"1. It is understood that the capital required to lay down the line will be three hundred and fifty thousand pounds. "2. Her Majesty's Government engage to furnish the aid of ships to take what soundings may still be considered needful, or to verify those already taken, and favorably to consider any request that may be made to furnish aid by their vessels in laying down the cable. "3. The British Government, from the time of the completion of the line, and so long as it shall continue in working order, undertakes to pay at the rate of fourteen thousand pounds a year, being at the rate of four per cent. on the assumed capital, as a fixed remuneration for the work done on behalf of the Government, in the conveyance outward and homeward of their messages. This payment to continue until the net profits of the Company are equal to a dividend of six per cent., when the payment shall be reduced to ten thousand pounds a year, for a period of twenty-five years. "It is, however, understood that if the Government messages in any year shall, at the usual tariff-rate charged to the public, amount to a larger sum, such additional payment shall be made as is equivalent thereto. "4. That the British Government shall have a priority in the conveyance of their messages over all others, subject to the exception only of the Government of the United States, in the event of their entering into an arrangement with the Telegraph Company similar in principle to that of the British Government, in which case the messages of the two Governments shall have priority in the order in which they arrive at the stations. "5. That the tariff of charges shall be fixed with the consent of the Treasury, and shall not be increased, without such consent being obtained, as long as this contract lasts. "I am, sir, your obedient servant, "James Wilson. "Cyrus W. Field, Esq., 37 Jermyn street." With this encouragement and promise of aid, the projectors of a telegraph across the ocean now went forward to organize a company to carry out their design. Mr. Field, on arriving in England, had entered into an agreement with Mr. Brett to join their efforts for this purpose. With them were afterward united two others--Sir Charles Bright, as engineer, and Dr. Whitehouse, as electrician. These four gentlemen agreed to form a new company, to be called The Atlantic Telegraph Company, the object of which should be "to continue the existing line of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company to Ireland, by making or causing to be made a submarine telegraph cable for the Atlantic."