One of these relates to the insulation and protection of the wires, which are to pass over many miles of distance, to form the circuits between the stations. Mr. Morse has proposed several plans: the last being to cover the wires with cotton thread, then varnish them thickly with gum-elastic, and enclose the whole in leaden tubes. More practical and economical means will probably be devised; but the fact is not to be concealed, that any effectual plan must be very expensive. Doubts have been raised as to the distance to which the electricity of an ordinary battery can be made efficient; but your committee think that no serious difficulty is anticipated as to this point. The experiment with the wire wound in a coil, may not, indeed, be deemed conclusive; but one of the members of the committee assisted in an experiment in which a magnet was very sensibly affected by a battery of a single pair, through an insulated wire of two and three-quarter miles in length, of which the folds were four inches apart; and when a battery of ten pairs was used, water was freely decomposed. An experiment is said to have been made, with success, on the Birmingham and Manchester rail road, through a circuit of thirty miles in length. It may be proper to state, that the idea of using electricity for telegraphic purposes has presented itself to several individuals, and that it may be difficult to settle among them the question of originality. The celebrated Gauss has a telegraph of this kind in actual operation, for communicating signals between the University of Göttingen and his magnetic observatory in its vicinity. Mr. Wheatstone, of London, has been for some time also engaged in experiments on an electrical telegraph. But the plan of Professor Morse is, so far as the committee are informed, entirely different from any of those devised by other individuals, all of which act by giving different _directions_ to a magnetic needle; and would, therefore, require several circuits of wire between all the stations. In conclusion, the committee beg leave to state their high gratification with the exhibition of Professor Morse’s telegraph, and their hope that means may be given to him to subject it to the test of an actual experiment, made between stations at a considerable distance from each other. The advantages which this telegraph would present, if successful, over every kind heretofore used, make it worthy the patronage of the Government. These are, that the stations may be at a distance asunder, far exceeding that to which all other telegraphs are limited; and that the signals may be given at night, and in rains, snows, and fogs, when other telegraphs fail. R. M. PATTERSON, _Chairman_. No. 8.