350 FURTHER ATLANTIC CABLES. 



It required no slight self-control on my part, oppressed 

 as I was by this terrible intelligence, still to deliver 

 my address, which did not admit of postponement. 

 Only a few intimate friends had perceived my violent 

 emotion. Certainly I had hopes from the first moment, 

 that it was only a "love-token" of our opponents, to 

 cause this dread intelligence to be concocted in America, 

 whence it was telegraphed. And indeed it soon turned 

 out to be a baseless fiction. How the story originated 

 could never be found out, and after the lapse of 

 several anxious days the Faraday was reported safe 

 and sound from Halifax. It had for a considerable 

 time been detained at sea by a thick fog. 



The successful completion of the American cable 

 raised the London firm at a stroke to a far higher 

 level of English business - life than it had occupied 

 hitherto. The testing of the electric properties of the 

 cable by the highest authority in this department, Sir 

 William Thomson, had proved that it was entirely 

 faultless and possessed a very high signalling capacity. 

 It was of great importance that the cable ring, which 

 had been formed under Sir John Fender's auspices, 

 was now broken through. It is true the attempt was 

 made to restore it by subsequently admitting to the 

 ring the cable laid by us. This however was to our 

 advantage, for there was soon formed another, and 

 this time a French, company, which gave orders to our 

 firm to lay an independent cable. After a short time 

 this also was purchased by the Globe, as the cable 

 ring was called, but this led to American capital being 



