberia. Another priest employed a portion of the parochial revenues in repairing the church; for this he was brought to trial, and sentenced to be transferred to a remote and desert parish. The poor man was so overwhelmed with grief, that he died ere the sentence could be carried into effect. Having some aptitude for study, I wished to become a lay-professor in one of the colleges; but my intention having come to the ears of the archimandrite, his high reverence caused me to be informed, that if I persisted in my design, he would use his influence to have me made a soldier. Knowing that opposition would be vain, I resigned myself to my fate, and became a priest."

As a necessary preliminary to ordination, our author took a wife. His next step in life was to become chaplain to a rich landed proprietor, named Streschneff. This gentleman, although unhappily, through his French education, a freethinker in matters of religion, appears to have treated the priest in a far more kind and liberal

manner than is usual in Russia, where the lower clergy are almost invariably regarded as a degraded caste. His son, Alexis, an amiable young man, and captain in the Russian army, during one of his visits to his home, took so strong a liking to his father's chaplain, that he invited him to accompany him in the approaching campaign against the French-it was in 1807-promising him the post of regimental chaplain. The pro- "Absorbed in grief for my friend, I followed posal seems to have been very agreeable to the in the retreat mechanically. A Cossack sold me papa; and accordingly, having obtained permis- a French horse for two ducats. I found linen sion from the archbishop of the diocese, he and and tobacco concealed in the saddle; yet every his young friend speedily found themselves on one told me I paid much too large a sum. The the road to St. Petersburg. animal, however, was of essential service to me "Nothing," he says, was talking of on our in our rapid flight to the frontier. After havjourney but the great victory gained by the Rus-ing crossed it, we burned the bridge over the sians over the French at Eylan. I could not, Niemen; and shortly afterwards the two emperors however, help suspecting that the victory on our had their memorable meeting on the raft at Tilsit. side was not quite so real.

"Soon afterwards the rout became complete Ten or twelve soldiers might be seen carrying one wounded man, as an excuse for getting away from the combat. One general of the Guards passed close by me. The Grand Duke Constantine asked him where he was going. I have got the colic,' he replied, pressing his hand on his stomach.

66

"On returning to Russia, our regiment passed "Besides the divine services which I had to through the government of Pskov, my native perform for the regiment, it was my duty to district. We halted two days at Petschora, where teach the soldiers to repeat the names and titles there is a rich monastery. The superior invited of the imperial family. This lesson took place me to dinner, together with the colonel and some every Saturday; and I confess I could never en- of the officers. He showed us the treasures of dure to witness the blows which these poor the monastery, of which the greater part was given people received for making the slightest mistake by Ivan IV., surnamed the Terrible. When this in the titles or order of precedence of the mem- tyrant came into Lithuania, Cornelius the supe bers of the august house. In the month of rior of the convent, represented to him that, owMarch 1807, we rejoined Benningsen and the ing to its proximity to the frontier, the monastechief body of the army on the shores of the Pre-ry was in danger of being attacked by the enegel and the Alle. The state of the troops was my, and asked and obtained permission to fortify deplorable; provisions ran short, and the men it. When the war was ended, the czar passed were discontented at not being commanded by a again through Petschora, and, forgetting the perRussian. We, chaplains, were expected to sup- mission which he had granted, flew into a fearful port and encourage the minds of the soldiers, passion at the sight of the towers and ramparts and prettily some of us accomplished the task. which had been raised. Cornelius coming to Superstition came in aid of the stick-that great meet him, the czar struck him down with the Russian captain. The soldier, having given his blow of a club on his head, and laid him dead at oath to serve the czar to the last drop of his his feet. So far is matter of history; but the leblood, thought he should go to perdition if he gend goes on to say, that the holy man picked drew back; to paradise, if he died with courage. up his head, tucked it under his arm, and then Our business was to fan this flame. "Take quietly stepped down into the vaults where he courage," some of my colleagues used to say; still reposes. Remorse seized upon Ivan, as soon "it is only in this world that you will have to as his fury was passed; by way of atonement, serve the nobles; in the next, they will be placed he bestowed a quantity of valuables on the moon funereal piles, and you will have to fetch nastery. He was the most pious and most cruel wood to burn them." Some of the fellows, when of tyrants. Streschneff was right when he said. they were certain of not being overheard by their that the atrocities of sovereigns were by no means officers, would reply; "We shall have to go a prevented by the faith which they professed. long distance for the wood."

The Russian is by nature a soldier; and the blindness of his rulers must be very great, when they think it necessary to sustain his courage by the terror of blows.

"I shall not enter into any details of the campaign until the battle of Friedland. That was

"One of our officers discovered in the monas tery a monk vowed to solitude, a skhimnik, and spoke to us of him with enthusiasm. I expressed a desire to see him; but the superior dissuaded me, saying he was a particularly uninteresting drunkard."

Becoming tired of his semi-military career, our a disastrous day for me; for my brave and kind author resigned his post of chaplain, and occu. young friend, Alexis Streschneff fell in action. pied himself in extending his own literary ac His company showed some reluctance to ad-quirements, and in instructing the sons of some rance. Many in the ranks cried out: " Whither nobles. His account of his adventures is interis the German leading us?" Alexis brandishing his sword exclaimed: "If a German commands you, a Russian leads you on. Forward!" Scarcely had he spoken, when a ball struck him in the breast. Some soldiers raised him in their arms and bore him to the rear. I was with him instantly; he pressed my hand, invoked my blessing, and murmuring, "Tell my father that my last thought was for him!" expired.

mingled with some piquant anecdotes. Speak ing of the death of the Emperor Paul I., he says: After this event, it was ordered to be proclaimed in every church that his majesty had died in consequence of a "violent stroke of apoplexy." A village priest, ignorant of the terms of medical policy, could make nothing of the word apo. plexy, and substituted for it a Russian phrase which has nearly the same sound, po pleschi (on