Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Religious Authority, Progress, Heroism

Institutions mentioned:

Atlantic Telegraph Company

    A poem discussing a dispute between the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Archibald W Montgomerie (13th Earl of Eglinton), and the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, Nicholas P S Wiseman, who was on a visit to Ireland. Portrays Eglinton commenting on the 'Cable across the sea'—an 'electric rod' of which 'One end astounds the Irish herring, / And one the Newfoundland cod'. The Lord Mayor of Dublin toasts the success of the telegraph and expects that 'the great L. L. [Lord Lieutenant] shall lay the sword / On the shoulder of Charles S. Bright' (i.e. Charles T Bright). (116)