‘Is the telephone, yes or no, destined to replace other telegraph instruments; and seeing the possibility that people may use it without special training, is it in the end destined to destroy the career of telegraph employés? Those questions merit from us the labour of being examined with care. We think that that instrument will never be able to be employed in telegraphic working destined to serve governments and the public. In effect, supposing the instrument perfect, arrived at the last limits of perfection, and able to work at all distances with or without relays, then‒1. To transmit a message with all the advantages offered by the system, it would be necessary that the sender should be able to speak himself directly with the receiver, without the intervention of an employé. Now, all those who know the organisation of the lines know that this is not possible, that there must necessarily be intermediary offices of deposit, that the public cannot be admitted to the offices where messages are transmitted or received, and consequently the sender must give his message _written_. 2. An employé once charged with the message, the instrument has already lost one of its principal advantages, for that employé must read the message, and pronounce it to his correspondent; but if the message is written in a foreign language, the impracticability is evident. Lastly, the telegraph administrations now possess instruments which permit them to send messages with much greater speed than can be attained in sending them by the voice. Those reasons alone, and there are many others, ought then to assure the employés that this new invention will not put in peril their means of existence. ‘This is not to say that the telephone will not be utilised. On the contrary, it will probably be much used, but in special cases and for private use. For example: To put any chief in immediate relation with his employés in offices or manufactories; for the police of towns for announcing fires; for service of mines; to replace with advantage electric bells in many cases; and in a crowd of circumstances not yet foreseen. Let us wish then good success to this invention, which does honour to the era of steam and electricity.’ THE INTELLIGENT MOUSE.