the great men of science on both sides of the Atlantic, who
inspired us by their knowledge and their enthusiasm, have passed away.
We have lost Bache, whose Coast Survey mapped out the whole line of
the American shores; and Maury, who first taught us to find a path
through the depths of the seas; and Berryman, who sounded across the
Atlantic; and Morse; and last, but not least, Henry. Across the water
we miss some who did as much as any men in their generation to make
the name of England great--Faraday and Wheatstone, Stephenson and
Brunel--all of whom gave us freely of their invaluable counsel,
refusing all compensation, because of the interest which they felt in
the solution of a great problem of science and engineering skill. It
is a proud satisfaction to remember that while the two Governments
aided us so generously with their ships, making surveys of the ocean,
and even carrying our cables in the first expeditions, such men as
these gave their support to an enterprise which was to unite the two
countries, and in the end to bring the whole world together.

Others there are, among the living and the dead, to whom we are under
great obligations. But I cannot repeat the long roll of illustrious
names. Yet I must pay a passing tribute to one who was my friend, as
he was the steadfast friend of my country--Richard Cobden. He was one
of the first to look forward with the eye of faith to what has since
come to pass. As long ago as 1851 he had a sort of prophet's dream
that the ocean might yet be crossed, and advised Prince Albert to
devote the profits of the great London Exhibition of that year to an
attempt thus to unite England with America. He did not live to see his
dream fulfilled.

But though men die, their works, their discoveries, and their
inventions live. From that small beginning under this roof, arose an
art till then scarcely known, that of telegraphing through the depths
of the sea. Twenty-five years ago there was not an ocean cable in the
world. A few short lines had been laid across the channel from England
to the Continent, but all were in shallow water. Even science hardly
dared to conceive of the possibility of sending human intelligence
through the abysses of the ocean. But when we struck out to cross the
Atlantic, we had to lay a cable over 2,000 miles long, in water over
2 miles deep. That great success gave an immense impulse to submarine
telegraphy then in its infancy, but which has since grown ti