"A dinner was given in this city on the evening of the 16th instant by the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company to Cyrus W. Field, who has recently returned to this country, after assisting in the successful laying of the Atlantic telegraph cable, with which movement Mr. Field has been more prominently identified from the beginning than any other of its advocates and supporters. A considerable number of our first citizens were present, including the honorary directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company.... Mr. Peter Cooper told of the formation of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, and then said: 'On those eventful evenings we became fully magnetized and infatuated with a most magnificent idea. We pictured to ourselves that in a short time we should plant a line of telegraph across the vast and mighty ocean. We as little dreamed of the difficulties at that time that we were destined to encounter as did the Jews of old dream of the difficulties that they were doomed to meet in their passage to the promised land. We, like the Jews of old, saw the hills green afar off, and, like them, we had but a faint idea of the bare spots, the tangled thickets, and rugged cliffs over and through which we have been compelled to pass in order to gain possession of our land of promise. We have, however, been more fortunate than the Jews of old; we have had a Moses who was able to lead on his associates, and when he found them cast down and discouraged, he did not call manna from heaven nor smite the rock, but just got us to look through his telescope at the pleasant fields that lay so temptingly in the distance before us, and in that way he was able to inspirit his associates with courage to go on until, with the help of the _Great Eastern_, and the means and influence of the noble band of men that Mr. Field has been able to enlist in the mother country, we have at last accomplished a work that is now the wonder of the world. "In the accomplishment of this work it is our privilege to regard it as a great and glorious means for diffusing useful knowledge throughout the world.... I trust our united efforts will hasten the glorious time when nations will have war no more; when they will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks. I trust our own country and government will always stand as a bright and shining light in the pathway of nations to cheer on with hope the suffering millions of mankind who are now struggling for life, liberty, and happiness--a happiness that is possible to men and nations who will cultivate the arts of peace instead of wasting their energies in wars of mutual destruction.