It was in a speech made at Leeds early in October that Mr. John Bright had said:
“To-morrow is the greatest day in the United States, when perhaps millions of men will go to the polls, and they will give their votes on the great question whether justice shall or shall not be done to the liberated African; and in a day or two we shall hear the result, and I shall be greatly surprised if that result does not add one more proof to those already given of the solidity, intelligence, and public spirit of the great body of the people of the United States. I have mentioned the North American continent. I refer to the colonies which are still part of this empire, as well as to those other colonies which now form this great and free republic, founded by the old Genoese captain at the end of the fifteenth century. A friend of mine, Cyrus Field, of New York, is the Columbus of our time, for after no less than forty passages across the Atlantic in pursuit of the great aim of his life, he has at length by his cable moved the New World close alongside the Old. To speak from the United Kingdom to the North American continent, and from North America to the United Kingdom, now is but the work of a moment of time, and it does not require the utterance even of a whisper. The English nations are brought together, and they must march on together.”
And Mr. Bright also wrote:
“Rochdale, November 23, 1866.
“My dear Mr. Field,—I sent a short message to Sir James Anderson, that he might send it on to the chairman of the banquet. I have not heard from him since, but I hope it reached you in proper time. The words were as follows: ‘It is fitting you should honor the man to whom the whole world is debtor. He brought capital and science together to do his bidding, and Europe and America are forever united. I cannot sit at your table, but I can join in doing honor to Cyrus W. Field. My hearty thanks to him may mingle with yours.’
“This is but a faint expression of my estimation of your wonderful energy and persistency and faith in the great work to which so many years of your life have been devoted.
“The world as yet does not know how much it owes to you, and this generation will never know it. I regard what has been done as the most marvellous thing in human history. I think it more marvellous than the invention of printing, or, I am almost ready to say, than the voyage of the Genoese. But we will not compare these things, which are all great. Let us rather rejoice at what has been done, and I will rejoice that you mainly have done it.
“I wish I could have been at the dinner, for my reluctance to make a speech would have given way to my desire to say something about you and about the cable, and its grand significance to our Old World and your New one.
“I need not tell you how much I am glad to believe that in a sense that is very useful in this world you will profit largely by the success of the great enterprise, and how fervently I hope your prosperity may increase....
“Your elections have turned out well. I hope you will yet be ‘reconstructed’ on sound principles, and not on the unhappy doctrines of the President.