"Another agreeable memory of the same period was the assistance which my office enabled me to give by lending the ships of war of this country for the accomplishment of that extraordinary event. It is true that the communication so established was shortly afterwards interrupted, but it is now restored. We may now, without exaggeration, say that England and America are no longer separated by the breadth of the Atlantic Ocean, for even during this dinner we have been corresponding briskly with our American friends; and it is impossible, gentlemen, to resist the conclusion that this greatest triumph of modern science must have the effect of softening prejudice, increasing and cementing good feeling, and in every way promoting the welfare and the prosperity of the two great peoples so brought together. "That communication, which at the time to which I first referred occupied six weeks, may now be effected in as many minutes, and I rejoice that I am enabled to attend here to-day to join in doing honor to the man to whom, more than to any other human agency, we are indebted for this wonderful change." Mr. John Bright spoke as follows: "In attempting to respond to the sentiment that has been submitted to us, I have a certain anxiety with regard to a mysterious box which is said to be on these premises, containing an instrument by which every word we utter to-night, be it wise or be it foolish, will be transmitted with more than lightning speed to the dwellers on that part of the earth's surface which we describe as the regions of the setting sun. But we are so entirely agreed that there seems no possibility that anything will be said to-night which any one who hears it will desire to contradict, and I hope we may avoid the charge of saying anything that is foolish or hasty.