Mr.Cooke presided and introduced the guest of the evening in the following charming speech:-- "I was consulted only a few months ago on the subject of a telegraph for a country in which no telegraph at present exists.

I recommended the system of Professor Morse.

I believe that system to be one of the simplest in the world, and in that lies its permanency and certainty.
[Cheers.] There are others which may be as good in other circumstances, but for a wide country I hesitate not to say Professor Morse's is the best adapted.

It is a great thing to say, and I do so after twenty years' experience, that Professor Morse's system is one of the simplest that ever has been and, I think, ever will be conceived.

[Cheers.] "It was a great thing for me, after having been so long connected with the electric telegraph, to be invited to preside at this interesting meeting, and I have travelled upward of one hundred miles in order to be present to-day, having, when asked to preside, replied by electric telegraph 'I will.' [Cheers.] But I may lower your idea of the sacrifice I made in so doing when I tell you that I knew the talents of Professor Morse, and was only too glad to accept an invitation to do honor to a man I really honored in my heart.