His brother Sidney was at this time also in Europe with his wife and some other members of his family, and the brothers occasionally met in their wanderings to and fro.  Finley writes to Sidney from Fenton’s Hotel, London, on July 1:—­

“Yours from Edinburgh of the 28th ulto. is just received.  I regret we did not see you when you called the evening before you left London.  We all wished to see you and all yours before we separated so widely apart, but you know in what a whirl one is kept on a first arrival in London and can make allowances for any seeming neglect.  From morning till night we have been overwhelmed with calls and the kindest and most flattering attentions.

“On the day before you called I dined at Greenwich with a party invited by Mr. Brett, representing the great telegraph interests of Europe and India.  I was most flatteringly received, and Mr. Brett, in the only toast given, gave my name as the Inventor of the Telegraph and of the system which has spread over the whole world and is superseding all others.  Dr. O’Shaughnessy, who sat opposite to me, made some remarks warmly seconding Mr. Brett, and stating that he had come from India where he had constructed more than four thousand miles of telegraph; that he had tried many systems upon his lines, and that a few days before I arrived he had reported, in his official capacity as the Director of the East India lines, to the East India Company that my system was the best, and recommended to them its adoption, which I am told will undoubtedly be the case.

“This was an unexpected triumph to me, since I had heard from one of our passengers in the Baltic that in the East Indies they were reluctant to give any credit to America for the Telegraph, claiming it exclusively for Wheatstone.  It was, therefore, a surprise to me to hear from the gentleman who controls all the Eastern lines so warm, and even enthusiastic, acknowledgment of the superiority of mine.

“But I have an additional cause for gratitude for an acknowledgment from a quarter whence I least expected any favor to my system.  Mr. Cooke, formerly associated with Wheatstone, told one of the gentlemen, who informed me of it, that he had just recommended to the British Government the substitution of my system for their present system, and had no doubt his recommendation would be entertained.  He also said that he had heard I was about to visit Europe, and that he should take the earliest opportunity to pay his respects to me.  Under these circumstances I called and left my card on Mr. Cooke, and I have now a note from him stating he shall call on me on Thursday.  Thus the way seems to be made for the adoption of my Telegraph throughout the whole world.

“I visited one of the offices with Dr. Whitehouse and Mr. Brett where (in the city) I found my instruments in full activity, sending and receiving messages from and to Paris and Vienna and other places on the Continent.  I asked if all the lines on the Continent were now using my system, that I had understood that some of the lines in France were still worked by another system.  The answer was—­’No, all the lines on the Continent are now Morse lines.’  You will undoubtedly be pleased to learn these facts.”