"_My dear Sir_,--Accept my thanks and best wishes. I have only to say that the wise men whom you will find in the East are not very wise in expecting that our troubles will diminish while they insist upon concessions which we cannot make. "Very truly your friend, "WILLIAM H. SEWARD. "CYRUS W. FIELD, Esq." "ROCHDALE, _March 8, 1868_. "_My dear Mr. Field_,--I have only just received your kind invitation. Unluckily Tuesday is fixed for the Irish debate, and I cannot be away from the House on that evening. "I regret this very much, for it would give me much pleasure to spend an evening with you. I must call upon you, and have a talk with you on the new crisis which has arisen in your country. "Some of your statesmen are in favor of repudiation, and you are dethroning your President, and yet your stocks are not sensibly shaken by all this in the English market. There is more faith in you than there was three or four years ago! "But I hope your people will not repudiate. "Always sincerely yours, "JOHN BRIGHT. "I expect to be in town in the course of to-morrow." Mr. Bright's letter referred to the dinner to be given by Mr. Field, on March 10th, at the Buckingham Palace Hotel, "on the fourteenth anniversary of the day on which the first contract with the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company had been signed at his house on Gramercy Square, New York." On the evening of March 6th there had been a debate in the House of Commons on the _Alabama_ claims, and many of the speeches at the dinner bore references to that debate. The key-note of the occasion was struck when the Right Hon. James Stuart Wortley said: "One of its greatest feats" (of the ocean telegraph) "has lately been accomplished under the auspices of our worthy chairman by his sending the conciliatory debate of the House of Commons on the _Alabama_ claims to America. I am very glad this has been done, as it is far more likely to create good feeling between the two countries than anything else." In giving one of the toasts Mr. Field said: