cessary to ask the aid of Her Majesty's
Government. This effort was intrusted to Mr. Field, who carried it
through successfully. The English Government agreed to furnish the ships
necessary for making soundings and surveys, and to furnish vessels to
assist in laying the cable. It also agreed to pay to the company an
annual subsidy of fourteen thousand pounds for the transmission of the
government messages until the net profits of the company were equal to a
dividend of six pounds per cent., when the payment was to be reduced to
ten thousand pounds per annum, for a period of twenty-five years.
Provision was made for extra payment, in case the government messages
exceeded a certain amount; and it was provided that the messages of the
Governments of Great Britain and the United States should be placed upon
an equal footing, and should have priority in the order in which they
arrived at the stations. This last provision exhibited a decided
liberality on the part of the English Government, since both ends of the
proposed cable would be in British territory. Indeed, throughout the
whole negotiation, Great Britain cheerfully accorded to the United
States every privilege which she claimed for herself.

Having secured the aid of the Queen's Government on such liberal terms,
Mr. Field now undertook the organization of the company, in addition to
the task of raising a capital of three hundred and fifty thousand
pounds. In both efforts he was effectively assisted by Mr. John W.
Brett, who had laid the first cable across the English Channel, and by
Mr. Charles T. Bright and Dr. Edward O.W. Whitehouse. The efforts of
these gentlemen were successful. In a few weeks the whole capital was
subscribed. It had been divided into three hundred and fifty shares of a
thousand pounds each. One hundred and one of these were taken up in
London, eighty-six in Liverpool, thirty-seven in Glasgow, twenty-eight
in Manchester, and a few in other parts of England. Mr. Field, at the
final division of shares, took eighty-eight. He did not design making
this investment on his own account, but thinking it but fair that at
least one-fourth of the stock should be held in America, he made this
subscription with the intention of disposing of his shares after his
return home. Owing to his continued absence from New York, and the
straitened condition of the money market, it was nearly a year before he
could succeed in selling as much as twenty-seven shares. The co