The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-02 00:00:00

THE ATLANTIC CABLES.

BANQUET IN LIVERPOOL.

Last night a grand banquet, under the auspices
of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, was given
to the layers of the Atlantic cables in the Law
Association Rooms, Liverpool.-About two hundred
gentlemen sat down to dinner, which was very
handsomely served.
The Right Hon. Sir Stafford Northcote, M.P.,
President of the Board of Trade, presided, and
amongst the leading guests were Lord Stanley, M.P.,
Messrs. Canning, H. Clifford, Capt. Anderson,
Willoughby Smith, Professor Thompson, Captain
Hamilton, Capt. Edington, RN., Capt. Drowse,
R.N., Wm. Barber (Chairman of the Great Ship
Company), Sir Chas. Bright, M.P., T. B. Horsfall,
M.P., S. R. Graves, M.P., J. Laird, M.P., T.
M'Can, Consul, &c.
The CHAIRMAN, in proposing " The health of her
Majesty the Queen," said that her Majesty had on
all fitting occasions shown a hearty interest in the
progress of telegraphic science, and later in the
evening he should read a special communication
from the Queen upon the subject of the present
banquet. (Great cheering.)
The CHAIRMAN, in proposing the " Health of the
President of the United States," acknowledged the
services which the Governments of both England
and America had rendered in promoting the success-
ful laying of the cables. It was most desirable to
preserve a hearty friendship between the two coun-
tries ; for there were no twonations who, if cordially
united, could do more to further the cause of civili-
sation throughout the world than the United King-
dom and the United States. (Loud cheers.)
The " Prince and Princess of Wales, and Royal
Family," was the next toast, which was duly
honoured.

The CHAIRMAN next proposed" The Original Pro-
moters of the Atlantic Cable," the toast being a
little earlier than intended, in the hope of obtaining
a reply daring the evening, through the cable, from
Mr. Cyrus Field. The chairman paid a high tri-
bute to the zeal and service's of Cyrus and Dudley
Field, and Messrs. Brett, Bright, and Whitehouse.
Sir C. BRIGHT, M.P., responded, tracing the history
and progress of the Atlantic cable scheme from the
earliest investigations to the recent successful results.
Though the loss from the failures of the first cable
was considerable, the experience gained was of no
small moment. He (Sir Charles) had no doubt as
to the durability of the cables now laid. It was also
satisfactory to find that the cables were already be-
ing worked to a very large profit, which would
doubtless be quadrupled in a very short period,
when the land lines on the American side were im-
proved. Alluding to Mr. Glais (whose absence he
regretted), Sir Charles said that the greatest credit
was due to him for his indomitable perseverance in
the enterprise. He also highly eulogised the ser-
vices which had been rendered by Mr. Canning, Mr.
Clifford, Mr. Willoughby Smith, Mr. Chatterton,
Professor Thompson, Mr. Brett, and others to the
cause of telegraphic science, and to the operations
attending the laying of the cable. There was, he be-
lieved, a future for submarine telegraphy to which
scarcely any bounds could be imagined. It was only
when China and Japan, Australia and New Zealand,
South America and the West Indies were placed
within speaking distanceof England that telegraphic
engineers could afford to tare a short rest and ask,
" Que regio in terris nostri non plena laboris?".(Loud
cheers.)

Mr. RAWLINS, President of the Liverpool Chamber
of Commerce, proposed " Her Majesty's Ministers,"
to which

Lord STANLEY, M.P., who was received with loud
cheers, replied. He said—Gentlemen—Your chair-
man has proposed, and you have very kindly drunk
The Health of her Majesty's Ministers," and as
one of those at present holding that honourable
post, I have great pleasure in returning thanks. I
assure you that in so doing I do not in the slightest
degree misconceive the character of the compliment
which you have paid us ; it is one wholly detached
from politics. You simply give us credit, as I,
for my part, should have lx en ready to give cre-
dit to any of those who have preceded us in power,
for endeavouring, honestly, according to such
lights as we may possess, to do that which
seems to us best in the interest of the country.
(Cheers.) Gentlemen, it is often objected—and
not without some show of reason—to our system of
Parliamentary Government, that it produces changes
of hands inconveniently often, and displaces men—
irrespective of personal merit or demerit—from
offices which, perhaps, at the very time when they
quit them, they are most competent to fill. (Hear.)
Undoubtedly these reasons are not without weight ;
but there are counterbalancing considerations which
ought not to be lost sight of. These very changes
keep up a spirit of healthy rivalry and competition,
and they diffuse official experience amongst the
members of both houses, and thus strengthen what
I may call our reserve force of working statesmen.
(Cheers.) They diffuse what, to my mind, is often
more important than official experience—a sense of
responsibility for Parliamentary criticism. (Hear.)
There is no more effective check on reckless or capri-
cious censure than when a man has to ask himself,
before he speaks of the conduct of a political oppo-
nent, " Suppose I were on the Treasury bench, and
had to decide this matter, could I take any other
course ?" (Cheers.) Then, again, the demands of
public life—at least in the House of Commons—are
in the present day so severe, and the wear and tear,
mentally and bodily, are so great, that even the
strongest and most energetic of our statesmen are
the better for those compulsory positions of compa-
rative rest which the Opposition benches afford.
(Hear.) In my own name and that of my colleagues
I thank you for your reception of us ; and now, if
you will permit me, I will at once, though by an
abrupt transition, pass on to the toast which has
been entrusted to my care—that toast is, " Eng-
land and America United." (Loud cheers.) Those
words may be taken either as the expression of a
Lope or as the assertion of a fact—physically the
thing is done. England and America are united by
an enterprise to which I shall leave my friend the
chairman to speak in detail, but of which I cannot
refrain from saying that it appears to me the most
marvellous triumph of mind over matter, of man
over nature, that the annals of science have as
yet recorded--(applause)—and while England and
America retain their engineering and naval pre-emi-
nence amongst the nations of the world I venture to
predict the names of those who have been the
workers in this great undertaking—the names of
Canning, of Glass, and of Anderson—will be honour-
anly remembered, not only on this but on the other
side of the Atlantic. (Loud cheers.) Now what will
be the effects of this new state of things—of this in-
stantaneous communication between the Old World
and the New—.a communication which will in a few
years extend over the whole civilised globe ? So far
as our colonies are concerned much is obvious. In
all matters civil and military in which the home Go-
vernment ought to interfere, it can do so with infi-
nitely more effect, because in critical times instruc-
tions, founded on information a fortnight or a month
old, can be of very little practical value. So again in
matters of trade, I suppose that the saving of labour
will be considerable, and that some forms, at least,
of speculation will be in some degree checked, when
certainty is substituted for conjecture. (Hear, hear.)
But to us in this country—and in the present case
the diplomatic aspect of the question is the most im-
portant—we are going to bring the people of Eng-
land and of the United States into a far closer con-
nection with one another than has ever existed be-
This is in my mind a great gain. Some one has
stated that the opinion of foreign nations is an anti-
cipation of the judgment of posterity; but without
adopting that phrase absolutely, it is undoubtedly
true that lookers-on not personally affected by the
results of what is being done, yet feeling in them a
warm interest, are thought to be able to judge better
of what is passing than those who are in the thick of
the fray. (Hear, hear.) I think, then, that England
and America are both in a position to give mutually
fair, temperate criticism of one another's proceed-
ings. They have no opposite interests. United they
are a match for the world, while a quarrel between
them would be a fearful injury, not only to them-
selves, but to the best interests of mankind. (Cheers.)
The more they really know of one another the bet-
ter; but there is something to be said on the other