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

THE ATLANTIC CABLES.

BANQUET IN LIVERPOOL.
Last night a grand banquet, under the auspic
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 dialler, which was very

handsomely served.
The Right Hon. Sir Stafford Northcote, M.l'.,
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, R.N., Capt. Prowse,
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 during the evening, through the cable, from
Mr. Cyrus Field. The chairman paid a high tri-
bute to the zeal and services 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. Glass (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 take a short rest and ask,
" Que reglo in terris nostri non plena laboris?". (Loud
cheers.)

Mr. It Alums, Presidentof 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 Ido 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 been 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
hope 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 thdt 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 hon our-
anly remembered, not only onthis 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 timesr instruc-
tions, founded on information a fortnight a month
old, can be of very little practical value. so a
matters of trade, I suppose that the saving
:labourotln in
will be considerable, and that some forma; -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 abso'utely, it is undoubtedly
true that lookers-on not personally affected by the
results of what is being done, yet feeling iu them a
warm interest, are thought to be able to judge better
of what is passing than those who arc in the thick of
the fray. (fleas, hear.) I think, then, that England
and America arc 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

aide, and I should not be doing my duty here if I
did not say it. There may be criticism which is

not fair, not temperate—criticism which is hasty,

partial, passionate—perhaps on both sides of the
water. We have had a little too much of that--

(hear, hear, and cheers)—but it does not result from
hostility ; on the contrary, if it did not sound para-
doxical to say so, I should say that it arises quite as
much from an anxious desire, which both nations
feel, that the credit of those representative institu-
tions which are common to both should by both be
maintained. (Hear.) Ido not suppose the cri-
ticism which I have spoken of can ever wholly cease,
for I have sometimes thought that England and the
United States are like two individuals related by

family ties—both interested for the credit of their

common family, both of whom would be sorry
should any real harm happen to the other, but not
always agreeing in ideas ; and not being of a reti-
cent disposition, however friendly, now and then
exercising the privilege of relationship to express
their opinion of each other's affairs in a manner

which, though it may be frank, is not always judi-
cious or agreeable. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) The

lesson I draw from that is, that now that we are

going to be nearer neighbours, we must learn to be
sparing of such criticism ourselves, and not too sen-
sitive or impatient when it is applied to us. (Hear,
hear.) We are bound to bear in mind that a com-
mon language, if it brings on the one hand immense
advantages, has on the other some responsibilities

and some inconveniences. In private life probably
no man speaks of his friends in precisely the terms

he would use were they face to face. Nations con-

verse by newspapers, and every word which they say
of one another is, by the necessity of the case, said

also to one another. It is in the earnest hope that
we may use our new privileges as befits us both ; it

is in the deep conviction that on the union of the
two nations, more than on any other earthly thing,
the future of civilisation depends ; and it is with

the conviction, also, that whoever wilfully or igno-

rantly estranges them one from another is doing, on
the whole, the very worst act a human being could
commit—it is with these feelings that I now give
you the toast, " England and America united."

(Loud applause.)
The Hon. Mr. DUDLEY, American Consul, re-
sponded. He referred at some length to the great
progress which telegraphic science had made, and to
the extent of that communication, embracing, as it

did, fully three-fifths of the globe. When thisgreat
work bad been completed, who would dare to say
that the peaceful time predicted 3,000 years ago had
not arrived when the wolf and lamb should dwell
together, and the earth learn war no more ? (Cheers.)
In conclusion, he hoped that the great work would
bind still more closely the two countries.
The CHAIRMAN proposed " The North American
provinces." There was no prouder title given to
England than that of the Mother of Nations. It
was our delight to see our colonies raising them-

selves, as more especially were the North American
colonies, to positions of prosperity and independence.

If now they thought fit to claim a confederation
amongst themselves he was sure that her Majesty's
Government would meet them halfway, aye, more
than halfway, while nothing would be further from
their thoughts than to endeavour to induce
them to adopt any measures which might not be
advantageous to themselves; but if they sought con-

federation, he could say on behalf of her Majesty's
Government they would meet with noluean jea-

lousies, but with every disposition to further their
views. (Applause.) They had.no representative pre-

sent of the great colony of Canada, but they had
present the Hon. Mr. Tupper, Prime Minister of
Nova Scotia, and the Hon. Mr. Tilley, Prime Minis-
ter of New Brunswick.

The Hon. Mr.TOPPER fifst responded, and alluded
to the great patriotism displayed by the North Ame-
rican colonies with reference to the Fenian threat-
eninga, and said that it was with peculiar satisfac-
tion that they, dependent as they were in a measure
on the protection of the mother country, learned
that they had been placed in such direct and imme-
diate communication with her. (Cheers.)
The Hon. Mr. TILLEY, alluding to the question
of Confederation, said they would have been sorry
to ask the Government for such a change unless
they came backed by that authority which was
constitutional ; and it was because they felt
themselves clothed with that authority that they
made the application. They loved British institu-
tions, and were determined to follow them. (Loud
applause.)
Captain HAMILTON said a message had been for-
warded through the cable to the President of the
United States. He bad received a reply from New-

foundland, stating that the message had been re-
ceived, but owing to the state of the land lines it
was feared that it would not reach the President in
time for a reply to be read to the meeting.
The CHAIRMAN then proceeded to give the toast
of the evening—" Success to the Atlantic Telegraph
Cables," which he was sure would be received with
unanimous cordiality. (Cheers.) In doing so he
mentioned briefly one or two leading facts, show-
ing the important bearing of the cables upon the
commercial operations of the country, especially
with the American continent. The annual value of
our imports and exports from and to America, in-
cluding the United States and the British colonies,
amounted to something like a hundred millions.
Taking the average time of passage at something
like fourteen days, there was something like four
millions of property afloat between Great Britain
and America ; while the quantity of wheat and
wheat-flour which was imported for the subsistence
of our people averaged nine million cwts. Having
traced the progress of scientific improvements dur-
ing the reign of her present Majesty, and the vast
impetus which had been given to trade by recent
legislative enactments, he referred to the important
effect which the cables would have in promoting
good feeling between England and America, be-
tween whom it was essential for the best interests of
the whole human race that peace should continue to
be maintained. The Chairman then read a commu-
nication from the Earl of Derby, conveying the sen-
timents and intentions of her Majesty with respect
to the Atlantic cable expedition and its promoters.
Her Majesty was desirous of testifying her sense of
the merits displayed in this great enterprise, and
had commanded his lordship to submit for special
marks of her Royal favour the names of those who,
having had assigned to them prominent positions,
might be considered as representing the different
departments whose united labours had contri-
buted to the final result, and had commanded him to
convey her congratulations to all whose energyand
perseverance, skill and science, had triumphed over
all difficulties, and accomplished a success alike
honourable to themselves and their country. Her
Majesty had accordingly directed that Capt. Ander-
son, Professor Thompson, and Messrs. Glass and
Canning should be knighted, and that Mr. Sampson,
oafnd.l' iField received no such markr
M.P., should
d- chairman of t h original
receive
e
honour
baro-
netcy. If Mr. Cyrus
of Royal favour,
it was because
seem to be the
wish to interfere with what mighther Majesty did not
to which Mr. Field belonged, and
natural functions of the Government owfhtiehhe country
haduntry
served equally with this country in thework
which
had been done. The Chairman continued—Lord
Derby had wished to confer upon Capt. Anderson
some further mark more immediately connected with
his own profession, hut he had been greatly disap-
pointed to find that neither the rules of the naval ser-
vice, nor the statute of the Order of the Bath, al-
lowed him to do so. In conclusion, the right hon.
gentleman proposed the ti Atlantic Cables," coupling
with the toast the names of Sir Samuel Canning and
Mr. Elliott.
Sir S. CANNING briefly acknowledged the toast.
Mr. ELLIOTT expressed great regret that Mr. Glass
was seriously ill. They claimed no credit for laying
the cable, or any special merit in regard to the en-
terprise beyond finding a portion of the capital.
They would next lay a cable direct to New York.
(Cheers.)
Mr. HoRsFALL, M.P., congratulated the Chamber
of Commerce upon having present the Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs and the President of the
Board of Trade, which he thought they might ac-
cept as a guarantee that the interests of commerce
would not be neglected. lie proposed " The En-
gineers and Electricians," and hoped that this cable

might be a lasting emblem of unity between the two
great nations. Mr. Horsfall here read a telegram
from Newfoundland, in which Mr. Collett, the su-
perintendent there, informed the meeting that the
weather was fine, and the cod fishing excellent.
(Laughter.)
Mr. CLIFFORD briefly responded.

Mr. W. Smrrif gave some very interesting facts
relative to the laying of the cables, and assured the
meeting that they were better than any ever yet
laid. The insulation of both had greatly improved.
He mentioned as a curious fact that, when near
Heart's Content with the second cable, he tele-
graphed, via Valentia, an invitatian to dinner to
Mr. Collett, at Heart's Content station, and he re-
ceived an acceptance within five minutes.
Mr. S. R. GRAVES proposed the " Health of Cap-
tain Anderson," who briefly and characteristically
responded, and proposed the " Officers of her Ma-
jesty's Navy engaged in laying former cables."
" The Chambers of Commerce, America and
England," responded to by Mr. M. Ross, President
of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, wasnext
given, and finally " The Health of the Chairman."

The Address of Governor Andrew to the
New England Farmers.

Governor Andrew on the 7th inst. delivered an address
at Brattleborough (Vermont), to the New England farmers,
touching on so much interesting matter that it would have

received more general attention were the people not so
closely employed in watching the lamentable struggle
between the President and Congress. His Excellency's
address embraced the whole career of American industry,
and was so skilfully planned that, notwithstanding the
magnitude of the subject, he condensed it into a speech of
a few hours. Nor did he do this only. He brought out
all the main points so forcibly, he threw such a strong

light on the chief moving powers, that his audience could
scarcely have helped carrying with them a wider grasp of
America's progress and America's future than they had
before entertained. The address was free from prejudice,
from exaggeration, and from that extravagant laudation
with .which American politicians are so apt to disfigure
their most eloquent speeches. His Excellency began by
showing the increase in the population ; the causes that
induced the emigration, and the settlement of the tide over
the country. Having fixed the facts in the minds of his
hearers, he proceeded to give the effects. Having placed
the population, he proceeded to tell the results. And accus-
tomed as we are to the amazing youth of American pros•
perity, the figures when thus brought before us cannot but
surprise :

"How well these people have prospered in their own
persons, how well they have availed themselves of the
opportunities of the New World, how steadily thrift has
accompanied the opportunities of industry, there are a
thousand proofs on every hand. But there is none more
emphatic or significant than their generous and sympa-
...

thising contributions in aid of the friends and relatives
they left behind. Besides the gifts and remittances of
which there is no accessible trace, its is known that, be-
tween the years 1850 and 1860, there was remitted, through
the agency of bankers and merchants, by these foreign-

born inhabitants of North America to their friends in
Europe, an aggregate amount not less than $50,000,000."
Thus, while the people extracted from the wastes a sure
prosperity for themselves, they generously availed them-
selves of Nature's bounty to extend a helping hand to their
less fortunate brethren in Europa. Nor was their gene-
rosity without its effect on their own national well-being.
The increasing tide of immigration which tho people were
themselves so instrumental in directing, added to the value
of the property they had secured, and with the multiplied
numbers c,amo better means of transportation, better markets
for their produce, and the innumerable advantages of a
higher state of civilisation.
" The dependence of agricultural products for their value
to their producer upon domestic markets and easy trans-
portation, the appreciation in value of farming lands by
their contiguity or easy access to market, find erectly here
their most emphatic proof and their most instructive illus-
tration ; for, without the advantages of the great domestic
market and the indispensable condition of the facilities of
steam transportation, both due to our diversified industry,
how could the value of farming lands in the United States,
with our population at little more than 30 millions of souls,
have appreciated at all ? When to every two acres of im-
proved lands we had in 1860 three acres included within
the same forms not yet brought under cultivation; while
the aggregate of our whole uncultivated territory com-
prises an area three times as largo as the area of all the
plantations and farina I"

We can use no better words than those of the Governor
in describing the effects of this growth of civilisation :
" Better fed, with more fulness and variety; bettor clad,
iu more garments, and those more pleasing to the sense of
beauty; better sheltered, by houses more commodious, and
in styles of more tasteful architecture and.morn enduring
quality ; but more books and newspapers, and larger pub-
lic libraries; enjoying incomparably more avenues and
better means for travelling and transportation of goods;
with ampler crops and better prices than ever before—this
very Commonwealth does, in its own current history,
afford the proof of the advantages of our American aim at
the largest conquest over all the domains of industry."
Having carried his hearers up to the period of the great
war, he uses that gigantic contest to illustrate the enor-
mous power, developed by the successful work he had thus
described, and again his figures aro startling in their mag-
nitude. From this point he branches off to the export trade
of America, and his statistics are used to prove that the
great market for American agricultural produce is America
herself.

" The mean annual average of the value of the exports
of provisions from the United States to the United King-
dom between the year 1846 and the year 1860, inclusive, is
computed at only $6,098,564, representing a quantity,
reckoned at a mean annual average, of 1,619,138 quarters ;
the mean annual average of the last term of three years
was 27 34-100ths less than the average of the first throe
years. So that while the exportation of broadstuffs to
the Uaited Kingdom had thus been relatively diminish-
ing during the fifteen years, of which 1846 was the first
year, our population had increased from less than twenty
millions to more than thirty-one millions of people, of
which increased number much the larger proportion had
been found in the food-producing States. The leading
market of Ameriean farmers has been found where it was
predestined to be by the inevitable laws, tendencies, and
aptitudes which mark and distinguish the social man
wherever he exists in progressive civilisation. It hasbeen
found in that very society of which the farmer was himself
a member, to whose wealth, whose economy, whose laws
and institutions he Himself contributed alikeby enjoyment
and by direction."
This leads the speaker to illustrate the connection
which exists between all branches of industry.
"A nation—a civil State—is not simply like an indi-
vidual man, buying or selling. A nation is not a shop
nor a factory, nor a farm, nor a ship ; not a trader, nor a
mechanic, nor a farmer, nor a merchant. It is each of
these, all of these, and many things more. It implies `a
territory, a people, a diversified industry, a multiform
capacity in a multitude of men—a society of men, having
certain united interests, comprehended on a given
territory, to which they are attached by residence,
by fidelity, and by welfare. They are related to each
other as no other people can be related to them. The
people and the national domain are related to each other,
like the family and the homestead. The members of the
State are bound to each other, as are the family—com-
posed of parents, children, servants, and occupiers—whose
interests for livelihood and happiness are dependent on the
fruitfulness and development of the same paternal domain.
The idea of the nation, a State, implies things spiritual as
well as things material. It suggests a common spirit of
enterprise and of ambitiore It stays not on "this bank
and shoal of time ;" it leaps the gulf where all thetemporal
things of life are whelmed in the final catastrophe of. our
mortality ; it mounts the giddiest heights of danger or of
difficulty ; it seizes with its faithful eye the groat and holy
future of the people; it glories in the grandeur and the
beauty of that manifestation of Humanity in its excellence,
which it may become in its own power to actualise in a
human society. It is heard in the voice of eloquence, it is
seen in the pen of the scholar, in the pencil, the chisel of
the artist; it sings in poetry, and flashes in the patriot
sword ; it suffers and dares, and hopes and believes, and
triumphs.
" Nearly 1,500,000 male and female workers, in 130,000
establishments, manufacturing annually more than one
fabrics,million idnotlolarsboootfe raanwd
s materialoes,
in t ion tool cotton,
intoo r wpo
aopl leern,
• into furniture, into machinery, into books and periodicals,
into leather, into tools and apparatus, and into all the
countless descriptions of ingenious mechanism ; or chang-
ing by similar industry the products of the field, the forest
and the mine, into flour, and meal, and lumber, and iron,
adding to the value of the material absorbed the sum of
$900,000,000 more ; the still larger number who make up
the infinite variety of professions, pursuits, and craftsmen,
whose ingenious industry or whose learning and culture
give diversity, elegance, and convenience to the complex
organism known as human society in modern civilisation ;
the capitalists and labourers, the engineers and machi-
nists, the agents, merchants, and middlemen, they who
build, manage, and navigate the railways, the locomotives,
the cars, carriages, ships, and steamers demanded by the
uses of both foreign and domestic commerce, have couti i-
butod their value to the farms of the remotest regions of
our common country, and have raised the American farmer
to independence and prosperity.
"But the diversification of industry not only arouses and
vitalises all the faculties of all the people in the society
where it exists, but while it expands the power of produc-
p his neighbour—enabling all to
tion, it ()nobles each to help
buy and to sell by the exchange of their labour and their
commodities."
The speaker then naturally proceeds to describe the
manufactures of the United States, and his remarks tend
' strongly to demonstrate the soundness of " protected " in-
dustry as applicable to America. Although in this country
we believe that he is wrong, his arguments are 60 ably ad-