The Cable of 1865, owing to the improvements introduced into the manufacture of the gutta percha, insulated more than one hundred times better than Cables made in 1858, then considered perfect, and still working. The improvements effected since the beginning of 1851 in the conducting power of the copper wire, by selecting it, has increased the rate of signalling possible through long submarine Cables by more than 33 per cent. Electrical testing can be conducted at sea with such certainty as to discover the existence of faults in less than a minute of their occurrence. If a steam-engine be attached to the paying-out machinery, so as to permit of hauling-in the Cable immediately a fault is discovered, and a slight modification made in the construction of the external sheath of the Cable, the cause of the faults experienced will be entirely done away with; and should a fault occur, it can be picked up even before it has reached the bottom of the Atlantic. The Great Eastern is now undergoing the alterations which will render her absolutely perfect for the purpose of laying the new Cable and picking up the old, and next year will see the renewal of the enterprise of connecting the Old World with the New by an enduring link which, under God’s blessing, may confer unnumbered blessings on the nations which the ocean has so long divided, and add to the greatness and the power which this empire has achieved by the energy, enterprise, and perseverance of our countrymen, directed by Providence, to the promotion of the welfare and happiness of mankind. Remembering all that has occurred,--how well-grounded hopes were deceived, just expectations frustrated,--there are still grounds for confidence, absolute as far as the nature of human affairs permits them in any calculation of future events to be, that the year 1866 will witness the consummation of the greatest work of civilised man, and the grandest exposition of the development of the faculties bestowed on him to overcome material difficulties. The last word transmitted through the old Telegraph from Europe to America, was “Forward,” and “Forward” is the motto of the enterprise still. FINIS. APPENDIX. A. _The following is a list of the Gentlemen connected with the project for the year 1865_ NEW YORK, NEWFOUNDLAND, AND LONDON TELEGRAPH COMPANY. PETER COOPER, Esq. PRESIDENT. CYRUS W. FIELD, Esq. VICE-PRESIDENT. MOSES TAYLOR, Esq. TREASURER. PROF. S. F. B. MORSE ELECTRICIAN. DAVID DUDLEY FIELD, Esq. COUNSEL. DIRECTORS. PETER COOPER, Esq. } MOSES TAYLOR, Esq. } CYRUS W. FIELD, Esq. } NEW YORK. MARSHALL O. ROBERTS, Esq. } WILSON G. HUNT, Esq. } SECRETARY. ROBERT W. LOWBER, Esq. GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT. ALEXANDER M. MACKAY, Esq., St. John’s, Newfoundland. ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH COMPANY. DIRECTORS. THE RIGHT HON. JAMES STUART WORTLEY, _Chairman_. CURTIS M. LAMPSON, Esq., _Vice-Chairman_.