MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 15 



The expedition of 1857, and the two expeditions of 1858, were 

 joint enterprises, in which the ' Niagara ' and ' Susqnehanna 'took 

 part with the ' Agamemnon,' the ' Leopard,' the ' Goi-gon,' and the 

 ' Valorous ' ; and the officers of both navies worked with generous 

 rivalry for the same great object. The capital of the Atlantic 

 Telegraph Company (£350,000) — except one-qnarter, which was 

 taken by myself — was subscribed wholly in Great Britain. Tiie 

 directors were almost all English bankers and merchants, though 

 among them was one gentleman whom we are proud to call an 

 Amencan — Mr. George Peabody — a name honored in two coun- 

 tries, since he has showered his princely benefactions upon both. 



"With the history of the expedition of 1857-8 you are familiar. 

 On the third trial we gained a brief success. The cable was laid, 

 and for four weeks it worked, — though never very brilliantly, — 

 never giving forth such rapid and distinct flashes as the cables of 

 to-day. 



*' It spoke, tliough only in broken sentences. But while it lasted 

 no less than 400 messages were sent across the Atlantic. You all 

 remember the enthusiasm which it excited. It was a new thing 

 under the sun, and for a few weeks the public went wild over it. 

 Of course, when it stopped, the reaction was very great. Peoj^le 

 grew dumb and suspicious. Some thought it was all a hoax ; and 

 many were quite sure that it never worked at all. That kind of 

 odium we have had to endure for eight years, till now, I trust, we 

 have at last silenced the unbelievers. 



" After the failure of 1858 came our darkest days. When a thing 

 is dead, it is hard to galvanize it into life. It is more difficult to 

 revive an old enterprise than to start a new one. The freshness 

 and novelty are gone, and the feeling of disappointment discour- 

 ages further eflbrt. 



" Other causes delayed a new attempt. This country had become 

 involved in a tremendous war ; and while the nation was strug- 

 gling for life, it had no time to spend in foreign enterprises. 



"But in England the project was still kept alive. The Atlantic 

 Teleoraph Company kept up its organization. It had a noble 

 body of directors, who had faith in the enterprise, and looked be- 

 yond its present low estate to ultimate success. I cannot name 

 them all, but I must speak of our Chairman, — the Right Hon. 

 James Stuart Wortley, — a gentleman who did not join us in the 

 hour of victory, but in what seemed the hour of despair, after the 

 failure of 1858, and who has been a steady support through all 

 these years. 



"Ail this time the science of submarine telegraphy was making 

 progress. The British Government appointed a commission to 

 investigate the whole subject. It was composed of eminent scien- 

 tific men and practical engineers — Galton, Wheatstone, Fair- 

 bairn, Bidder, Varley, and Latimer, and Edwin Clark — with the 

 Secretary of the Company, JMr. Saward — names to be held in 

 honor in connection with this enterprise, along with those of other 

 English engineers, such as Stephenson, and Brunei, and Wliit- 

 worth, and'Penn, and Lloyd, and Joshua Field, who gave time 

 and thought and labor freely to this enterprise, refusing all com- 



