And again he wrote:
“11 Carlton House Terrace,
“December 9, 1862.
“My dear Sir,—I have again to thank you for Among the Pines, a most interesting and, as far as I can judge, a most truthful work. It seems to open to view more aspects of society and character in the slave States than Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and to be written without any undue and bewildering predominance of imagination.
“I need not here stop even for a moment on the ground of controversy. We all vie with one another in fervently desiring that the Almighty may so direct the issue of the present crisis as to make it effective for the mitigation and even for the removal of a system which ever tends to depress the blacks into the condition of the mere animal, and which among the whites at once gives fearful scope to the passions of bad men and checks and mars the development of character in good ones.
“I remain, dear sir,
“Most faithfully yours,
“W. E. Gladstone.
“Cyrus W. Field, Esq.”
A very decided trait of Mr. Field was that when any business enterprise was proposed he planned every detail, drew up statements, and asked for statistics, and tried to determine the amount of work that it would be possible to accomplish, and for that reason it does not surprise us that before the money for the new cable was subscribed or the contracts signed he wrote to Mr. Reuter, and received this reply:
“Reuter’s Telegraph Office,
“London, November 19, 1862.
“Dear Sir,—I have received your letter of the 18th inst., wherein you ask whether I consider that a single wire from Ireland to Newfoundland would be sufficient, and what amount of business I think I should send through an Atlantic cable the first year.
“In reply to the first inquiry I should say from my own experience that a single telegraph wire between Ireland and Newfoundland would by no means be sufficient to meet the requirements of the public.