The Express.
London, England, 1851-08-28 00:00:00

ette erpreoo.

TO CORRESPONDRNTS.
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-- -
HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE
Tom Doi —Mtorrapr, Ift. 4trib Mherakak 3k. 9a.
to—hoas.or—lkarting. Sh. Athrwasals. S. Sts.

LONDON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 2g.

FEw tributes of respect, esteem, and admira-
tion have been more honourably earned than that
which was paid yesterday at the Menai Bridge
to Itoeter tereettexsosr. vino rerilas the
ot
kindly emotions of the soul rarely express them-
selves so felicitously as at the genial board.
And the proximity of the crowning work of the
wondrous labours of the great engineer could not
fail to act ass constant spur to enthusiasm if it were
at any moment in danger of flagging, The boldness
of conception, the nicety of adaptation, the skill to
plan lona unflagging steadiness to execute, evinced
in tin' tubular iron bridging of the Menai Strait can-
not hut he a constant source of honourable compla-
cent reflection for hint who achieved it ; and the fes-
tival at which so many of the most distinguished of
the land assembled to express their sense of his me-
rits, while it must have warmed and heightened this
selhgnetulation is admitted on all hands to be a tri-
bute rio hie deserved.
Oil such an occasion it is not easy to separate the son
from the memory of the father. With some charac-
teristic dilferenees the two men have much in com-
mon. In their professional careers, ton, they have
been ammoniated with a rare closeness of intimacy.
Bouvier Sreetivesoe participated in the earliest
experiments and efforts of his father in the adapta-
tion of steam locomotion to railways; in the pro-
gress of that wonderful invention lie was his confi-
dential counsellor; since his lamented death he has
with mediated energy held on in the career of its
improvement. 'Dien: Wan exquisite moral beauty in
the unity of purpose with which father and son co-
operated during the life of the former, and with
which the plume of the father have been matured
and carried on by his worthy pupil and successor.
We have no hesitation in designating GEtIRGE
Srteitt.csost the inventor of the. modern swam-
ies 11111 l tive railway. The combination of the motive
poserof steutn with the rail's minimising of friction,
to teselerate and economise the carriage of goods and
igisscligers, was a problem that had engaged the at-
tention' of others before him. All honour to their
ingenious efforts; their very failures doubtless tended
to harrow the field of conjecture; but he was the
nem who solved it. Before the Liverpool and Man-
e:hest, r Railway was carried over Clint Moss, before
the hbc ket was made to dart along it, the whole de-
tails of railway road structure, and of the engines
that were to drive over them, were visibly and tan-
gibly pnsent to the prophetic imuginatiun of Giionfir.
Sri eill.ssox. His descriptions to parliamentary
couuuit is'. of what he could do, before Is3o, may be
taken now as accurate and graphic descriptions of
what he and citlwrs have since done. This presciemm
was the result of a rare genius for inventive experi-
ment, united to intimate familiarity with the practi-
cal working of the...temente he combined.
Iffanai;f: SrErittssos was a self-taught genius;
his intellect had all the robustness, and in some re-
elects the au kwardneivi which is the result of self-
training. this son lie took care should enjoy the
ail' alitagi sof education. Vet the inert:wail elegance
of to molestation which has been the result has in no
way. alxited the stn.ligth inherited front the parent.
The ...ugliness of purpase, the sterling honesty, the
a irtielteauted ottani to friends, the unostenta-
tious energy which accomplishes in silence some
Ilereuleatt task while others arc talking about it,
whirls marked the father Its superior to common
men. survite in the sin. 'llie life and actions of the
boll are nimplententary to those of the father; the
bistoory of the one is incomplete unless blended with
that of the other. tirEriii.ssos was one
of Nature's noblemen; and the position achieved by
his sot shows that there is such a thing in nature• as
hereditary nobility. Tlw civil and social slates at-
tained by Itiomar STEritExsos, taken in conjunction
with the early history of his father, is a symptom
of the healthy and natural state of society in this
country, of which, as a 11.120111 e. We have rewent to he
'They have risen honourably by genius, toil,
and parscteiane.
The tine has arrived when the railway system con
teemed apart from the chicanery. the mania, mid
to which it at one time gave occasion in so
ucun ill-regulated minds. The revolution it has al-
ready i trilled in the industrial and social relations of
this and every civilised country is amazing; hut it is
as nothing to the greater revolutions, which, in cont-
inuation with other invent' it seems destined to ,
necompl isle. 'flit' construction areaways hies opened
a new field of rentunerutiee industry--loth fur head
and hand lalsairers - in what seem:dun over-peopled
Railway- pniperty is II great and substan-
tial :Add' to the national wealth. The discipline
and regularity required fur the safe working of
• railway afford a permanent school of nioral
training tor a numerous class of our skilled artisans.
Without the aid of the railway it may be doubted
whether lloowt.‘Nll 1111.1:S postal ameliorations could
have made such progress as they have. Distant
friends and relations are brought into close jx-rsonal
contiguity by the railway; and the addition of the
electric telegraph seems almost to annihilate the har-
riers interim'' by space between mind and mind.
Even though Houma SrEctir.xsost had never ex-
isted, mechanical invention had advanced so far that
his in...lithe' would doubtless have been hit upon
liv snot• other person, but he was honoured by l'reni-
&nee to be chosen as the instrument to effect it. And
of his already numerous and meritorious successors, his
son still continues the must distinguished, no one ap-
proaching hint in originality of design and boldness
caoiception, except perha.ps Mr. BRI:NEL.
We cannot quit this subject without adverting to a
project which at one time appeared to be in a fair way
of being realised, but which has been unaccountably
desisted from. GEORGE SrEritEssoN died on the 12th
of .kugust, ISIS, and only four days later, 1/r. IlVek-
Lvs it, under the impression that a memorial would,
as a matter of course, be erected to his memory,
spontaneously offered his consent to its being placed I:
in Westminster Abbey: Here the matter rested,
notwithstanding the private efforts of many admirers
of the de-es-tsed, till January, IKel, when, at the an-
nual meeting of the Meelianical Engineers of Bir-
mingham, a committee was appointed to take
to pay some lasting tribute to the memory of
Ovoltee Sretomesoe. The committee requested
Mr. (Ave to become treasurer to the funds sub-
scribed fur the memorial; and there is now on our
table a printed list (dated in December, 1830) of
subscriptions to "the Gynacit STEPRENAON Monu-
ment" to the amount of 2,000 t. 'the list embraces
the names of sonic of our most distinguished
noblemen, ince of science, and capitalists; but it
also enumerates subscribers of less amounts infinitely
more interesting. There is a subscription of 32'1.
from " I leiclerks and workmen, employed by the
Petent Shaft Company, Weducebury ;" one of 171.
tram " 317 overlookeno and workmen, employed by
Mr. Ctatits, contractor on London and North
Western Railway ;" one of 1!. is. from " 4S ballast
men on London and North Western Railway;" one
of 10/. 3s. tad. from "312 orerlooken and workmen
employed by Mr. IlKessEy, contractor on the Buck-
inghamshire ltailway ;" one of 31. ,is. from " men on
North British Railway, Edinburgh ;" and others of
a similar description.
It boots not to inquire how a scheme, started with
so much of promise, cause to fall to the ground. We
cannot, however, but regard its failure as a na-
tional disgrace. We fully. admit the truth that
there is in the sarcastic remarks sometimes
nut& about the public's readiness to pay
funereal and monumental honour* to those
whose merits they have overlooked during their lives.
But in these cages it is the preceding neect, not
the subsequent paying of homage, that is blameable.
In the ease of the Stteut.Nmees the country has
nothing to reproach itself with. 'lle manly and
sagneionts diameter of the men themselves enabled
them to command such remuneration for their public
eery ices as mere material wealth can afford. The
ne rite of both have been promptly and gladly ac-
knowledged by their contemporaries. The banquet
at the Nlenai-bridge--the occurrence which has :ed
us too indulggec in this train of remark—is of itself a
proof how thaooghly the flitummtliotts have been