The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-24 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Saturday Sterne. By John Edmund Reade, author
of " Wait and Hope," &c. 3 vols. Hurst and
Blackett.
This is a peculiar style of story that will find
admirers among the lovers of the marvellous. There
are many characters introduced in these pages, and
for the most part they are drawn with success.
Mr. and Mrs. Leigh Chandos are aptly represented
as secondary personages. Of him we are succinctly
informed that "the once animated and aspiring
young barrister, the frequenter of the best society,
and the sought after in his bachelor days, had been
gradually converted into the quiet reading man,
the student, and the bookworm, into the final
development of the author." Mrs. Chandos had not
so happily adapted herself to the change as her
husband. She still regretted in their solitude the
past brilliancy of her life. Their sons, Edmund and
Richard, formed a striking contrast to each other.
Neither of them was very attractive, Edmund being
abstracted and moody,while Richard was treacherous
and sel fish. A continued strife and rivalry existed be-
tween them, which was at last terminated in a most
awful manner. The events of the latter part of the
narrative are very exciting, and the fearful mystery
that hung over Edmund is very ingeniously told.
The sudden horror which overwhelmed the whole
party was certainly a proof of the imprudence of
their conduct in continually making secret appoint-
ments and arranging clandestine interviews. The
ladies in the story are more remarkable than the
gentlemen, and in their delineation the author
displays considerable skill. Maude Kleobury is a
finished representation of a flirt; and she seems
also totally destitute of redeeming qualities. Her
only merit at best appears to be her indignant
repulse of Malefort. This latter individual is rather
overdrawn in his villanies. He reaped the just
reward of his acts in the sad death he met with
from the hands of one he had injured. Saturday
Sterne, the heroine, does not appear on the scene so
prominently as the primary persons of a tale mostly
do, but she is very striking when she does come
forward. She offers a favourable contrast to the evil
conduct of Maude, and it is satisfactory to mark that
at last she seems more likely to be happy than dur-
ing the years we have had acquaintance with her.
There are many persons encountered in these pages
who arc well calculated to attract attention.
Tremadoc is a most remarkable man, and Owyneth
is an extraordinary being, quite original in her
peculiar cast of disposition. With the strange in-
cidents, the exciting events, and the strongly-defined
characters met with in this story there is every
reason to suppose that it will be approved of in
many quarters. It exhibits in forcible language
some important features of character that influence
human life, and are mighty for good or potent for
evil, according as their shape is fashioned or their
course directed. The author may expect a satisfac-
tory result to ensue from his labours, and the skill
and ingenuity which abound in these pages will
infallibly arrest attention, and win regard from the
circles of novel readers.

Memoir of the Life of Sir Mare Isambard Brunel.
By Richard Beamish, F.R.S. Longman and
Co.

England may well be proud of the world-wide
celebrity of her engineers. In all parts of the globe
are their services required. To England is due the
invention of the steam engine, the formation of
railroads, and the development of the electric
telegraph. Although it has been too often the
misfortune of Great Britain to neglect merit, and
leave to other nations the benefit of the labours
and discoveries of those whose necessity obliged
them to seek assistance from more liberal Govern-
ments, in the case of Brunel England was the field
in which the energies and genius of a gifted French-
man have been developed; while his native coun-
try, although claiming him as a son, has the
mortification !to witness a rival nation enjoy his
renown. Fate seems to have decreed that it shall
be the—

"Accursed inheritance of worth,
To shame the land that boasts its birth,
And glories in its memory."
The latter part of last century is remarkable for the
births of celebrated men ; two of the greatest gene-
rals of Western civilisation, the most successful and
illustrious sea-captain of whom England can boast ;
the first practical chemist in the world ; and
the two fathers of scientific engineering, Sir Marc
Isambard Brunel and George Stephenson. What
is still more remarkable is, that with the exception
of the Duke of Wellington, they all rose from an
obscure and humble station to fame, wealth, and
honours. It is, however, of Sir Marc Isam-
bard Brunel, that we have at present to treat.
He was born at Hacqueville, in Normandy, on the
25th of April, 1769, and was destined by his fa-
ther for the Church ; a living being in the gift of
the family, and, notwithstanding that the boy
showed a most resolute objection to take charge of
the souls of his neighbours, his father, like too
many foolish, though well meaning individuals,
determined to enforce obedience, and to this end
the refractory urchin was often sentenced to solitary
confinement, and locked up in a certain room, in
which was an old family portrait with large staring
eyes, which, to the excited fancy of the child,
seemed to be always fixed upon him. At length
he could bear it no longer, and regardless of con-
sequences, he pushed a table to the wall, and having
placed a chair on it, so as to enable him to reach
the bugbear, with his pocket-knife, he cut out both
its cyes. At eleven years of age he was sent to the
deminary at St. Nicaise, at Rouen, one of the
numerous establishments connected with the large
ecclesiastical college of that town, in the vain
endeavour to bend him to the will of his parents.
Here his decided talent fordrawing so attracted the
notice of the superior, that he was allowed the
assistance of a master ; but the embryo engi-
neer was not satisfied with designing—his
genius was practical. From childhood his
amusements differed from those of other
children. " At a period when most children
carpenter's
of t the
can scarcely manage anordinnardlov ne a u
yiknoiffesuanchd
tools,
young Brunel was familiar with the
sghroepat;esatndpasrotinolf,ettehreatte woolass hisfou
that he has been known to pawn his hat that he
a cutler's
might possess one newly exhibited in
window at Rouen, though at the time unacquainted
with its special use. All endeavours having failed
to induce the boy to forego his longing for active
.
life, his father reluctantly consented to his entering
the navy, and for six years he seems to have actively
foundengaged
to
particularise
a rhtii:
ulai
profession, but
epoch in his eventful
but no record can be
life. In 1793 we find him in Paris the midst of
the perils of the Revolution ; he retired to Rouen,
and thence after encountered many dangers, not-
withstanding
which, however, he contrived to fall
in love with, and be accepted by, a young English
lady, whom he afterwards married, who was at that
title re4Lchug with his friend M. Curpentier, the

American Consul. To this engagement, coupled
with his desire to visit England, where he had been
told engineering was carried on to an extent
unequalled in any other country, and to certain for-
tuitous circumstances, England is indebted for
the benefits which the genius of Brunel has con-
ferred upon her. At length, France becoming too
unsafe for him to remain any longer, he contrived
to escape to America. An incident occurred at
this time which shows the universal genius of
Brunel and his ready wit to combat all difficulties.
On reaching the ship that was to convey him to
the United States, he discovered that he had lost his
passport. Nothing daunted, however, he borrowed
the passport of a fellow-passenger, and in a short
time produced so exact a copy as to defy detection.
Having passed some years in America, where he
distinguished himself by his practical knowledge,
his talents for adaptation, and his ever ready
i
expedients n cases of difficulty, he fulfilled his long
cherished desire of visiting England. In January,
1799, he bade farewell to America, and from
that time, in act, thought, and desire, he
may be considered as an Englishman, and, in truth,
he considered the land of his adoption as his coun-
try. His career since that time is a matter of
English engineering history. But his great work—
the work of the age, at that time considered as an
impossibility—TheThamesTunnel—will alone hand
his name down to posterity. Since that period
greater wonders have been effected and more bene-
ficial results obtained, but these in no way detract
from the glory and merit of the early engineer
who had to combat prejudice, ignorance, and in-
terest in nearly all his undertakings. Does the fact
that a Liverpool clipper can now twice circumnavi-
gate the globe in a twelvemonth prgve that the
services of Columbus fin I Cook, were of small im-
portance. On the contrary, w e must estimate the
value of their labour by its mighty results. In like
manner do Mr. I. Brunel and G. Stephenson stand
forth as the fathers of modern engineering. To
enter into a detailed account of the many improve-
ments which Brunel effectedin the various branches
of sciences and manufactures and the patents which
he took out would be to interpolate Mr. Beamish's
excellent work. In fact, there is scarcely a branch
of mechanism in which be has not made some im-
provement. We find him engaged b y the Admiralty
in constructing machinery for making blocks for the
navy, he anticipated the go-a-head Yankees by some
40 years in the manufacture of peg shoes and stitch-
ing machines. which inventions with certain altera-
tions and improvements are now of course bona fide
American as much as a printed copyright. Although
the list of patents is no measure of the number
improvements effected by i Brunel, t will never.
theless show the universality of his genius

LIST 01 PATENTS.

A.D.
1799. Machine for writing and drawing.
1801. Ships' blocks.
1802. Trimmings and borders for muslins, lawns, and
cambrics.
1805. Saws and machinery for sawing wood.
1806. Cutting veneers.
1808. Circular saws.
1810. Obtaining motive power.
1812. Saw-mills.
1813, Saw-mills.
1814. Rendering leather durable.
1816. Knitting machine.
1818. Forming tuunels, or drifts, underground.
1818. Manufacture of tinfoil.
1820. Copying press.
1820. Stereotype printing plates.
1822. Marine steam engines.
1825. Gas engines.
We have puposely refrained from entering into any
particulars relating to the construction of the
Thames Tunnel from the feeling that in the limited
space which we can devote to this notice, it would
be utterly impossible to do justice to Mr. Bea-
mish's interesting and detailed history of that bold
undertaking in which he himself took so prominent
a part. The illustrations are clearly and well exe-
cuted, and the workaltogether is got up in first-rate
style.