The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-31 00:00:00

BANQUET. AT THE MANSION-HOUSE.

Last evening the Lord Mayor (Alderman Phillips) desir-
ing to celebrate in a way worthy. the City of London the
successful completion of the Atlantic Telegraph connecting
the Old World and the New, entertained all the various
persons conspicuously identified with the enterprise, with
the exception of a few who were unavoidably absent from
indisposition, at dinner at the Mansion-honse; which was
served in the Egyptian-hall, with great splendour. The
company was about 150 in number, and included many
persons not connected with the achievement.

The Lord Mayor was unfortunately absent from indis-
position, and Mr. Alderman Copeland, the senior alder-
man, presided in his stead. The invited guests as they
arrived were received by the chairman and the Lady
Mayoress, in the state drawing-room, and thence con-
ducted to the seats assigned them in the hall, which was
brilliantly illuminated for the occasion. The tables were
profusely decorated with rare flowers, and the ancient
plate of the Corporation, and the entertainment was alto-
gether one of great magnificence. The Lady Mayoress
occupied a seat immediately on the left of the chair, and
Mrs. Barnet, her daughter, on the right.
On the removal of the cloth grace was sung by the
choir, and the chairman and the Lady Mayoress drank to
the company in a loving cup.

The toast of " The Queen" was drunk with every mark
of respect, as was also that of " The Prince and Princess
of Wales, with the rest of the Royal family."
The usual patriotic toasts were then duly honoured—
Captain Galion, R.E., replying for the Army ; Capt. Com-
merell, R.N., for the Navy ; and Colonel Loyd-Lindsay,
M.P., for the Volunteers. The last-named gentleman re-
ferred to the enthusiastic reception given to the English
Volunteers by the Belgian people from the King down-
wards on their recent visit to that country, and he anti-
cipated the welcome which the Belgian Volunteers would
receive on their arrival in England next year.

The CHAIRMAN next gave the toast of "The House of
Commons," coupling with it the name of Viscount Cran-
borne, the Secretary of State for India, whom he compli-
mented for the zeal and energy he had shown since his
accession to office, and especially in dealing with the In-
dian famine.

Lord CRANBORNE, who was welcomed with cheers, ex-
pressed his deep regret at the absence of the Chief Magis-
trate of the city, whose eloquence on these occasions they
were all accustomed to admire, and who had filled with
such singular felicity and skill the important office he held.
(Cheers.) The House of Commons, he said, take it to pieces
as people might, had this great characteristic—that it was
the true reflex of the opinions and feelings of the country,
and especially in the honour it was always ready to pay
and the assistance it invariably afforded to great scientific
undertakings like that which they were met that night to
Celebrate. (Cheers.) The House of Commons had an intense
appreciation of facts of all kinds, and it had never been
wanting in giving assistance to great scientific enterprises.
He had no right officially to speak of the Atlantic tele-
graph, but he had of another telegraph which connected
India with England, and on behalf of those who wore re-
sponsible for the government, of this country, he thanked
most earnestly those great minds to whom they owed that
great boon to the human race. (Cheers.) It was not merely
in the immediate results which such a discovery gave to
the government of a country. It had been a reproach to us
in this day that we were not so willing as we were of old
to recognise the works of mind, and that we had come to
be too material in our ideas. The truth was that our ances-
tors worshipped objects of the mind as applied to matters of
taste and sensibility; but we admired the splendid efforts of
the greatest intellects when applied to minister in the
highest degree to the uses of man. All they who were oc-
cupied in political life would say that it was a real plea-
sure, after the conflicts in which they were accustomed to
be engaged, to tender their grateful homage to those who
had been concerned in this great achievement. They all
felt a deep interest in the contests that decided the fate of
nations or the genuineness of political principles, but there
was on all these conflicts the stamp of decay. T hey kne w
that the political principles for which they contended were
liable to a similar decadence, and that what was held in
honour in this century might be the subject of derision in
the next; but the great addition to human power which
Wheatstone and kindred spirits had conferred on the human
mind might be the hetitsge of the human race as long as
our species should exist. (Cheers.)
The CHAIRMAN next proposed "Prosperity to the At-
lantic Cable," trusting that it might be the means o
cementing the more the ties which had long bound the
Old World and the New.

The Right lion. JOIIN STUART 'WORTLEY, whose name
as chairman of the Atlantic Telegraph Company had been
associated with the toast, said it was a subject for regret
that they could not tender their personal thanks to the
Lord Mayor for that banquet, representing, as he did, the
community of that great city, and in a certain sense the
commercial community of the country. This had been a
remarkable enterprise, but the history of the company over
which he (Mr. Wortley) had the honour to preside was
equally so. It began with a remarkable event. Some of
the leading merchants and bankers subscribed to a list of
350 shares of £l,OOO each—not as a speculation, nor in the
hope of remuneration, but from higher motives. In 1857
£500,000 more was subscribed, and in 1859 £500,000 more,
making £1,350,000 altogether; and that having b3en spent,
the company was at one time so penniless that the directors
put their hands into their pockets, and, subscribing £250
apiece, paid the clerks and kept the offices. But the deepest
debt of gratitude was due to those who were the real
heroes of the enterprise—the engineers, the electricians,and
the men of the merchant and naval services. (Cheers.) Mr.
Wortley referred in passing to an interview he once had
with the late Prince Consort in relation to the undertak-
ing, in the course of which, he said, his Royal Highness
expressed an opinion that it might be more likely to be
successful if it were practicable to lay the cable in an
elastic glass tube, and took down a volume of an ancient
classic author (Petronius Arbiter), from which he read a
passage to:show that in those days the elasticity of glass
was known. One great motive had from first to last ani-
mated all who were engaged in the enterprise —namely,
that by bringing England and America into telegraphic
communication the two communities would become more
brotherly, or, if he might say so, more cousinly than they
had hitherto bean. They were deeply indebted to the zeal
and skill of Mr. Cyrus Field. He rejoiced, therefore, that
her Majesty had been advised by the Government to mark
and distinguish the men who had conducted the enter-
prise to a successful termination—a circumstance which
would be regarded as a fresh proof of the lively interest
the Queen took in all great nationalundertakings. (Rear,
hear.)
Mr. C. E. STEWART, whose name had also been con-
nected with the toast as chairman of the Anglo-American
Telegraph Company, made a few observations in acknow-
ledgment; and Mr. FENDER, speaking for the Telegraph
Construction and Maintenance Company, took occasion to
connect it especially with the enterprise, in having chartered
the Great Eastern steamship and raised the greater portion
of the capital by which the scheme was eventually carried
out. Ho added, amid the cheers of the company, that
America, in connection with the enterprise, ought to be
proud of such a man as Cyrus Field, and for his lifelong
devotion to the cause.
The toast of " Science as applied to Telegraphy," was
next given from the chair, to which Professor Sir William
Thomson. briefly replied, remarking, on the part of the
scientific men employed in connection with the Atlantic
Telegraph, that next to that most intense of all instincts,
passions, and feelings in the scientific character—the love
of nature—the strongest reward for investigation was found
when the results of that investigation conferred some sub-
stantial benefit upon a large mass of mankind.
Sir S. Canning replied to the toast of " The Engineers,',
_ _ _

and Mr. Willoughby Smith, C.E., to that of "The Elec-
tricians." Sir James Anderson, commander of the Great
Eastern, responding to the toast of his health, took occasion
to say of Captain Moriarty, by the way, that he had no
equal in either the Royal or mercantile navy.
Viscount CRANBORNE proposed the next toast. All those,
he said, who had enjoyed the hospitality of the Lord Mayor
of London during the past year, all who desired to see a
great,and ancient office well and honourably maintained,
and all who desired to see the city often adorned by a chief
magistrate of his mark would join with him in thanking
the Lord Mayor for his exertions during his tenure of office,
and in wishing him health and happiness. (Cheers.) For
himself, he had not only to thank the Lord Mayor in his
public capacity for his general maintenance of the duties of
his high office, but he had had an opportunity of witness-
ing the zeal he had shown in directing into a right channel
the abundant charities of this , great metropolis. On the
receipt of the recent and somewhat conflicting telegrams
from India in relation to the famine it was difficult to decide
upon the right course to adopt, but he could bear testimony
that, so far as the Lord Mayor had been concerned, he had
acted with tact, zeal, and discretion. He gave "Health
and long life to the Lord Mayor."
The toast was drunk with acclamation, and Mr. Henry
Phillips acknowledged the compliment on behalf of his
father. 0
Mr. JOHN ABEL SMITH, M.P., then in graceful terms
proposed "the Health of the Lady Mayoress," which was
received, if possible, with still greater enthusiasm.
The musical arrangements were under the direction of
Mr. Edwin Ball, assisted by Mr. Fielding, Mr. Monte"
Smith, and Mr. Theodore Distin.
The company separated about 11 o'clock.

MATIIER V. THE DUCHESS OF NOP.FOLK.—Yester-
day, at the Chambers of Vice-Chancellor Kindersloy, the
case of " Mather v. The Duchess of Norfolk," was heard on
an application, by two summonses, for further time to an-
swer the bill, which was for an injunction to restrain the
building of a house in Arundel-street, Strand, the ground
of which had been taken from the Duchess of Norfolk. It
was stated that it was probable that the matter would be
arranged. The works bad not been completed. Mr.
Church, the chief clerk, asked whether it was the first ap-
plication, and was told there had been several similar
motions. The chief clerk granted 14 days' further time to
answer, and it was stated that there would, in all proba-
bility, bo a settlement of the cause.