On Wednesday, August 5th, fifty years will have passed since
the laying of the first Atlantic cable. Mr. Brett, Mr. Cyrus Field, and Mr. Bright (afterwards Sir Charles Bright), the engineer who laid the cable, were the " projectors " of the scheme, and almost all the capital of £350,000 was raised in England. The Governments of both countries lent ships. At the first attempt to lay the cable in 1857 only four miles had been paid out when the cable broke ; at the second attempt it broke at a depth of two miles when two hundred and twenty- six miles had been laid. Work was abandoned till the next year, when a new plan was tried. The ' Agamemnon' and the American ship Niagara' met in mid-ocean, joined their cables, and then steamed towards their own shores. Twice the cable broke, and nearly every one but the indefatigable workers on board the ships gave up the scheme as hopeless. But at the third attempt the cable was laid. On August 5th, 1858, Queen Victoria and the President of the United States exchanged messages.
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