This action of Congress reached Mr. Field in England. As he was about returning to America, Lord Derby, still at the head of the government, addressed to him a letter in which he repeated what he had said before "in the Queen's name," "how much of the success of the great undertaking of laying the Atlantic Cable was due to the energy and perseverance with which, from the very first, in spite of all discouragements, you adhered to and supported the project;" and adding, "Your signal services in carrying out this great undertaking have been already fully recognized by Congress; and it would have been very satisfactory to the Queen to have included your name among those on whom, in commemoration of this great event, her Majesty was pleased to bestow British honors, if it had not been felt that, as a citizen of the United States, it would hardly have been competent to you to accept them. As long, however, as the telegraphic communication between the two Continents lasts, your name cannot fail to be honorably associated with it." This surely was all that could be expected from the government, but some there were in England who felt that there was still a debt of honor to be paid, which required some public testimonial. Accordingly, on Mr. Field's return to London, in 1868, they prepared for him an imposing demonstration in the form of a banquet, given at Willis's Rooms, on the first of July, at which was assembled one of the most distinguished companies that ever met to do honor to a private citizen of any country. It embraced over four hundred gentlemen of all ranks: ministers of state, members of parliament, both Lords and Commons; officers of the army and navy; great capitalists--merchants and bankers; men of science and of letters; inventors, electricians, and engineers--men eminent in every walk of life. The Duke of Argyll presided, and speeches were made by three members of the government--Sir John Pakington, Secretary of State for War; Sir Stafford Northcote, Secretary of State for India; and Sir Alexander Milne, First Sea Lord of the Admiralty; by John Bright; by the venerable Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, so long the British Minister at Constantinople; and by M. de Lesseps, the projector of the Suez Canal, who had come from Egypt expressly to be present. It was a tribute such as is rarely paid to any man while living--such tributes being reserved for the dead--and is still more honorable in this case, alike to the givers and the receiver, in that it was paid by the people of one country to a citizen of another, who was regarded in both as their common benefactor.