"I am very sorry that I cannot leave Washington this week, and so cannot avail myself of your kind invitation to join you in congratulations to Mr. Field upon the success of his grand undertaking. It is the most wonderful achievement of civilization; and to his sagacity, patience, perseverance, courage, and faith, is civilization indebted for it. "Such works entitle their authors to distinguished rank among public benefactors. You will write the name of your honored guest high upon that illustrious roll, and there it will remain in honor, while oceans divide and telegraphs unite mankind." There was a telegraph instrument in the room, and despatches were received during the evening from Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, and other members of the Cabinet at Washington, from Lord Monck, Governor-General of Canada, from the Governor of Newfoundland, and others. One, from Captain Sir James Anderson, was dated at London the same day. John Bright also wrote a despatch and sent it to London, but by an oversight it was not forwarded. He afterward wrote a letter, giving the message. It was as follows: "It is fitting you should honor the man to whom the whole world is debtor. He brought capital and science together to do his bidding, and Europe and America are forever united. I cannot sit at your table, but I can join in doing honor to Cyrus W. Field. My hearty thanks to him may mingle with yours." He adds that he regarded what had been done as the most marvellous thing in human history; as more marvellous than the invention of the art of printing, or, he was almost ready to say, than the voyages of the Genoese; and of Mr. Field, he says, "The world does not yet know what it owes to him, and this generation will never know it." About the same time, in a speech at a great Reform Meeting in Leeds, he bore this proud testimony: "A friend of mine, Cyrus Field, of New York, is the Columbus of our time, for after no less than forty voyages across the Atlantic, in pursuit of the great aim of his life, he has at length, by his cable, moored the New World close alongside the Old." Nor was this mere rhetoric, a burst of extravagance, to which an orator might give way in the excitement of a public occasion; it was a comparison which he repeated on many occasions, though slightly varied in expression. Mr. G. W. Smalley, the well-known correspondent of the New York Tribune, in writing from London, on the very day that Mr. Field was carried to his grave, recalls how he heard it from Mr. Bright's own lips. He says: