gentlemen who met round a table in London and put down £10,000 apiece. I hope the excellent Secretary of this company, Mr. Dean, who came with us across the ocean, will write its history and tell the world what life and vigor were comprised in its board of directors. The great telegraph construction and maintenance company, undaunted by the failure of last year, answered us with a subscription of £100,000; soon after the books were opened to the public through the eminent banking house of J. S. Morgan & Company, and in fourteen days we had raised the whole £600,000. [Loud applause.] Then the work began again and went on with speed. Never was greater energy infused into any enterprise. It was only the first day of March that the new company was formed and it was registered as a company the next day; yet such was the vigor and despatch that in five months from that day the cable had been manufactured, shipped on the "Great Eastern," stretched across the Atlantic, and was sending messages literally swift as lightning from continent to continent. [Prolonged cheers.]

way.

-a fine run across the

Yet this was not a "lucky hit ocean in calm weather; it was the worst weather I ever knew at that season of the year. In the despatch which appeared in the New York papers you may have read "the weather has been most pleasant." I wrote it "unpleasant." We had fogs and storms almost the whole Our success was the result of the highest science combined with practical experience. Everything was perfectly organized to the minutest detail. We had on board an admirable staff of officers, such men as Halpin and Beckwith; and engineers long used to this business, such as Canning, and Clifford, and Temple, the first of whom has been knighted for his part in this great achievement; and electricians such as Professor Thomson of Glasgow, and Willoughby Smith, and Laws; while Mr. C. F. Varley, our companion of the year before, who stands among the first in knowledge and practical skill, remained with Sir Robert Glass at Valentia, to keep watch at that end of the line, and Mr. Latimer Clark, who was to test the cable when done. Of these gentlemen Professor Thomson, as one of the earliest and most eminent electricians of England, has received some mark of distinc

tion. England honors herself when she thus pays honor to science; and it is fitting that the Government which honored chemistry in Sir Humphry Davy should honor electrical science in Sir William Thomson. [Applause.] But our work was not over. After landing the cable safely at Newfoundland we had another task, to return to mid-ocean and recover that lost in the expedition of last year. This achievement had perhaps excited more. surprise than the other. Many even now "don't understand it "; and every day I am asked "how it was done." Well, it does seem rather difficult-to fish for a jewel at the bottom of the ocean two and a half miles deep, but it is not so very difficult-when you know how. You may be sure we did not go fishing at random, nor was our success mere "luck"-it was the triumph of the highest nautical and engineering skill. We had four ships and on board of them some of the best seamen in England, men who knew the ocean as a hunter knows every trail in the forest. There was Captain Moriarty, who was in the "Agamemnon" in 1857-58. He was in the "Great Eastern" last year and saw the cable when it broke; and he and Captain Anderson at once took their observations so exact that they could go right to the spot. After finding it, they marked the line of the cable by a row of buoys; for fogs would come down and shut out sun and stars so that no man could take an observation. These buoys were anchored a few miles apart. They were numbered, and each one had a flag-staff on it, so that it could be seen by day, and a lantern by night.

Thus having taken our bearings we stood off three or four miles so as to come broadside on, and then casting over the grapnel we drifted slowly down upon it, dragging the bottom of the ocean as we went. At first it was a little awkward to fish in such deep water, but our men got used to it and soon could cast a grapnel almost as straight as an old whaler throws a harpoon. Our fishing-line was of formidable size. It was made of rope twisted with wires of steel so as to bear a strain of thirty tons. It took about two hours for the grapnel to reach the bottom, and we could tell when it struck. I often went to the bow and sat on the rope and could feel by the quiver that the grapnel was dragging on the bottom two miles under us.

[Applause.] But it was a very slow business. We had storms and calms and fogs and squalls. Still we worked on day after day. Once, on the 17th of August, we got the cable up, and had it in full sight for five minutes, a long slimy monster fresh from the ooze of the ocean's bed; but our men began to cheer so wildly that it seemed to be frightened, and suddenly broke away and went down into the sea. This accident kept us at work two weeks longer; but finally on the last night of August we caught it. We had cast the grapnel thirty times. It was a little before midnight on Friday night that we hooked the cable, and it was a little after midnight Sunday morning when we got it on board. [Cheers.]

What was the anxiety of those twenty-six hours! The strain on every man's life was like the strain on the cable itself. When finally it appeared it was midnight; the lights of the ship and in the boats around our bows as they flashed in the faces of the men showed them eagerly watching for the cable to appear on the water. At length it was brought to the surface. All who were allowed to approach crowded forward to see it; yet not a word was spoken; only the voices of the officers in command were heard giving orders. All felt as if life and death hung on the issue. It was only when it was brought over the bow and on to the deck that men dared to breathe. Even then they hardly believed their eyes. Some crept toward it, to feel of it to be sure it was there. Then we carried it along to the electricians' room to see if our long-sought treasure was living or dead. A few minutes of suspense and a flash told of the lightning current again set free. Then did the feeling long pent up burst forth. Some turned away their heads and wept. Others broke into cheers, and the cry ran from man to man and was heard down in the engine-rooms deck below deck, and from the boats on the water, and the other ships, while rockets lighted up the darkness of the sea. Then with thankful hearts we turned our faces again to the west. But soon the wind rose and for thirty-six hours we were exposed to all the dangers of a storm on the Atlantic. Yet in the very height and fury of the gale as I sat in the electricians' room a flash of light came up from the deep which, having crossed to Ireland, came back to me in mid-ocean telling

that those so dear to me whom I had left on the banks of the Hudson were well and following us with their wishes and their prayers. [Applause.] This was like a whisper of God from the sea bidding me keep heart and hope. The "Great Eastern" bore herself proudly through the storm as if she knew that the vital chord which was to join two hemispheres hung at her stern; and so on Saturday, September 7th, we brought our second cable safely to the shore. [Renewed applause.]

But the "Great Eastern" did not make her voyage alone. Three other ships attended her across the ocean -the "Albany," the "Medway," and the “Terrible,”the officers of all of which exerted themselves to the utmost. The Queen of England has shown her appreciation of the services of some of those more prominent in the expedition, but if it had been possible to do justice to all, honors would have been bestowed upon many others; if this cannot be, at least let their names live in the history of this enterprise with which they will be forever associated. When I think of them all-not only of those on the "Great Eastern," but of Captain Commerill of the "Terrible," and his first officer Mr. Curtis (who with their ship came with us not only to Heart's Content but afterwards to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to help in laying the new cable), and of the officers of the other ships, my heart is full. Better men never trod a deck. If I do not name them all it is because they are too many; their ranks are too full of glory. Even the sailors caught the enthusiasm of the enterprise and were eager to share in the honor of the achievement. Brave, stalwart men they were-at home on the ocean and in the storm-of that sort that have carried the flag of England around the globe. [Cheers.] I see them now as they drag to shore the end by the beach at Heart's Content, hugging it in their brawny arms, as if it were a shipwrecked child whom they had rescued from the dangers of the sea. God bless them all! [Applause.]

Such, gentlemen, in brief is the story of the telegraph which you have wished to hear. It has been a long hard struggle-nearly thirteen years of anxious watching and ceaseless toil. Often my heart has been ready to sink. Many times when wandering in the forests of Newfound

land in the pelting rain, or on the decks of ships on dark stormy nights-alone, far from home-I have almost accused myself of madness and folly to sacrifice the peace of my family and all the hopes of my life for what might prove after all but a dream. I have seen my companions one and another falling by my side and feared that I too might not live to see the end. And yet one hope has led

me on, and I have prayed that I might not taste of death. till this work was accomplished. That prayer is answered; and now beyond all acknowledgments to men is the feeling of gratitude to Almighty God. [Applause.]

Having thus accomplished our work of building an ocean telegraph we desired to make it useful to the public. To this end it must be kept in perfect order and all lines connected with it. The very idea of an electric telegraph is an instrument to send messages instantaneously. When a despatch is sent from New York to London there must be no uncertainty about its reaching its destination and that promptly. This we aim to secure. Our two cables do their part well. There are no way-stations between Ireland and Newfoundland where messages have to be repeated, and the lightning never lingers more than a second in the bottom of the sea. To those who feared that the cables might be used up or wear out I would say for their relief that the old cable works a little better than the new one, but that is because it has been down longer --as time improves the quality of gutta-percha. But the new one is constantly growing better. To show how delicate are these wonderful chords it is enough to state that they can be worked with the smallest battery power. When the first cable was laid in 1858, the electricians thought that to send a current two thousand miles it must be almost like a stroke of lightning; but God was not in the earthquake but in the still small voice. The other day Mr. Latimer Clark telegraphed from Ireland across the ocean and back again with a battery formed in a lady's thimble! [Applause.] And now Mr. Collett writes me from Heart's Content: "I have just sent my compliments to Dr. Gould of Cambridge who is at Valentia with a battery composed of a guncap with a strip of zinc excited by a drop of water the simple bulk of a tear!" [Renewed applause.] The telegraph that will do that we think