"Regarding this as an enterprise of great international importance, we invite the attention of the government of the United States to this new effort of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, and respectfully request the Honorable the Secretary of the Navy once more to detail a ship of war to act with such vessel of the British navy as her Britannic Majesty may appoint to accompany the _Great Eastern_ on her projected mission. "The lapse of time since the first attempt was made to unite the continents by a system of telegraphic communication has not tended to abate the interest which originally centred upon this bold undertaking. On the contrary, four years of civil war, prolific of events demanding immediate and mutual explanations between Great Britain and the United States, have contributed to strengthen and deepen the interest with which at first it was so universally regarded. May we not reasonably indulge the hope that, as the old cable first conveyed to the Western World the news of restored peace in China, one of the first messages through the wires about to be immersed may convey to the Old World from the New tidings of peace re-established in the West, of the States reunited, and slavery everywhere abolished, and that henceforward all causes of misunderstanding between Great Britain and the United States may be instantaneously removed? "We have the honor to be, "Very respectfully, "Your obedient servants, "PETER COOPER, WM. E. DODGE, "A. A. LOW, WILSON G. HUNT, "CYRUS W. FIELD, E. M. ARCHIBALD, "Honorary Directors in America. "To Hon. GIDEON WELLES, Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D. C. The only explanation ever vouchsafed of the failure of this application was the suggestion, published in a New York paper, that it was "because England had not withdrawn her proclamation excluding our vessels from her ports under what is termed her 'twenty-four hours' rule.'" The _Great Eastern_ left Medway on June 24th, and removed to the Nore, and on July the 15th left that anchorage. The progress of the great ship is chronicled in the following extracts from the London papers: "PORTSMOUTH, _July 16th_. "The _Great Eastern_ passed Newton at 2 P.M., five miles off land, under steam and sail; wind light, southerly." "VALENTIA, _July 23d_. "Yesterday morning the first great step in the important undertaking was accomplished by hauling on land the massive shore end up the cliffs at the southwestern extremity of this island." "VALENTIA, _July 24th_. "Before this reaches the public the _Great Eastern_, if all goes well, will already have laid some 300 miles of the Atlantic cable." "ON BOARD 'GREAT EASTERN,' "_Friday morning_. "Five hundred nautical miles of cable were paid out at 10.50 A.M. to-day. The distance run at 9.50 A.M. was 450 miles.