The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-19 00:00:00

I peculiar Privilege among some of the more illus-
trious
chiefs of Science —a privilege almost in-
variably denied to Poets and Artists—that abilities
of the Wighest order may be transmitted without
diminution, sometimes even with increase, from
father to soli, and that in this exceptional depart-
ment the -rarest genius becomes in a manner
hereditary. SHAKSPERE, BYRON, SCOTT—and so
many others renowned in Song and Romance—
left no son to emulate their fame in literature. It
has been happily otherwise in three conspicuous
instances in our own times, among men illustrious
by their scientific reputation. The discoverer of
Georgium Sides has left his fame to be renewed, un-
dimmed, by his eminent son and successor Sir JOHN
HERSCHELL. The Founder and Father of the
whole Railway System, old GEORDIE STEPHENSON
of the Colliery Districts, has even had his renown
enhanced, and diffused far and wide over the globe,
by his celebrated son and successor, ROBERT
STEPHENSON, civil engineer and member of Par-
liament. The constructor of the block machinery
at Portsmouth and of the double tunnel under the
river Thames, Sir MARK ISAMBARD BRUNEL be-
queathed to his son and successor a reputation
which that son and successor has in many respects
we cannot but think very considerably surpassed.
Cradled, as aforesaid, near the dockyard at Ports-
mouth in the midst of the drone and clatter of the
block machinery in 1806—BRUNEL the younger
was twenty years later, namely of course in 1826,
so to speak, schooled in practical engineering at
the Thames Tunnel, of which extraordinary work
he was even at that early age, appointed resident
engineer. It has been said of him in CHARLES
KNIGHT'S "English Cyclopedia of Biography"
that here—in the Thames_ ...T2tuDel—" Being the
last to quit his post, he was more than once in
danger from the frequent breaking-in of water
during the progress of the excavations, and only
saved himself by swimming. The final irruption
of 1828, when one man was drowned," it is
there also added, " surprised him 600 feet from the
end of the tunnel ; he was borne along by the
stream, and rose to the surface near the top of the
shaft." From which incidents it will be seen that
the eminent man of science, son to the eminent
man of science, served to science no unadventurous

apprenticeship.
Recompensed though BRUNEL the younger has
been by many initial tributes giving the timbre of
official recognition to his scientific distinctions—
Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, and D.C.L.,
and Fellow respectively of the Royal Society, of
the Society of Arts, of the Astronomical Society,
of the Geological Society, and of the Geographical
Society—his distinguishing and pre-eminent rank
to the last was that indicated by the two letters
C.E., the symbols of his wonder-working profession.
And as a civil engineer few, if any, have—but one,
if any has—been at once more daring
and more industrious. Comparisons, always
invidious, are peculiarly so when instituted
between two friends, one of whom stands
beside the premature grave of his recently deceased
contemporary. From no comparison, however,
need the younger BRUNEL have shrunk—even
though it had been a comparison with that—
" Brother in Science, and Rival in Renown "
ROBERT STEPHENSON. The nobly characteristic
absence of all jealousy between those two kindred
men of genius was reciprocally evidenced, by each
in turn, upon two very memorable occasions. First,
when STEPHENSON'S Conway and Britannia tubular
bridges were floated and raised—labours in which
Mr. BRUNEL conpicuously participated, and of which
CHARLES KNIGHT'S " Biographical Cyclopdia,"
speaks as " operations not less remarkable for their
novelty and magnitude than for the friendly co-
operation of the engineers by whom they were suc-
cessfully accomplished." Secondly, this generous reci-
procity of interests and ambition was marked more
recently when the constructor of those grand
tubular bridges, aided by his advice in facilitating
the completion of the interrupted launch of BRU-
NEL'S last and greatest work of all, the leviathan
of the deep now floating: riumphantly off Portland.
The engineering labours of Mr. BRUNEL scarcely
admit of very easy enumeration. They are alto-
gether too many, and too diversified to be
readily catalogued. Conspicuous among them, in
their abiding usefulness, were his dock labours in
many of our principal out-ports, as at Bristol, at
Cardiff, and at Sunderland. His railways, his
bridges, his tunnels, his steamships, however, are
his chief and most resplendent master-pieces. In
constructing these he has repeatedly striven—and
striven successfully—to attain, not simply a high,
but the highest point of excellence. His beautiful
foot-bridge across the Thames, at London, for in-
stance—the Hungerford Suspension-bridge—is the
longest span in the United Kingdom ! His railway
bridge across the Thames at Maidenhead is the
longest and flattest of brick arches yet constructed !
His other railway bridge over the Tamar, in Corn-
wall, is "as near as may be from coincidence of
natural causes, of the same span and height as
the Britannia-bridge, and has a central pier, rising
from a depth of 80 feet of water; the deepest yet
encountered in railway engineering !" His railway
tunnel near Bath—the famous Box Tun nel—is,we be-
lieve, about the longest railway tunnel yet inexistence!
His gauge along the line of the Great Western is, as
we all very well know, the broadest of the gauges,
though this, we will admit, is, to say the least of
it, a somewhat questionable distinction ! His first
large steam vessel, named like his grand trunk rail-
way through the western counties, "The Great
Western," was the first steamship built to cross the
Atlantic ! How it did cross the Atlantic, in spite
of Dr. LARDNER'S predictions as to the impossibility
of its doing so, is upon record in the history of
have gained something far more valuable than the
ability to read just so much Latin. Their minds
have been put into that course of thorough investi-
gation, and of all-sided examination of whatever
they study in future years, which they will not
easily forsake. In education at least any school-
master should be a STRAFFORD—his motto should
be " Thorough."

Lord Clyde retires from the command of the In-
dian army at the close of this year. lie will be succeeded
by General Sir Hugh H. Rose, who recently acquired dis-
tinction in suppressing the rebellion in Central India.
The Duke of Somerset arrived at his official re-
sidence at the Admiralty on Saturday morning from Devon -
port, expressly to attend the Cabinet Council.
The Duke of Newcastle returned to town on
Saturday from his seat, Worksop Manor, Nottinghamshire.
The Earl of Elgin arrived in London on Satur-
day from Scotland.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer arrived in town
on Friday night from Hawarden Castle.
The Earl and Countess Delawarr have, during
the last week, entertained a succession of visitors at Buck-
hurst Park, Sussex.
Viscountess Jocelyn and family have joined Vis-
countess Palmerston, at Broadlands, Hants, after passing
a few days in town on her way from the Earl of Roden's
seat in Ireland.
Lord Ebury left town on Saturday on a visit to,
his Excellency the British Ambassador at the Court of the
Tuileries

The Right Hon. Sidney Herbert arrived in Lon•
don on Friday evening.
Sir G. C. Lewis arrived in London on Saturday
morning from Harpton Court, Herefordshire.
ARTIFICIAL STATUARY MARBLE —Mr. Jobard,
of Brussels, has invented an artificial statuary marble, which
is to be prepared for sculptors in a liquid state, and can be
moulded with the plaster figure. It is said to be pure and
spotless as Carrara—transparent, polished, and hard as the
real el.ll;)stance taken from the quarry.