The campaign was opened in Liverpool, the headquarters of the "Magnetic" Company, the greater proportion of whose shareholders were business men--merchants and shipowners--mainly hailing from Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, and London, who appreciated the value of America being connected telegraphically with Great Britain and Europe through their Irish lines. The first meeting of the "Atlantic" Company was convened for November 12, 1856, at the underwriters' rooms in the Liverpool Exchange. This was called together by means of a small circular on a half-sheet of note-paper, issued by Mr. E. B. Bright, manager of the "Magnetic" Company. The result was a crowded gathering composed of the wealth, enterprise, and influence of Liverpool and other important business and manufacturing centers. Similar meetings were also held in Manchester and Glasgow, and a public subscription list was opened at the "Magnetic" Company's office of each town. In the course of a few days the entire capital was raised, by the issue of 350 shares of £1,000 each, chiefly taken up by the shareholders of the "Magnetic" Company. Mr. Cyrus Field had reserved £75,000 for American subscription, for which he signed, but his confidence in his compatriots turned out to be greatly misplaced. The result has been thus recounted by his brother: "He (Cyrus Field) thought that one-fourth of the stock should be held in this country (the United States), and he did not doubt from the eagerness with which three-fourths had been taken in England, that the remainder would be at once subscribed in America." In point of fact, it was only after much trouble that subscribers were obtained in the States for a total of twenty-seven shares, or less than one-twelfth of the total capital. Thus, notwithstanding their professed enthusiasm, the faith of the Americans in the project proved to be strictly limited. At any rate, they did not rise to the occasion. Indeed, the undertaking was very much an affair of the Magnetic Telegraph Company, the officers of which led the shareholders to take a lively interest from the first in the Atlantic project as forming the nucleus of a great extension of business.