Mr. John Bright said, in a speech made at a dinner given on the evening of April 15, 1864:
“Just before I came here I was speaking to a gentleman, a member of Her Majesty’s government—one of the present Cabinet—and I told him, as I was coming out of the House, that I was going to dine with some friends of the Atlantic telegraph. His countenance at once brightened up, and he said to me: ‘I look upon that as the most glorious thing that man ever attempted; there is nothing else which so excites my sympathies.’ When he said that he spoke only the feelings of every intelligent and moral man in the whole world.”
But to carry out “the most glorious thing that man ever attempted” there was endless work awaiting him, and what he accomplished in three months is best told by himself, and is made to read continuously, although, in fact, the words were spoken at different times on the evening just referred to; he failed to say that he was one of the ten men who each subscribed £10,000:
“When I arrived in this country in January last the Atlantic Telegraph Company trembled in the balance. We were in want of funds and were in negotiations with the government and making great exertions to raise the money. At this juncture I was introduced to a gentleman of great integrity and enterprise, who is well known, not only for his wealth, but for his foresight, and in attempting to enlist him in our cause he put me through such a cross-examination as I had never before experienced. I thought I was in the witness-box. He inquired of me the practicability of the scheme, what it would pay, and everything else connected with it, but before I left him I had the pleasure of hearing him say that it was a great national enterprise that ought to be carried out, and he added, ‘I will be one of ten to find the money required for it.’ From that day to this he has never hesitated about it, and when I mention his name you will know him as a man whose word is as good as his bond, and as for his bond there is no better in England. I give you ‘The health of Thomas Brassey.’ The words spoken by Mr. Brassey ... encouraged us all, and made us believe we should succeed in raising the necessary capital, and I then went to work to find nine other Thomas Brasseys (I did not know whether he was an Englishman, a Scotchman, or an Irishman, but I made up my mind that he combines all the good qualities of every one of them), and after considerable search I met with a rich friend from Manchester, and I asked him if he would second Mr. Brassey, and walked with him from 28 Pall Mall to the House of Commons, of which he is a member. Before we reached the House he expressed his willingness to do so to an equal amount. A few days after that it was thought there would be a great advantage arising out of the fusion of the Gutta-percha Company and Messrs. Glass, Elliott & Co. into a public telegraph construction and maintenance company, who would in that form be able, with advantages to themselves, to help forward the Atlantic telegraph. Mr. Pender then entered into it heart and soul, and we have now a list of eminent capitalists in the United Kingdom pledged to carry out that enterprise in the very best manner. I therefore feel we are deeply indebted to Mr. Brassey and Mr. Pender for the energetic way in which this matter has been taken up by them, and I am truly glad to see the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company established with the object and power of carrying forward the extension of telegraphic communication in all parts of the world.
“The Great Eastern Ship Company have acted in the most liberal manner towards us, inasmuch as at present they are truly engaged in a labor of love. From this day to the 31st of December, 1865, we are to have the use of that magnificent vessel; and, if the cable be not successfully laid, we shall not have to pay a single shilling for the use of her. Should it be successful, we are then to hand to the directors of the Great Eastern Ship Company £50,000 in shares. In all my business experience I have never known any offer more honorable. I wish to say that those of you who last honored me with your company at dinner in this house will recollect that on that occasion I proposed the health of Mr. George Peabody and his worthy partner, Mr. Morgan, and the latter replied to the sentiment. I had stated in the course of my remarks preliminary to the toast that when I called upon him in 1856 he gave the name of his house as subscribers for £10,000 of the company’s stock. In reply to the toast, Mr. Morgan spoke of that £10,000 as lost money, but promised a further subscription, nevertheless, towards carrying out a new cable, and I am happy to say that yesterday he redeemed his promise. That statement that he lost his money is not strictly accurate. It is not lost. He knows where the cable is and can go and get it. The money has been sown, and the plant is already out of the ground, and is now growing up splendidly. It will soon be in flower—I mean at a premium—and then there will be in the office of Messrs. George Peabody & Co. more rejoicing over that £10,000 which was lost and is found than over any £99,000 of their profits that were never in danger. When I invited Mr. Morgan here this evening, he consented to come upon the express condition that he should not have to reply to any toast or make a speech. I will therefore give you a sentiment, which, remember, he is on no account to reply to; but I hope you have all, by this time, drunk enough wine to enable you to imagine what he would say in reply to it if he were under any obligation to respond. I ask you, then, to drink success to the house of Messrs. George Peabody & Co.”
Before his friends left him, he said:
“My stay in England is now drawing to a close, and never before when about to embark for America did I feel more satisfied and rejoiced at the position of our great undertaking; but with all this a feeling of sadness at times steals over me. It seems to me in those moments very doubtful whether many of us will ever meet again. What little I could do has been done, and the enterprise is now in the hands of the contractors, who, I am sure, will carry it out to a triumphant success. It will do much to bind together England and America, and base, indeed, will be the man, to whatever country he may belong, that may dare, with an unhallowed tongue or venomous pen, to sow discord among those who speak the same language and profess the same religion, and who ought to be on terms of the completest friendship. I shall leave in a few days for my native land, for I think it wrong on the part of any American to be away in the hour of peril to his country, unless it be on a mission of peace; his place is otherwise at home at such a moment. I will say, however, that if anyone here present should come to see us in America, he will receive a hearty welcome from me, at all events.”
The importance attached by his colleagues in the great enterprise to Mr. Field’s presence and personal participation in the task has often been made evident in these pages, and it is explicitly set forth in the following letter received by Mr. Field at a time when he considered that his duty to his family might require his immediate return to America:
“78, The Grove, Camberwell, S.,
“23d February, 1864.
“My dear Sir,—Before you finally decide on leaving England let me beg of you, in behalf of the great work for which you have already made so many sacrifices, and also in regard to your large pecuniary interest therein, to carefully consider the consequence of prematurely going away. You will recollect that on both of the two last occasions when you were good enough to cross the Atlantic on this business, I strongly urged you to remain until all the various matters preliminary to a fair start with the manufacture of the cable were concluded and the necessary arrangements finally settled; and had not your most natural anxiety to be again among your family prevailed, I do think you might have been spared at least your last voyage.