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Original holograph letter dated 5 October 1837 written by Sir Francis Beaufort - Rear-Admiral and noted hydrographer of the British Royal Navy - to Sir Benjamin Hawes regarding his declining an invitation from Hawes to attend one of the first demonstrations ever in the United Kingdom pertaining to the electric telegraph. Because of prior official Naval commitments required of his Royal service, Sir F. Beaufort could not attend the electric telegraph demonstration of 6 September 1837 that was mounted by William Fothergill Cooke. The event took place in the presence of George Stephenson, founder of the London and Birmingham Railway, his son and chief railroad engineer Robert Stephenson, various principals of the London and Birmingham line, together with an assemblage of other notables of the day. The second trial electric telegraph installation by Cooke had been mounted commencing on 17 July 1837, with a temporary four-wire line strung between Euston Square and the Camden Town stationary engine house. Eventually, a more permanent line was run, with insulated wires buried underground; its completion occurring by 31 August 1837. The trial for this first near-permanent line took place on 6 September 1837, lasting one hour. Although the letter written by Beaufort discusses his missing the demonstration, the Rear-Admiral does make a most significant prediction and states: "If the electric telegraph does succeed, it will be one of the most striking novelties of this inventive age......" Letter is signed: "F. Beaufort." The one sided letter is from the collection of historian Richard Warren Lipack: discoverer of the original 1836-1842 manuscript journal of William Fothergill Cooke pertaining to the development of the first perfected commercial electric telegraph system - known as Codex Lipack.