There only remained the proof that electricity could be employed through so vast a length of conductor. Upon this point and the best mode of working such a line, he had been experimenting for several years. He had carried on a series of investigations which resulted in establishing the fact that messages could be practically passed through an unbroken circuit of more than 2,000 miles of insulated wire, a notion derided at that time by many distinguished authorities. Mr. Wildman Whitehouse, who subsequently became electrician to the company, had been likewise engaged. On comparing notes later, it was discovered that we had arrived at similar results, though holding somewhat different views, for his (Sir C. Bright's) calculations, using other instruments, led him to believe that a conductor nearly four times the size of that adopted would be desirable with a slightly thicker insulator. It was this type which the new cables just laid had been furnished with. In 1856, Mr. Cyrus Field--to whom the world was as much indebted for the establishment of the line as to any man--came over to England upon the completion of the telegraph between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. He then joined with the late Mr. Brett and himself (Sir C. Bright) with the view of extending this system to Europe, and they mutually agreed, as also did Mr. Whitehouse later, to carry out the undertaking. A meeting was first held in Liverpool, and in the course of a few days their friends had subscribed the necessary capital. So that in greeting those who had just returned from the last expedition--Mr. Canning, Mr. Clifford, Captain Anderson, and other guests of the evening--Liverpool was fitly welcoming those who had accomplished the crowning success of an enterprise to which at the outset she had so largely contributed (applause). The circumstances connected with the first cable would be in the recollection of every one, and, although the loss was considerable, the experience gained was of no small moment. A few months after the old line had ceased to work, their chairman (Sir S. Northcote) consulted him on behalf of the Government as to the best form of cable for connecting us telegraphically with Gibraltar, and he (Sir C. Bright) did not hesitate to recommend the same type of conductor and insulator which he had himself before suggested for the Atlantic line--a higher speed being desirable. This class of conductor in the newly laid Atlantic cable appeared likely to give every satisfaction, he was happy to say, and the mechanical construction of the cable, also the same as that he had previously specified for the Gibraltar line, appeared to have admirably met some of the difficulties experienced in cable operations.