The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-21 00:00:00

MR. JOSEPH LOCKE.

It was only yesterday that we were called upon
to announce to our re4ders the sudden and prema-
ture death of Joseph Locke, M.P. for Honiton, and
President of the Institution of Civil Engineers. It
appears that he died at Moffat, on the morning of
Tuesday last, of that acute disease termed the iliac
Passion, a seizure by which is so difficult of treat-
ment and so commonly fatal. On the preceding
morning he first became aware that he was not in
his ordinary health, although he had been recruit-
ing himself at Moffat for the previous five weeks,
as his custom was at this time of year, and enjoy-
ing the shooting in Annandale, which he had rented
for the last eight or ten years. As if sensible of his
peril, he at once sent for medical aid, and Dr.
Munro, of Moffat, with Dr. Hunter speedily reached
him, and rendered him all the professional service
in their power; but their efforts to mitigate the
pain or arrest the progress of the disease were only
partially successful. The seizure took a rapid and
fatal course, and a little after 8 o'clock on Tuesday
he died,—as we said above, prematurely as well as
suddenly, for he was not yet 55 years of age, having
been born in 1805.

It is, indeed, not a little remarkable that his death
should follow so suddenly upon those of Stephenson
and Brunel, to whose position it may be said he was
legitimate heir, as the remaining chief of the engi-
neering world. Whatever difficulty there may be
now in assigning pre-eminence to those who survive,
the civil engineers had agreed in according priority
to Locke, who succeeded Robert Stephenson as the
President of their Institution. This position was un-
questionably his due as the chief representative of
the Stephenson school, Locke having been the pupil
of George Stephenson, the father, and first the co-
adjutor and afterwards the competitor of Robert
Stephenson, the son. The independent position which
he subsequently marked out for himself, and the
great works he executed either singly or in con-
junction with his partner, Mr. Errington, equally
entitle him to such notice as a contemporary memoir
renders possible. He was born, it is said, at Atter-
cliffe, near Sheffield, and educated in the Grammar-
school at Barnsley, in Yorkshire, whence he was
taken to be placed under George Stephenson at New-
castle-on-Tyne, and from him he learned the elements
of his profession. After five or six years—that is
to say, in 1826, George Stephenson became the chief
engineer of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway,
which it was now determined to commence. Joseph
Locke was engaged at once on the works of this
line and remained actively employed upon them
until its opening on the 14th of September, 1830.
During this interval his experiments as to the right
motive power were an- important contribution to
the success of this great work, and in conjunction
with the Stephensons he was inftrumental in deter-
mining the superior capabilities of the locomotive.
In the controversy which ensued on this critical
question Joseph Locke took a prominent part. In
conjunction with Robert Stephenson he collected the
results, which they stated in a joint pamphlet, and
which may be said to have settled the practical ques-
tion of their time. Henceforth it was allowed, to use
the simile of their chief, that the rail and wheel were
" man and wife," the wheel in question being the
wheel of the locomotive. Rope traction was still used
for a time in exceptional cases, and easy gradients
were at first deemed indispensable for the moving
engine. It was one of the boasts of Locke that
he subsequently adopted lines of gradient far more
steep than had ever before been held suitable for
its powers. After having joined in launching the
locomotive, he imposed upon it its most arduous
tasks.
Shortly after the completion of the Manchester
and Liverpool line the project of a railway from its
Warrington branch to Birmingham was revived,
and this line was commenced in 1832 or 1833.
George Stephenson was at first the engineer, but
the line was eventually constructed by Locke, and
opened on the 6th of July, 1837, being then desig-
nated the Grand Junction. It included some heavy
works, such as the Dutton and Vale. Royal Via-
ducts, and was the occasion of some improvements
in the rails and their fixing by the use of the heavy
double-headed rail and wooden key. But another
boast of its engineer was its marked commercial
success, and the encouragement it afforded to the
commencement of other railways by its construc-
tion for a sum actually within the estimate, and at
a cost only of from £14,000 to £15,000 a mile.
Capital was consequently invested largely in
similar undertakings under Locke's directions, who
had thus obtained the rare reputation of being an
economical engineer. The Lancaster and Preston
line was thus commenced in 1837, and was opered
in 1840, in which latter year the Sheffield and Man-
chester line was also undertaken. Some time pre-
vious to the completion of the Grand Junction line
also
s o railway
commenced. from
last
Lo Southamptoncke was e
eventually
üb.
aelel
yn
named engineer, and his chief attentionthwas6,;avnedn
to its works after thewas coopmenpeldetion of
Junction. The first section of the line,frome Ninera
Elms to Woking,
1838; and the whole main line ,
on the list of May,
branches have been added. the 11th of May, 1840, since which numerous
South-Western line the Micheldetvipe-ere
near Winchester, maybe
named as one of the prin-
weneolrbliasnkonmetnhis,
cipal ; it is 90 feet in height. Economy in construc-
tion continued still to be a characteristic of Locke's
Ofwasricodmpleted on

works, and a distinction which he strove zealously
and effectually to retain.
From Southampton it was natural that he should
turn to France, where numerous projects were sub-
sequently set on foot by him as engineer—as, for
example, the Paris and Rouen and Rouen and
Havre lines, which he completed ; a line from Paris
to Lyons, constructed under another engineer; and
the Caen and Cherbourg line, which was opened in
1856. For the Paris and Rouen line he received, in
1845, the decoration of the Legion of Honour from
King Louis Philippe. He also designed and super-
intended the line between Barcelona and Mattaro
in Spain, and the Dutch Rhenish Railway, of which
the final portion was completed in 1856, During
the construction of the works on the continental
lines Locke had joined with him as his coadjutor in
professional practice Mr. John Edward Errington,
and together they constructed the Lancaster and
Carlisle, the East Lancashire, the Caledonian, the
Scottish Central, the Scottish Midland, and the
Aberdeen Railways, and the Greenock Railway
and Docks. Notwithstanding the heavy works on
the Caledonian line, it was constructed, with the
platforms and roadside stations, for less than
£16,000 a mile. This economy of construction was
attained, as we have said, by the adoption of
steeper gradients, which Locke deliberately elected,
and rather from caution than audacity, sustaining
the economy of his principle, subject to some qua-
lifications, in the face of many rivals. His early
study of the locomotive engine led him to take
great interest also in the engine works which were
established at Crewe, and the " Crewe engine"—
constructed on a system by which each of the seve-
ral parts of an engine is made with mathematical
accuracy, and repeated in duplicate so as to fit in-
differently any engine—was the novel as well as
successful result.

To mark, however, the special grounds of his
reputation, we should add this :—The peculiar cha-
racteristic of Locke's career was the firmness and
decision with which throughout all his projects he
avoided the construction of great and too costly
works. His viaducts were of ordinary dimensions,
though some of them were of admirable construc-
tion —such as those across the bold ravines of the
north of England and Scotland. In every case
they are exactly fitted to the places they occupy ;
and in the same manner his bridges over the Thames
and the Seine are distinguished for their adaptation
to their position, the lightness and simplicity of
their construction, and the elegance of their design.
An engineer with such qualifications, and so re-
commended to shareholders by his caution and judg-
ment, united to his great talents, had naturally an
eminent career before him. In common with the
most fortunate of his profession he enjoyed golden
opportunities, and, in conjunction with Stephenson
and Brunel more particularly, he may be said to
have completed the Triumvirate of the engineering
world. He was its President, as we before men-
tioned, after Robert Stephenson's death. He was
also a Fellow of the Royal Society, and M.P. for
Honiton, which he represented continuously from
1847. He was a consistent Liberal—independent,
for he had so made himself by his own exertions,
as the architect of a large private fortune, honour-
ably and fairly acquired by his talents and by his
services to his generation.

A GERMAN IVILITAPY ACCOUNT OF

THE NEWTON REVIEW.

The Allgenzeine Militar-Zeztung gives an account,
by correspondent, of the Newton Review, and of
the rifle movement in general. A translation of
this article will no doubt prove interesting to our
volunteers, and especially to those who were present
at the review. After giving a full account of the
display, the writer says :

" England, as well as Germany, is arming to
repel the attack with which Bonapartism threatens
her; the British volunteer riflemen arose from the
same cause which made Prussia double the number
of her battalions of the line. It will, therefore, be
of interest to the German military public to re-
ceive some detailed information on the present
state and the fitness for actual service of the
British volunteer army ; for this army, from its
very origin, and in virtue of its fundamental idea,
is an enemy of Bonapartism, an ally of Germany.
A very few battalions excepted, this army of
volunteers dates from the latter half of last year; the
great body has not been put in uniform and drilled
more than a twelvemonth. At present its strength,
on paper, is 120,000 men, but if we may draw con-
clusions from what is the fact in some districts,
there will not be more than 80,000 men really effec-
tive and drilled; the remainder take no interest is
the matter, and had better be erased from the lists.
. . .If we consider that the great mass of the
troops present at Newton consisted of corps which,
counting one, two, or at the outside three com-
panies, are not formed into permanent battalions,
have no officers from the regulars, have been drilled
by drill sergeants alone, and have only now and
then been brigaded together in a battalion, we shall
have to allow that the volunteers have done every-
thing that was possible, and that they are no longer
on the same level with our civic guards. As a mat-
ter of course, the corps which form permanent bat-
talions, and are directed by adjutants from the line
(for the adjutants, so far, are the virtual com-
manders of battalions), were also those whiCh
went most steadily through the evolutions at the
review. The men upon the whole looked well.
There were, indeed, some companies as puny as
Frenchmen, but others surpassed in stature the
average of the present British line. Mostly, how-
ever, they were unequal in size and breadth of
chest. The pallor peculiar to the inhabitants of
towns gave to most of them a rather unpleasantly
unwarlike look, but eight days' encampment would
soon get the better of that. The uniforms, some
of them a little over-ornamental, made a very good
effect in the mass. The five years' drill has taught
the volunteers so much of the elementary move-
ments, that they may now enter upon skirmishing
and rifle practice. They will be far more handy
at both these kinds of work than the English line,
so that by summer, 1851, they would form a
very useful army, if only their officers knew
more about their business. This is the weak
point of the whole formation. Officers cannot
be manufactured in the same time and with the
same means as privates. Up to now it has been
proved that the willingness and the zeal of the mass
may be relied upon, as far as is required for making
every man a soldier as far as necessary. But
this is not sufficient for the officers. As we have
seen, even for simple battalion movements, wheel-
ing in column, deployments, keeping distance (so
important in the English system of evolutions,
where open columns are often employed) the officers
are not by far sufficiently formed. What is to be-
come of them on outpost and skirmishing duty,
where judgment of ground is everything, and
where so many other difficult matters are to be
taken into consideration ? How can such men
be entrusted with the duty of taking care of
the safety of an army on the march ? Govern-
ment has made it binding upon every officer of
volunteers to go to Hythe for three weeks, at
least. So far, so good; but that will neither
teach him to conduct a patrol, nor to command a.
picket. And yet, the volunteers are chiefly to be
used for light-infantry service—for that very kind
of duty which requires the cleverest and most re-
liable of officers. If the whole movement is to lead
to something, this is the point where Government
will have to step in. All companies which are still
existing—singly, or by twos and threes, ought to be
compelled to combine together in permanent batta-
lions, to engage adjutants from the regulars. These
adjutants should be bound to give all the officers of
their respective battalions a regular course of in-
struction in elementary tactics, light infantry ser-
vice in all its branches, and the regulations affect-
ing the internal routine of service in a battalion. The
officers should be bound, besides attending Hythe,
to do duty, for at least three weeks, with a regi-
ment of the line or militia in some encampment ; and
finally, they should, after a certain time, be all made
to pass an examination, proving that they have
learnt at least the most indispensable part of their
business. Such a course of instruction and exami-
nation of the officers ; further, a medical examina-
tion of the men, in order to weed out those who are
physically unfit for field service (and there is not a
few) ; and an annual revision of the company lists,
for the removal of those men who do not attend
drill, and who only play at soldiers and will not
learn their duty ; if this was done, the 120,000
men now existing on paper would be considerably
reduced, but you would have an army worth three
times the one which now counts 120,000 men on
paper. Instead of that, it is reported that the
military authorities are busy discussing the impor-
tant question, whether it would not be desirable to
clothe, at the first opportunity, all rifle volunteers
in the so very desirable brick colour of the line."

FATAL BOAT ACCIDENT.—An accident, attended
with fatal results occurred on Tuesday last at Dunoon, a
favourite watering place a few miles below Greenock. It
appears that a party of ladies and gentlemen started
sailing expedition up the Clyde, and when off
a Dumbarton Castle a sudden squall struck the sails
and capsized the boat. Some men from the Castle
gallantly snuck out to the rescue, but in consequence of a
heavy swell running at the time were unable to render any
assistance. 'e regret to learn that the whole party met
with a watery grave. The names of the sufferers by this
lamentable accident are—Captain Pyne, Mr. John James
Turnbull, Miss Julia Turnbull, Henry Reed, and Thomas
ith, the boatman.
A public en quete is about to be opened for the
formation of a boulevard round Paris within the fortifica-
tions. It is to be planted with trees at each side with foot-
paths, and will form a promenade round the capital of about
25 miles in length.