the auspices of my distinguished predecessor, who I wish was here now to rejoice in its success--I mean only in a private capacity. (Cheers and laughter.) It was on the 5th August, 1858, it was completed, and it was on the 5th August, more than three hundred years ago, that Columbus left the shores of Spain to proceed on his ever-memorable voyage to America. It was on the 5th of August, 1583, that Sir Hugh Gilbert, a worthy countryman of Raleigh and Drake, steered his good ship the Squirrel to the shores of Newfoundland and first unfurled the flag of England in the very bay where this triumph has now taken place--(applause)--and it was on the same 5th of August that your sovereign was received by her imperial friend amid the fortifications of Cherbourg, and thereby put an end to the ridiculous nonsense about strife and dissension. (Applause.) Let the 5th August be a day ever memorable among nations. Let it be, if I may so term it, the birthday of England. (Applause.) Among the many points which must have given every one satisfaction was the manner in which this great success was received in America. (Hear.) There appears to have been but one feeling of rejoicing predominant among them; and I can not but think that that was not only owing to their commercial enterprise--which they shared along with us--but also, I trust, more to the feelings of consanguinity and affection which I am sure we share, though occasionally disturbed by international disputes, and by differences caused by misrepresentations or hastiness. It must still burn as brightly in their breasts as in ours. (Applause.) I trust that, not only with our friends across the Atlantic, but with every civilized nation, this great triumph of science will prove the harbinger of peace, good-will, and friendship; and that England and America will not verify the first line of the stanza, Lands intersected by a narrow firth Abhor each other, but that they will, by mutual intercourse, arrive at the last line of that stanza, and "like kindred drops, be mingled into one." (Warm applause.) CHAPTER X WORKING THE LINE Tests--Apparatus--First Messages--Gradual Failing--The "Last Gasp"--Engineering Success--Electrical Failure. _Continuity Tests during Laying._--As previously mentioned, two descriptions of instruments were used on board the ships for testing and working through while laying the cable. These were the "detector" of Mr. Whitehouse and Professor Thomson's reflecting-apparatus.