The Commercial Cable Company was organized in 1884, by John W. Mackay, of California, and James Gordon Bennett, of New York. Its objects, which have been faithfully realized, were to cheapen, quicken and improve the communication between America and Europe.

Its system is at present composed of two main cables, running from Cape Canso, on the northeastern coast of Nova Scotia, to Waterville, on the southwest coast of Ireland; from Waterville a cable of two cores is laid to a point near Bristol, England, reaching London by aerial lines of 150 miles long; an aerial line from Waterville to London, Liverpool, Manchester, Bradford, Newcastle, Cardiff, Swansea, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leith and Dundee.

France is connected by a cable running from Waterville to Havre, and Paris is reached by an underground cable from Havre.

On the American side a double-core cable from Canso to Rockport, Mass., and an aerial line thence to Boston and New York ; also a cable from Canso running direct to the main office of the Company, No. 1 Broad street, New York City. This latter connection is certain and permanent, and secures the '' Commercial'' from the constant interruptions from storms to which companies having to rely on land lines through Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the State of Maine are always subject. There is no better evidence of this than during the great blizzard of March 12th, 1888, when this direct New York cable was the only wire working to the outer world from the city of New York, and messages for Boston were transmitted over it to London and back again to Boston.

It may be well at this juncture to quote an extract from the speech (published in the New York Herald of October 17th, 1884) of the General Manager of the Commercial Company on the completion of the laying of this cable, as to the value to the cabling public of the country of this direct connection :—

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