The expedition of 1857 was little more than an experiment on a grand scale. As such it had its use; but its abrupt ending within three hundred miles of the Irish coast was a severe shock to public confidence. Up to that time the enterprise had been accepted by the people of England and of America, almost without considering its magnitude and difficulty. They had taken it for granted as a thing which must some day be accomplished by human skill and perseverance. But now it had been tried and failed. This first expedition opened their eyes to the vastness of the undertaking, and led many to doubt who did not doubt before. Some even began to look upon it as a romantic adventure of the sea, rather than a serious undertaking. This decline of popular faith was felt as soon as there was a call for more money. Men reasoned that if the former attempt was but an experiment, it was rather a costly one. The loss of three hundred and thirty-five miles of cable, with the postponement of the expedition to another year, was equivalent to a loss of a hundred thousand pounds. To make this good, the Directors had to enlarge the capital of the Company. This new capital was not so readily obtained. Those who had subscribed before, thought they had lost enough; and the public stood aloof till they could see the result of the next experiment. The projectors found that it was easy to go with the current of popular enthusiasm, but very hard to stem a growing popular distrust. They found how great an element of success in all public enterprises is public confidence. But against this very revulsion of feeling they had been already warned. The Earl of Carlisle the year before had cautioned them against being too sanguine of immediate results, and reminded them that "preliminary failure was even the law and condition of ultimate success." There were many who now remembered his words, and on whom the lesson was not lost. But whatever the depression at the failure of the first attempt to lay a telegraph across the ocean, and at the thick-coming disasters on land and sea, it did not interfere with renewed and vigorous efforts to prepare for a second expedition. The Directors gave orders for the manufacture of seven hundred miles of new cable, to make up for the loss of the previous year, and to provide a surplus against all contingencies. And the Government promised again its powerful aid.