APPENDIX XXVa SIR C. BRIGHT'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS PRESIDENT OF THE INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS.

TH E following is the leading article thereon which appeared in The Times the next morning: —-

Sir Charles Bright is the most fitting President the Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians could have elected for the Jubilee Year of the Electric Telegraph. In the triumphs of electrical engineering in the fruitful half-century over which electricians now look back he has had a considerable share. The greatest success of all, the laying of the Atlantic cable, which had been suggested in 1845 by the two Mr. Bretts, was brought about by an agreement into which Mr. Brett, Mr. Cyrus Field, and Sir Charles Bright entered on Michaelmas Day, 1856, to establish a company, Mr. Brett and Mr. Cyrus Field each taking twenty-five of the shares, which were a thousand pounds each. Sh* Charles Bright was the engineer, and, after several attempts to lay the wire had been frustrated, he landed