EYES ON THE PACIFIC 221 
proposed modifications into your consideration, and, should they 
meet with your approval, I would beg the favor of your laying 
them before His Majesty the Emperor, with such suggestions as 
may seem to you advisable. 
It is important that I should know the views of His Imperial 
Majesty’s government at the earliest moment, as the Congress of 
the United States meets on the first Monday in December. 
I beg again to express my sincere thanks for the great kindness 
shown to myself by your Imperial Highness, and for the interest 
you have taken in the subject I have so much at heart. 
I have the honor to subscribe myseif, 
With great respect, 
Your Imperial Highness’s most obedient servant, 
Cyrus W. Field. 
For a mere American business-man to expect cooperation 
from the slow-moving and complicated Russian Government 
was perhaps a forlorn hope. Field may have been unduly ex- 
alted by the official greetings and royal glamour that he ex- 
perienced in Russia, without sensing that it was largely empty 
show with little significance. Still, Russia had helped Morse 
and had shown gratitude for the advantages of the telegraph. 
Moreover, Perry McDonough Collins had obtained coopera- 
tion from Russian bureaucrats in his scheme for an overland 
telegraph to connect Asia and America; in fact, he had nego- 
tiated successfully through the same Grand Duke Constan- 
tine, who, as General Admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy, 
understood the need for communication by cable. 
The enormous distances and lack of railroads throughout 
the great Russian empire had made its government ready to 
adopt the telegraph, which was particularly convenient in 
helping to quell insurrections. The problem of a six-thou- 
sand-mile ocean cable, however, costing fifteen million dol- 
lars was too much for the Russians, and they manifested small 
interest in Field’s memorial. He visited Russia again in the 
winter of 1872 but was discouraged by the apathy of the of- 
ficials. ‘The phlegmatic Russian temperament was too much 
