The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-07 00:00:00

Liverpool Cotton Market.—Tiffs Day.

Market opens very strong. Sales probably 12,000
or 15,000 bales.

BREECH-LOADING RIFLES.—In most of the Par-
liamentary reports published yesterday the name of an in-
ventor of a breech-loading rifle which was favourably
spoken of by the Marquis of Hartington, was spelt
Schneider instead of Snider. The former name would
lead the public to imagine that the inventor is a German,
whereas ho is of American birth.

After the unfavourable report we published yes-
terday, the news of Dr. Whewell's death can create
little surprise, though the event must still excite a
shock among Cambridge men all over the world,
who had associated him with their recollections of
the University. The Master of Trinity was the
head of the residents at Cambridge no less by the
vigour of his intellect and the range of his acquire-
ments than by his position as the head of the
greatest College, and the place he held in academic
society was due more to himself than to his office.
His towering figure was one of those soonest known
by the undergraduate, who had heard of his renown
long before he came into residence, and when he
quitted the University at the end of his career the
Master of Trinity was the man above all others
whom he remembered as the representative of Cam-
bridge learning and Cambridge dignity.
Half a century has passed since Dr. Whewell
himself took his degree. He was born at Lan-
caster in 1795, and his career may be taken as
evidence of what could at all times be accom-
plished, even in the most unreformed condition
of our educational institutions. His parentage was
humble, and it is said that his father intended to de-
vote him to his own handicraft, but he was sent to
the Free Grammar School of Lancaster, and pro-
ceeded in due course to Tri‘:iity College. His posi-
tion intheMathematical Ti:pos as Second Wrangler,
followed by the acquisition of the Second Smith's '
Prize, proved the possession of the intellectual
rowers which he cultivat-d up t) the day when ho
suffered the accident which has since proved fatal.
That a Second Wrangler should be in due time
Fellow and Tutor of his College is a matter of course,
but Mr. Whewell possessed an intellectual vitality
which was not satisfied with the mere work of a
College Tutor. In 1828 he was elected Professor
of Mineralogy, succeeding to the char which had
been founded for Dr. Clarke, and when the
British Association was formed he was requested to
draw up a report on the condition of that science.
It was in connection with the British Association (of
which he was President in 1841) that he drew up
the Report on the Tides, and on the Mathematical
Theories of Heat, Magnetism, and Electricity, which
rank among the first of his mathematical produc-
tions. Before this he had been chosen to write the
Bridgwater Treatise on Astronomy, and it is, perhaps,
this circumstance which first suggested to him the
History of the Inductive Sciences, published in 1837,
followed in 1840 by the Philosophy of the Inductive
Sciences, which are undoubtedly the works by which
he will be best known in after years. In 1832 he
resigned the professorship of Mineralogy, but in
1838 accepted the Professorship of Moral Philosophy,
which he held till 1855. In 1841, during the Minis-
try of Sir Robert Peel, he was nominated to the
Mastership of Trinity on the resignation of Dr.
Wordswoi th, and in his position he took an active
part in introducing into Cambridge the new studies
which have since been recognised by the institution
of the Natural and Moral Science Triposes. A s Pro-
fessor of Moral Philosophy he founded prizes for the
encouragement of that study, which he himself
always pursued with avidity. He edited Sir James
Mackintosh's Introduction to the Study of Ethical
Philosophy, published a couple of volumes of his own
on Morality, and among his latest productions were
some translations of the Ethical Dialogues of Plato.
If we add to the list, in which we have taken no notice
of mere University text-books, Lectures on Political
Economy, delivered at the desire of the late Prince
Consort before the Prince of Wales and other stu-
dents ; an edition of the works of Richard Jones on
Political Economy, Arch itectural Notes on Churches
in France and Germany, and Some Specimens of
English Hexameters, published in a book containing
similar efforts by Sir John Herschel, the late Arch-
deacon Hare, and Mr. Lockhart, we may give some
idea of his extraordinary versatility and industry.

Men of such wade and varied attainments as Dr.
Whewell possessed are always open to the suspi-
cion of being but superficiaPy aeirainted wN ith sonic
of the branches of knowledge on which they write,
and the Master of Trinity was sometimes disparaged
as Leibnitz was in his day. The saying that
" Science was his forte and Omniscience his foible"
is well known, though it had, in truth, less real
ground than even epigrams usually have. Dr. Whe-
well was doubtless not uniformly great, but he
reached a high degree of excellence in everything he
attempted. It is probable that defects in his man-
ners encouraged those who were ready to disparage
what they were unable to measure. Dr. Whewell
was at times disposed to overbear opponents, and
for some years his influence in the University was
marred by resentment against this defect. At the
same time he often exhibited au urbanity which,
coupled with his universal knowledge, made him a
delightful companion. Much must be allowed to a
man who is compelled to tolerate persons much his
inferiors in ability; but Dr. Whewell must be
allowed to have exhibited an occasional disdain of
those who :might fairly be deemed on some
subjects his equals. This was in part, however,
probably attributable to the high estimation in
which he held the College of which he was the head,
and which was wholly free from any alloy of per-
sonal vanity. He was prouder of Trinity Colley
than of any of his works, and would have sacrificed
everything to magnify it. And it must be added
that he endowed it with almost Royal munificence.
Some seven or eight years since he built, al his own
expense, a hostel for the reception of some of the
overflowing student'; of Trinity, who had been com-
pelled to live in lodgings for want of rooms in Col-
lege, and at the time of his death he had commenced
still larger works by way of addition to the former
building, which be had unwillingly deferred in con-
sequence of difficulties in obtaining the necessary
site, but the completion of which, we have reason to
believe, he took care to provide should be inde-
pendent of the accident of his death.
Dr. Whewell was twice married and twice a
widower. His first wife was Mi's Marshall, a sister
of Lady llonteagle, and he caused a mortuary
chapel in the Cemetery at Cambridge to be built
after his own designs as a memorial of his affection.
She died in 1854, and he married secondly, in 1858,
the widow of Sir Gilbert Affieck, a sister of the late
Mr. Leslie Ellis, himself a Fellow of Trinity, whose
virtues and his rare abi'ities are treasured by his
friends, and not least when alive by Dr. Whewell.
His second w:fe died on the Ist of April last. The
Mastership is in the gift of the Crown, and is worth
about £3,000 a year.

MARKETS.—This Day.