"According to my promise I enclose a copy of my letter of September, 1866, to the Secretary of the Privy Council, in answer to his inquiry respecting the persons most deserving of honor in connection with the successful completion of the Atlantic telegraph. "'19 PARK CRESCENT, "'PORTLAND PLACE, N.W., _September 22, 1866_. "'_My dear Sir_,--The following is my opinion respecting the principal co-operators in the establishment of the Atlantic telegraph: "'The person to whose indomitable perseverance we are indebted for the commencement, carrying on, and completion of the enterprise is undoubtedly Mr. Cyrus Field. Through good and through evil report he has pursued his single object undaunted by repeated failures, keeping up the flagging interest of the public and the desponding hopes of capitalists, and employing his energies to combine all the means which might lead towards a successful issue. This gentleman is a citizen of the United States, and there would perhaps be a difficulty in conferring on him any honorary distinction. "'From the staff of officials by whose practical skill and unwearied attention the great project has been at last achieved, it appears to me there are four gentlemen who might, in addition to special merits of their own, be taken as the representatives of all those who have labored under or with them in their respective departments. "'Public opinion, I think, would ratify the selection. "'These are: "'Mr. Glass, the manager of the Telegraph Maintenance Company, under whose superintendence the great connecting link has been manufactured, and to whose former firm is mainly owing the high perfection which the construction of submarine cables has now attained. "'Mr. Canning, the able engineer of the same company, to whose experience and skill we are chiefly indebted for the successful laying down of the new cable and the restoration of the old. "'Captain Anderson, the commander of the _Great Eastern_ steamship, who under new and untried circumstances brought this leviathan of the waters to work in subjection to the requirements of the great operation. An honorary distinction to this gentleman would no doubt be received as a compliment by the mercantile marine. "'Dr. W. Thomson, who, distinguished already in the highest fields of science, has devoted his talents to improvements in the methods of signalizing, and whose contrivances specially appropriated to the conditions of submarine lines have resulted in the attainment of greater speed than was at first expected.