The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-10 00:00:00

BELGIUM.

The Belgian Chambers assembled yesterday for
their ordinary annual session, the constitution de-
claring that their meeting must take place on the
second Tuesday of November. As already stated,
the King, being indisposed, did not attend, and
consequently there was no ceremonial whatever.
In the Representatives, the senior deputy, acting as
president, announced that the session was opened,
and the members proceeded to the nomination of
their definitive bureau. M. Orts was elected presi-
dent by 47 votes to 19 ; and M. Dolez, first vice-
president, by 45 votes. Tho second vice-president
was not elected in consequence of the Chamber being
no longer in number. In the Senate, the definitive
bureau is thus composed :—President, Prince de

Ligne ; vice-presidents, MM. de Renesse and
d'Amalius d'Habley.

SPAIN.

The Opposition journals of Madrid of the sth
complain that Marshal O'Donnell retains the Pre-
sidency of the Council and Ministry of War whilst
commanding the expedition in Morocco, and
they say that public business must necessarily suffer
from two such important offices being occupied only
ad interim by two of his colleagues during his
absence. It was said that the English Cabinet had
requested that an English military officer should be
allowed to accompany the expedition. According
to the Correspondancia, the English Consul-General
at Tangiers had embarked in a war steamer which
remained in the roadstead; but at Tetuan no member
of the consular body had retired, as hostilities were
not expected there. More bishops had sent ad-
dresses to the Queen, expressing ardent sympathy
with the war. The Russian screw-ship of the line
Gargout, of 85 guns, had allied at Ferrol; she had
sustained some damage from stress of weather.

- A letter from Pesth says :—"lt is very generally
reported here, in well-informed circles, that the Go-
vernment intends to dispose of the crown lands in
Hungary by means of a great lottery at 50 florins
the ticket. The revenue of these lands was estimated,
before 1848, at 1,600,000 florins a-year. Now, as this
property yielded, at most, only 2 per cent., that in-
come represents a principal of 80,000,000 florins.
Since 1845, however, the value of land has in-
creased at least 50 per cent. in Hungary, chiefly
owing to the emancipation of the peasants, pro-
claimed by the Hungarian Diet. The extent of
the domains was also considerably increased by
confiscations in 1849, for, although a promise was
made to many families that their lands should be
restored, they have been fulfilled in but very few
instances. The crown lands in Hungary must
therefore be now worth at least 100,000,000
florins, and if sold by lottery 150,000,000 might
probably be obtained. In Hungary, however, few
persons would have anything to do with the lot-
tery, as the alienation of the domains of the crown
would be considered illegal."

A Berlin letter says :—" When the official
notification of the signature of the treaties
of Zurich has been sent, an invitation to
a Congress will be forwarded immediately
after. Before leaving Turin the Prussian Minister
had an audience of the King of Sardinia. His
Majesty is said to have protested against the inten.
tion attributed to him of favouring the revolution-
ary party. He intimated that he was fully aware
of the importance of his measures regarding Ro-
magna, and of the answer which he made to the
deputation from that country, but that he had
thought it his duty, in consequence of his thorough
acquaintance with the situation, to assign legal
limits to the movement, which threatened to run
into excess, and that he was convinced he had acted
in the interests of order and peace."

•THE LATE MR. BRUNEL AND MR.

ROBERT STEPH_E.NSON.

At the opening meeting of the Institution o.
Civil Engineers, held on Tuesday, the President
Mr. Joseph Locke, M.P., made the following re.
marks respecting these lately deceased eminent
men :

I cannot permit the occasion of opening a new
session to pass without alluding to the irreparable
loss which the institution has sustained by the
death, during the recess, of its two most honoured
and distinguished members.
In the midst of difficulties of no ordinary kind,
with an ardour rarely equalled, and an application
both of body and mind almost beyond the limits of
physical endurance—in the full pursuit of a great
and cherished idea—Brunel was suddenly struck
down, before he had accomplished the task which
his daring genius had set before him.
Following in the footsteps of his distinguished
parent, Sir Isambard Brunel, his career, even from
its commencement, was remarkable for originality
in the conception of the works confided to him.
As his experience increased, his confidence in his
powers augmented ' • and the Great Western Rail-
way, with its broad gauge line, colossal engines,
large carriages, and bold designs of every descrip-
tion, was carried onward, and ultimately embraced
a wide district of the country. The same feeling
induced in steam navigation the successive con-
struction of the Great Western steamer, the largest
vessel of the time, until superseded by the Great
Britain, which was in its turn eclipsed by the Great
Eastern, the most gigantic experiment of the age.
The Great Ship was Brunel's peculiar child; he
appplicd himself to it in a manner which could not
fail to command respect ; and if he did not live to
see its final and successful completion, he saw
enough, in his later hours, to sustain him in the
belief that his idea would ultimately become a
triumphant reality.
The shock which the loss of Brunel created was
yet felt, when we were startled by the announce-
ment that another of our esteemed members had
been summoned from us.

Of that friend I feel it to be a difficult task to
speak without giving way to feelings better fitted
for the closet than a public assembly. Robert Ste-
phenson was the friend of my youth, the companion
of my ripening years, a competitor in the race of
life; and was as generous as a competitor as he was
firm and faithful as a friend. This will I know find
an echo in the hearts of all around me; and your
feelings will supply that laudation in which it would
seem inappropriate for me to indulge.
Like Brunel, Robert Stephenson commenced his
professional career under his father, George Ste-
phenson. His early years were devoted to the im-
provement and construction of the locomotive, and
to him we owe the type of those machines, many of
which are now actually in use on our railways.
From the time of our Liverpool and Manchester
Railway—when our joint report contributed in 'a
great degree to the adoption of the locomotive en-
gine as the means of transport—and of the subse-
quent London
,and Birmingham line, with its long
Parliamentary contests, its Kilsby Tunnel, and
other difficulties inherent in so new an undertaking
a multitude of other lines followed, in which there
had to be foreseen and provided for numerous diffi•
culties, all of which were met and surmounted with
coolness and consummate skill.

Among these great works may be mentioned the
Royal Border and High Level Bridges, and more
especially the Conway and Britannia Bridges, which
were the first examples on so vast a scale of the
tubular principle, and the bridges across the St.
Lawrence and the Nile, remarkable alike for their
granduer of conception and successful execution.
To my present hearers, the enumeration of the
works in which Robert Stephenson was engaged
would be as a " twice-told tale;" but we must look
back with interest upon the days of the "Battle of
the Gauges"—the discussions upon the atmospheric
system—and the numerous topics which have been
argued within these walls and elsewhere.
In the enjoyment of a distinguished name and
reputation, Robert Stephenson like Brunel, has
been cut off while still in the middle period of life ;
and although he pursued his profession with perse-
vering energy, and accomplished in it those tri-
umphs of the successful application of a mind well
trained and stored with practical and theoretical
knowledge of various kinds, and achieved some of
the greatest works of art which have been wit-
nessed in our day, he at the same time obtained an
eminence in the scientific world rarely reached by
any practical professional man.
It is not my intention, at this time, to give even
an outline of the works achieved by our two de-
parted friends. Their lives and labours, however,
are before us, and it will be our own fault if we
fail to draw from them useful lessons for our ow n
guidance. Man is not perfect, and it is not to be
expected that he should be always successful; and,
as in the midst of success we sometimes learn great
truths before unknown to us, so also we often dis-
cover in fai:ure the causes which frustrate our best
directed efforts. Our two friends may probably
form no exception to the general rule; but judging
by-the position they had each secured, and by the
universal respect and sympathy which the public
has manifested for their loss, and remembering the
brilliant ingenuity of argument, as well as the
more homely appeals to their own long experience
often heard in this hall, we are well assured that
they have not laboured in vain. We, at least, who
are benefited by their successes, who feel that our
institution has reason to be proud of its association
with such names as Brunel and Stephenson, have a
duly to perform, and that duty is to honour their
memory and emulate V; eir example.
I ought to add, in conclusion, that amongst the
many private and public bequests made by Robert
Stephenson, is one to this institution of the munifi-
cent sum of two thousand pounds.