A letter was sent to him, written from Melbourne on December 3, 1853, by a Mr.Samuel McGowan to a friend in New York, which contains the following gratifying intelligence:-- "Since the date of my last to you matters with me have undergone a material change.

I have come off conqueror in my hard fought battle.

The contract has been awarded to me in the faces of the representatives of Messrs.

Wheatstone and Cooke, Brett and other telegraphic luminaries, much to their chagrin, as I afterwards ascertained; several of them, it appears, having been leagued together in order, as they stated, to thwart a speculating Yankee.

However, matters were not so ordained, and I am as well satisfied.