The work of laying the Atlantic telegraph cable has began.
The Great Eastern, with the cable on board, arrived at Valentia on Wednesday, having of course encountered very bad weather, as that vessel always does, and is now there waiting till the connection with the shore has been made. The final voyage will probably commence on Tuesday, and end, if there is no accident, about the 14th September. , The cable will be of course a triumph for science and a nuisance of the most unmanageable kind. The charge is to be a pound a word, and between the desire for con- densation, the wide field to be covered by the messages, and the inherent stupidity of Mr. Reuter's agents, half the news will be unintelligible, and the other half too pithy to create the true im- pression. 'History written in scraps is very exciting and very dangerous, and had the cable been laid before the Trent affair we should be probably at this moment at war.
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