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.