The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-23 00:00:00

THE IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE.

The first annual meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute,
under the presidency of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire,
was held at Middlesborough, on Wednesday. At half-past
ten o'clock the members of the institute assembled in the
Oddfellow's Hall, Middlesborough. The Duke of Devon-
shire occupied the chair. There was a large attendance.
The noble duke, in opening the proceedings, said :
Gentlemen, having already had the honour en a former
occasion; in my capacity as president of the institute, to
address the members with reference to the pcsition of the
Manufacture in iron and steel, and having explained at
some length the purposes for which it has been established,
I do not propose, on the present occasion, to open the
proceedings with more than a very few preliminary
observations ; but I must be allowed to congratulate the
members of the institute on the favourable circum-
stances under which we are assembled this morning.
The number of members who have already joined us is very
considerable. Not only have we a goodly number of mem-
bers—l believe that those who will probably be elected
this morning will make the number little short of 300—
looking from a pecuniary point of view, to meet the mode-
rate expenses of conducting its affairs, but it is clear, from
the list of papers which have been announced, we have
abundance of work chalked out for us to occupy the
time allowed for the meeting. Several of our members
have undertaken to :communicate the results of their in-
quiries and their experience ; and, in addition to the
valuable information which these papers will contain, it
is to be anticipated that they will give riso to discussions
in which members from other parts of the country will
take part ; the questions at issue :will be treated
from different points of view, according as they
may be taken up, considering the varying cir-
cumstances of different districts." His Grace then
pointed out the utility of holding successive meetings
in different parts of the country, so that members might
have opportunities of seeing the various processes and
modifications of processes which might be carried en in
different districts according to varying eirc7.7.mAances.
Mr. IsAs,c Low.rniA_N BELL, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, then

read an able and exhaustive paper "On the development
,of heat, and its appropriation in blast furnaces of different

,dimensions."

This paper provoked a good deal of discussion, to which
Mr. Bell replied.

Mr. SMITII, of Barrow-in-Furness, vice-president, read
his paper "On Siemens's Regenerative Furnace, and its
application to reheating furnaces connected with rolling

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS. ,

LADY BYRON.

In the "Life of Crabb Robinson," there are several.
references to Lady Byron, which throw a good deal of
light upon her character and opinions; and as these refe-
rences may be regarded as the last published- evidence
previous to the catbreak—Of the fierce controversy which
now rages on the subject, they may be accepted as
impaitial. It was not until a very late period of his
life that Mr. Robinson became acquainted with Lady Byron.
On September 13, 1853, his diary states :
"In the evening I called by desire on Lady Byron—a
call which I enjoyed, and which may have consequences.
Recollecting her history, as the widow of the most famous,
though not the greatest, poet of England in our day, I felt
an interest in going to her ; and that interest was greatly
heightened when I left her. From all I heard of her, I
consider her one of the best women of the day. Her means
and her good will arc both great. She lives to do good,'
says Dr. King, and I believe this to be true. She wanted
my opinion as to the mode of doing justice to Robertson's
memory. She spoke of him as having a bettor head on
matter 3 of business than anyone else she ever know. She
said, have conault3d la wyers on matters of difficulty, bi t
Robertson seemocl better able to give me advice. lie
unravelled everything and explained everything at once as
no one elze did.'"

In a previous referenet, Robinson states : "I went to
Robertson's and had two hours cf interesting chat with
him on his position here in the pulpit ; also about Lady
Byron. He speaks of her as the noblest woman he ever met."
" Duly Byron is now quite recovered. She is always
feeble, and obliged to husband her strength, and calculate
her powers ; but her mind is ever intact, pure, and lofty.
It seems to pour forth its streams of benevolence and
judgment even from the sick bed; a perennial fountain
Her state of mind has always given me confidence in her
severest illnesses. Yet her power of bear* fatigue occa-
sionally, as during the illness and death of her daughter. is
as wonderful.

" I (Robinson) was sitting with Charles Lamb, when
Wordsworth came in, with fume in his countenance, and
the Edinburgh Review in his hand. I have no patience
with these reviewers,' he said ; 'here is a young man, a
lord, and a minor, it appears, who has published a little
volume of poems; and these fellows attack him, as if no
one may write poetry unless he lives in a garret. The
young man will do something, if he goes on: When I
became acquainted with Lady Byron, I told her this story,
and she said ! if Byron had known that, he would
never have attacked Wordsworth. He once went out to
dinner where Wordsworth was to be. When he came
home, I said, 'Well, how did the young poet get on with
the old one ?' To tell you the truth,' said he, I had but
one feeling from the beginning of the visit to the end—
reverence !'"

LADY BYDON TO ROBINSON,

"Brighton, March 5,1355.

" I recollect only those passages of Dr. Kennedy's book
which bear upon the opinions of Lord Byron. Strange as
it may seem, Dr. Kennedy is most faithful when you
doubt his being so. Not merely from casual impress ions,
but from the whole tenor of Lord Byron's feelings, I could
not but conclude he was a believer in the inspiration of the
Bible, and had the gloomiest Calvinistic tenets. To that
unhappy view of the relation of the creature to the
Creator I have always ascribed the misery of his
lif . . . . It is enough for me to remember

that he who thinks his transgressions beyond
forgiveness (and such was his own deepest feeling)
has righteousness beyond that of the self-satisfied sinner,
or perhaps of the half awakened. It was impossible for
me to doubt that, could he have been at once assured of
pardon, his living faith in a moral duty and love of virtue
(` I love the virtues which I cannot claim') would have
conquered every temptation. Judge, then, how I must hate
a creed which made him see God as an Avenger, not a
Father. My own impressions were just the reverse, but
could have little weight; and it was in vain to seek to
turn his thoughts for long from that idie fixe with which
ha connected his physical peculiarity as a stamp. Instead
of being made happier by any apparent good, ho felt
convinced that every blessing would be 'turned into a curse'
to him. Who, possessed by such ideas, could lead
a life of love and service to God and man ? They must, in
a measure, realise themselves. 'The worst of it is, I do
behave,' he said. I, like all connected with him, was
broken against the rock of Predestination. I may be par-
doned for referring to his frequent expression of the senti-
ment that I was only sent to shew him the happiness he
was forbidden to enjoy. You will now better understand
why the 'Deformed Transformed' is too painful to me for
discussion."

VA CATION UTTERAN CES.

Mr. Charles Seely, M.P., has been entertained at
a dinner by the electors of one of the Nottingham
wards. Ilis speech, to such of his constituents as were
resent, ranged over a variety of subjects, the most
important of which was national expenditure. On
this point he urged that the best plan was to be
exceedingly cautious in beginning expenditure of any
kind; but after it had been begun it was absurd to
withold such funds as were absolutely necessary to
the completion of the work in hand.
The ceremony of distributing the prizes to the
successful candidates in the Oxford and Cambridge
local examinations at Southampton afforded Lord
Northbrook an opportunity of delivering a somewhat
important speech on education. In the course of his
address his lordship dealt with some of the -difficulties
which in this country pre-eminently beset the inau-
guration of a national system of education. It was,
he thought, wiser and better to.improve from time to
time the institutions already existing in the country
than to snake any great organic changes i n any of
the systems of education. My reason, said his
lordship, is that there is no country in the world,
excepting, perhaps, the United States of America, in
which you have a greater number of men who, from
disinterested motives, and from the mere love of
work, devote themselves heart and soul to these great
objects. To change that into a Government system
entirely controlled and managed by the Government
would, in my opinion, derive us of a very great
advantage for a very doubtful gain.