FIELD. 583 FIELD. the brother of David Dudlej Field, the eminent lawyer, and of Justice Stephen J. Field of the United States Supreme Court. Ai the age of fif- teen, abandoning i be idea oi a colli lucation, be removed to New i'ork City. At. the end oi three years he removed to Stockbridge, bul two years later he again removed to New York, He was at first in the emploj of A. T. Stewart, and afterwards junior partner in a firm of paper mer- chants. A disastrous failure having ensued, Field effected a temporary settlement with the creditors and set up in an independent business. I Hose ap plication finally rewarded his efforts; he togk his brother-in-law into partnership, and on January 1, 1853. at the age of thirty-three, retired from active participation in the business, with a for- tune of $250,000. A meeting with Frederick V Gisborne (q.v.), a Canadian electrieal engineer, in 1854, deter- mined (he channel into which Field's indomi- table energy was to be turned. Gisborne was in New York attempting to interest capitalists in an undertaking to construct an overland tele- graph line across Newfoundland, connecting Cape Ray and Cape Breton by fast steam-hips or carrier pigeons, and perhaps, eventually by a sub- marine cable under the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Field took Gisborne's plans under advisement, and, in studying up the matter, became convinced not only that the scheme was practicable, but that the time was opportune for organizing a com- pany to lay a transatlantic cable from Newfound- land to Ireland. He was not the first to enter- tain such an idea, but he was the first to put it into operation. With this more extended pur- pose in view, Field set to work to interest some of his friends, with the result that in May, 1854, was organized the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company, with Peter Cooper as its president. In 1856 the United States Gov- ernment, at Field's request, sent Lieutenant Berryman in the Arctic, to take deep -sea sound- ings along the route of the proposed cable, with the result that the existence of the telegraphic plateau was confirmed. A British expedition under Lieutenant Dayman, sent also at Field's solicitation, further confirmed this fact. In August, 1857. the first attempt at laying the cable was made from Yalentia. on the Irish coast. It failed, but in June. 1858. attempts were resumed. Time and again a start was made, but always unsuccessfully, 200 miles being the great- est length hi id. In spite of these disheartening failures, Mr. Field did not despair, and in July another at- tempt was made, this time with success. On August 16, 1858, the first message was trans- mitted from Queen Victoria to President Bu- chanan. But even while the success of the under- taking was being celebrated the cable broke. Mr. Field's firm had failed as a result of the panic of 1857, and he was now compelled to go into bankruptcy. Still he did not lose heart, nor give up his faith in the ultimate suc- cess of a transatlantic cable. A contract was let to an English construction company, a new cable was constructed, weighing 300 pounds to the mile instead of 107 pounds, the weight of the old cable, and the Great Eastern, the Iarg steamship afloat, was chartered to lav it. On July 23. 1865, the Great Eastern, with Mr. Field on board, started westward from the Irish coast, near Valentia, but ithin 600 miles oi the New foundland eoa -i . I in July 13, lsuii, Hi' tarted from Valentia on her second, and this time I , The Newfound! I tva reached on duly 27th wiih' bap, and the land connection "ii- time on com- munication «iih Europe by teli ible was undisturbed. The spent, by Mr. Field iii railroad developmi He W 11- one of I I the elevated railro; re aing it- presidency and thai of the Wabash, Saint Louis and Pacific Railway in Isso. on retiring from active participation in business. Business reverses troubled hi- lasl years. I suit : Isabella Field Judson i hi da W. Field: Bis I if* and (1 orl I cv. York, 1896) ; also II. M. Field, Tfistoi itlantie Teli graph i New York, 1867); Reid, II- Telegraph in America (New York, 1878); Bright and Bright, Life of Sir Charles Tilston Bright I Lon- don, 1898); Russell, Tin Itlantie Telegraph (London, 1868). FIELD, David Dudley (1781-1867). An American clergyman and historical writer. He was born in East Guilford, now .Madison, Conn.; graduated at Yale in 1802, and, after studying for the Congregational ministry, held pastor, at Haddam, Conn., and at Stockbridge, Mass. He was the author of several local histories, in- cluding .1 History of the Town of Pittsfield, in Berkshire County, Massachusetts (1844) ; and of a Genealogy of tin Brainerd Family (1857). FIELD, David Dudley (1805-94). An emi- nent American lawyer; son of David Dudley Field (q.v.). a Congregational clergyman. He was born at Haddam, Conn., graduated at Wil- liams College in 1825, -tudied law first in Albany. N. Y„ and afterwards in Xew York City, and was admitted to the bar in 1828. lie mi .need practice in New York, and speedily acquired a leading position at the bar. This was due quite as much to his extraordinary energy and pub- lic spirit, and to his zeal for law reform, as to his unusual learning and skill as a lawyer. Though possessed of a large professional pi tice, he devoted all the time which he could spare from pressing engagements for forty years to the reform of the law. He began the move- ment by writing articles in reviews and papers and pamphlets, showing the urgent necessity of a reform in methods of legal procedure. Having been appointed in 184" a commissioner on prac- tice and pleading by the Legislature of Xew York, he devoted himself first to the preparation of a code of civil procedure which was promptly enacted into law. The design of the new system was to wipe out the distinction between the forms of action and between legal and equitable reme- dies, in order that all the rights of the parties in relation to the subject of legislation could be decided in one and the same forum and in a single action. This system has been adopted in most of the American States mid i- the basis of the reformed procedure established in England by the Judicature Act of 1873 (36 and 37 Vic, c. 66). The same commission framed a code of criminal procedure, which has been adopted by eighteen State- and Territories. Tn 1837 Mr. Field was placed at the head of a new commission to prepare a political code, a penal code, and a
