The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-30 00:00:00

The Qurterly .Review. No. 228.

Avery able and interesting essay on the progress
of engineering science is the first to greet us in this
number. In no department of human skill and
power has more rapid advance been made ; and the
brief years of our own generation have seen the
introduction and perfection of inventions that have
revolutionised the habits of the world and rendered
worthless the experience of ages. The develop-
ment of the principles upon which bridges, canals,
railways, and ships are constructed, are touched
upon in turn. The writer justly observes in his
exordium, that what printing did for the develop-
ment of intellectual power and the communication
of ideas, steam is doing for the material welfare of
mankind. " It is no hyperbole to say that already
within the last hundred years the engineers have
doubled the mechanical power, and more than
doubled the productive resources of mankind ; while
they have reduced the dimensions of the globe,
measured by time, to less than one fourth Of what
they were in 1863." The marvellous effects of
water power are dwelt upon at some length. The
application of the hydraulic force at Birkenhead
and at Menai were miracles of engineering skill.
Some of those who are familiar with our fine hat,
oours may perhaps be surprised to know that down
to the end of the last century we were content with
those with which nature had favoured us. De
Cessart, who designed the breakwater at Cherbourg,
was the first to surmount the difficulties of the sub
ject. Of the celebrated Birkenhead Float we have
the following description :
As a single work the great float at Birkenhead far ear-
passes anything on the opposite side of the water, or indeed
any work of its class that has yet been attempted any-
where. The area of water in this one dock is 121 acres,
and it is approached by three great entrances, one of which
has a sluicing apparatus, intended to keep the low. water
entrance basin free from sediment, and which is constructed
on a scale never before attempted; but whether it will
attain its proposed object is very much doubted. The
principal entrance has gates with a clear opening of 100
feet ; the largest ever constructed, which would admit the
Great Eastern if divested of her paddle-wheels, and will
admit the largest screw-steamer or sailing-ship that the
wildest imagination has yet conceived.
It is difficult to convey a correct idea of the magnitude
of such a work as this, for even its money value does not
tell the story of its ditli malty, It may, however, help ns if
we recollect that St. Paula Cathedral cost about £300,000,
and this was more than the expense of any of our mediaeval
cathedrals. The Parliament Houses cost two millions; and
if we take the Great Pyramid of Cheops at ft shilliizcat
cubic foot, which is about the price at which ameoillions.
could be obtained, is would cost a little over
ioubrut as two
As before hinted, this dock will cost 41%,
it is
a
millions, at least, were wasted in doing tadund.)ing,
found to undertake
probable that a contractor might b
this Float or the Great Pyramid ht ° funabout the same lump
sum.
The removal of 04 Soude rla.4d lighthouse a dis.

Lance of 475 feet was in its day considered an
astonishing feat. It was a building of masonry 69
feet 7 inches in height, and weighed 338 tons, yet
the light was never extinguished, and no hitch or
accident occured during its perilous progress. " And
such is the familiarity since acquired with works of
this class that twice the dimensions or thrice the
weight would hardly make an engineer pause if asked
to undertake such an operation." With regard to the
history of bridge building, it is some what remarkable
that the Egyptians, with all their boldness of design,
and ekill in execution, never bridged the Nile ,
while the Greeks also shrank from any such
undertaking. It was reserved for the more
daring and resolute Romans to make the attempt,
and there are still standing arches of their
construction of more than 100 feet span
springing at a height of more than 100 feet from
the bed of the river. Tne privilege of the engineer,
says the writer, is to think for himself ; not to go
back to distant ages for obsolete precedents, but to
look at the task before him and to consider the best
practical means of attaining that end. The daring
and success of our modern engineers have received
striking proof in the lines over the Alps and iu
Central India. The cost of the lines over the
Semmering Pass in the Alps and on the Bhore
Ghat incline are very much alike—botla,being about
1;68,000 per mile. A steep incline is no longer a
formidable obstacle, and our author remarks, half in
jest and half in earnest, that even the Himalayas
might now be traversed by the steam horse. Fol-
lowing this interesting paper on the men of action,
we come to one who was a chief of the world of
thought, yet withal no idle dreamer. The pathetic
story of laughter-moving Thomas Hood; the sor-
rows and sufferings that taught the poet his quick
insight into human grief, temptations, and neces-
sities ; the noble, courageous life, the calm resigned
death, are all sketched by a friendly and a feeling
hand. His many great and rare qualities as poet,
as humorist, and as man, are alike done justice to.
All readers of Hood must acknowledge the truth and
force of the following tribute :—`• Many are the
temptations for wit and humorist to win. The laugh
on forbidden grounds, it is easy to make merry in
low life. But Thomas Hood is never coarse, he
never penetrates the sanctuaries of human feeling
with the grin of irreverence. Whatever mockery
mask he may wear for the time, we know there is a
kindly face and a gentle heart behind it. He has
no cynical smile for our ever recurring difficulties
in this old battle field of good and evil, but always
a word of cheer for the right. He vas no scoff for
his inferiors ; no rage against superiors, owes the
world no grudge." Equally true is the following
passage on what was indeed our poet-humorist's
noblest characteristic :

But it is Thomas Hood's chief glory that he "remem-
bered the forgotten," His greatest work is that which his
poems will do for the poor. The proudest place for his
name is on the banner borne at the head of their great
army as it marches on to many a victory over ignorance,
crime, and wrong. The lines written by.E.ichylus for his
own epitaph show us that he was prouder of having fought
at Marathon and left his mark upon the Made than of all
the works he had written, Heine the German Poet-Wit
tells his countrymen he does not know whether he has won
the laurel, nor does he care what they say of him as a poet ;
but they may lay a sword upon his coffin because he was
a brave soldier in the war for the freedom of mankind. In
like manner, when we may have expatiated on the wit of
Hood, or shown his fancy at the daintiest, the highest
praise we can award is symbolled on his own tomb-stone,
" He sang the Song of the Shirt."
Other articles on varying interest and ability
follow; among them an article on that very un-
satisfactory people the Japanese, and an able essay
on Mr. Froude's Queen Eiizabeth.