xii President's Address for the year 1887. 



Galvain, Volta, Oersted, Ampere, Coulomb, Weber, carried 

 on the work ; Ronalds, Cooke, Wheatstone, Davy, Steinbeil, 

 Morse, and others, commenced the practical application ; 

 Field, Sir W. Thompson, Fleming, Jenkin, John Pender, 

 and others, showed how it was possible to work a submarine 

 cable even across the Atlantic Ocean, while innumerable 

 workers of less note, gave valuable assistance by perfecting 

 details and adding to the ever growing stock of experimental 

 knowledge. And so it is, that a great invention is Hke a 

 coral reef, the aggregate results of the life long labours of 

 multitudes of workers, the majority of whom are soon 

 forgotten, and every one of whom is in a thousand ways 

 dependent on those who preceded or assisted him. 



And what will be the ultimate effect of this wondrous 

 system of communication ? One thing is certain, and that 

 it has already revolutionised commerce by enabling the 

 wants of one part of the world to be instantaneously known 

 in every other part. Another is, that it has facilitated in 

 an enormous degree, the government of large empires from 

 one centre. Fifty years ago, it took months for intelligence 

 to travel from distant parts of the British Empire to its 

 metropolis. The greatest disasters, physical or political, 

 miglit occur in Canada, India, or Australia, and weeks or 

 even months would pass before the news reached London, 

 and months more before assistance could be sent. But now, 

 if the remotest part of the empire be menaced, the fact is 

 immediately known at head quarters, and measures taken 

 accordingly. Thus, by the aid of the telegraph, the whole 

 empire can act in unison in meeting a common danger. 

 May we not look forward to the day when the whole world 

 shall be federated, when war shall be abolished, when 

 general questions shall be decided at one central metropolis, 

 into which information is continually pouring, and from 

 which commands are constantly proceeding to the most 

 distant parts of the earth with the speed of lightning. And 

 what of the effect of the telegraph upon the development of 

 the human mind ? What this will be we can hardly yet 

 imagine. For thousands of years, even the noblest and 



