"I have the honor to be, sir, "Your obedient servant, "DERBY. "CYRUS W. FIELD, Esq." "AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, "LIVERPOOL, _18th February, 1867_. "_Dear Sir_,--The American Chamber of Commerce of Liverpool, being desirous of commemorating the successful completion of the Atlantic cable between England and America, resolved in September last to present gold medals to yourself, Sir Samuel Canning, Sir James Anderson, and Mr. Willoughby Smith as representatives of the enterprise. "The medals are now ready, and it is proposed to present them at a banquet to be given by the Chamber at Liverpool. "I understand that the 14th of March next will suit yourself and Sir James Anderson.... "I remain "Yours truly, "HENRY W. GAIR, President. "CYRUS W. FIELD, Esq., Palace Hotel, Buckingham Gate, London." This invitation was accepted, and the description of the banquet which follows is taken from the Liverpool _Daily Post_ of March 15th: "The members of the American Chamber of Commerce in this town gave a splendid banquet last night, in the Law Association Rooms, Cook Street, to Sir Samuel Canning, Sir James Anderson, Mr. Cyrus W. Field, and Mr. Willoughby Smith, the layers of the Atlantic telegraph cable, on which occasion a magnificent solid gold medal was presented to each of those gentlemen.... "The chairman in proposing 'The projector and the associates in the laying of the Atlantic cable,' said: Gentlemen, I now come to the business, to the pleasure which has brought us together this evening, and if what I say on the subject is short, it is not because there is not a great deal to be said on it, but because I know you are impatient to hear it said by those whose acts give them the means and right to speak with knowledge and authority. Acts are better than words, and in the acts we are met here to perform we but express the gratitude we feel to those who through so many difficulties and discouragements have brought this great work to a successful termination. This success is one of which we, as a nation, are proud, and rightly so. But it is good for our humility--a virtue in which we do not naturally excel--to remember that the first credit of that success is due, not to an Englishman, but to an American, Mr. Cyrus Field. He is the projector of the plan, and had it not been for his tenacity of purpose, his faith--which, if it did not remove mountains, at least defied oceans to shake his purpose--the plan would long ago have been abandoned in despair. In this tenacity and utter incapacity to understand defeat Mr. Field is a representative man of the Anglo-Saxon race wherever found.... I have now the pleasure to propose that the health of the projector and his associates in laying the Atlantic cable shall be drunk with a hearty three times