throughout the world amounted to an aggregate length of 150,000 miles.  The Morse system is adopted on the principal lines of the United States, on all the lines of the Eastern continent, and exclusively on all the continental lines of Europe, “from the extreme Russian north to the Italian and Spanish south, eastward through the Turkish empire, south into Egypt and northern Africa, and through India, Australia, and parts of China.”

The rapid growth of the telegraph interest of the United States placed Professor Morse in the possession of a large fortune, which was greatly increased by the adoption of his invention in Europe.  The countries which had refused him patents at first now did honor to his genius.  Nor was he the only gainer by this.  In France, especially, the benefits of his invention were great.  The old system of semaphore telegraphs had been an annual expense to the government of that country of 1,100,000 francs, but Morse’s telegraph yielded to the French Government, in the first three years after its introduction, a total revenue of 6,000,000 francs.

Fortune was not Morse’s only reward.  Honors were showered upon him from all parts of the world.  In 1848, his alma mater, Yale College, conferred on him the complimentary degree of LL.D., and since then he has been made a member of nearly all the American scientific and art academies.  From European Governments and scientific and art associations he has received more honors than have ever fallen to the share of any other American.  In 1848, he received from the Sultan of Turkey the decoration of the Nishaun Iftiohar in diamonds, and subsequently gold medals of scientific merit were awarded him by the King of Prussia, the King of Wuertemburg, and the Emperor of Austria.  The gift of the King of Prussia was set in a massive gold snuff-box.  In 1856, the Emperor Napoleon III gave him the Cross of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor; in 1857, he received from the King of Denmark the Cross of Knight of the Danebrog; and in 1858, the Queen of Spain sent him the Cross of Knight Commander of the order of Isabella the Catholic.  In 1859, a convention of the representatives of the various European powers met in Paris, at the instance of the Emperor Napoleon III, for the purpose of determining upon the best means of giving Professor Morse a collective testimonial.  France, Russia, Sweden, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Sardinia, Tuscany, Turkey, and the Holy See were represented, and their deliberations resulted in the presentation to Professor Morse, in the name of their united governments, of the sum of 400,000 francs, as an honorary and personal reward for his labors.  In 1856, the telegraph companies of Great Britain gave him a banquet in London, at which Mr. William Fothergill Corke, himself the distinguished inventor of a system of telegraphy, presided.