The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph

"You will be pleased to hear that Mr. Bright has kindly brought the telegraph wire into the room in which we are sitting, and no sooner will the toast involving the mention of Mr. Field's name be given from the chair, than it will be flashed with lightning speed to Valentia, thence to Newfoundland, and if Mr. Field is at home, it is quite possible that he himself will receive it, ere the echo of your ringing cheers has died away in Liverpool." A message was at once sent from the room to Newfoundland, and a reply received back that Mr. Field had left for New York. In continuing his speech, Sir Stafford Northcote said: "I think there can be no doubt in the minds of those who have carefully examined the history of these transactions, that it is to Mr. Cyrus Field that we owe the practical carrying out of the idea which has borne such glorious fruit. I am sure there is none to whom we owe more, or whose name stands in prouder connection with this great undertaking, than the name of Mr. Cyrus Field." He called upon Sir Charles Bright to reply, who detailed somewhat the history of the enterprise from the very beginning in 1856, when "Mr. Cyrus Field, to whom the world was more indebted than to any other person for the establishment of the line, came to England upon the completion of the telegraph between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland." To the same effect is the testimony of a distinguished writer, W. H. Russell, LL.D., who was on board of the Great Eastern in 1865, as the correspondent of The Times, and wrote a very graphic History of the Expedition (p. 10):