Page:Once a Week Jul - Dec 1859.pdf/381

370

• ONCE A WEEK.

[Ootobbb 29, 1869.

also, the first surveys and estimates for the Lon- don and Birmingham Railway were framed, lead- ing eventually to the obtaining of the act. Then followed the execution of that line, and here Robert Stephenson had an opportunity of showing his great talent for management of works on a large scale. This was the first railway of any magnitude executed under the contract system; perfect sets of plans and specifications (which have since served as a type for nearly all the subsequent lines) were prepared, — no small matter for a series of works extending over 112 miles, involving tun- nels and other works of a then unprecedented magnitude.

Many other railways in England and abroad were executed by him in rapid succession: the Midland, Black wall, Northern and Eastern, Norfolk, Chester and Holyhead, together with numerous branch-lines, were executed in this country by him; and amongst railways abroad may be enumerated as works either executed by him or recommended in his capacity of a consult- ing engineer, the system of lines in Belgium, Italy, Norway and Egypt, and in France, Holland, Denmark, India, Canada, and New Zealand.

To these works of course must be added the enormous amount of work he went through in giving Parliamentary evidence, and in reports and arbitrations. The assistance afforded by him to the Sewage Board, when matters had come to a dead lock, will not soon be forgotten.

The bridges erected by him (although some of them contained in the previously enumerated railways) must not be passed over without special comment. Time was, and will be well remembered by every engineer, when in case of a railway having to be carried over openings exceeding thirty or forty feet wide, special plans had to be prepared and consultations held upon the subject; but now (such is the confidence acquired through the expe- rience of Stephenson in the use of wrought-iron), that a bridge of three or four times the span is regarded as an ordinary work. This is the practical result brought about by the construc- tion of the Conway and Britannia tubular bridges and by the high level bridge over the Tyne at Newcastle.

These works, so great in themselves, and with- out the power of constructing which some of our main lines of railway would not have existed, have — like difficult lessons learnt in other mental walks — yielded an abundant harvest in the facility they have given the engineer of mastering ordinary difficulties. Nor should mention be omitted here of the bridge of the enormous length of nearly two miles across the St. Lawrence, built under the direction of Stephenson, and about to be opened, it is expected, by the end of next month. The unprecedented difficulties attending the construc- tion of the piers of this bridge in the deep and rapid waters of the river, added to the depth to which it was necessary to sink their foundations below its bed, and the short portion of the year during which the engineering operations could be carried forward, render this work undoubtedly one of the most remarkable in the world. *

• Those who care to examine more closely into the matter,

will find a full account of most of his more important works

The last work to which Stephenson gave much personal attention, and in which he felt a very great interest, was the restoration and almost renewal of the superstructure of the noted bridge at Sunderland over the River Wear. The works were completed and opened to the public, without accident, in the month of July last.

On the completion of the tubular bridge across the Menai Straits, and again on the opening of his splendid bridge across the Tyne, Robert Stephenson was offered the honour of knighthood, which — like his father before him — he respectfully declined. For our own parts we think that many a baronetcy has been earned more cheaply; but even the honour of the “blood-red-hand” if added to his escutcheon on the part of her Majesty, as a reward of such signal services in the development of the resources of the nation over which she rules, could scarcely have added anything to the dignity of the man. Still, assuming honours and titles to be regulated by a scale, it would seem an obvious question in the rule of three, if the ducal coronet did not misbecome the browB of the author of our canal system,* what title and what grade in the peerage would have been the fitting reward of the peaceful triumphs of George and Robert Stephenson? Coupled with his professional qualifications, there is no doubt that the quality which tended chiefly to the very elevated opinion of his worth entertained by his contemporaries, was his manly and straight- forward probity. He was the very antipodes of a mere advocate or partisan, and whether the matter before him was some important parliamentary evi- dence on a railway bill — some contest wherein he acted the part of an arbitrator-— or some misunder- standing between any of his friends — his opinions and decisions always convinced the parties con- cerned of the amount of thought bestowed upon the matter, and of the fairness of his arguments.

In respect of any undertaking to which he was himself invited, he was, like his father, distin- guished by the pains he took to assure himself of its eligibility and soundness in a commercial sense; and he invariably brought the weight of his knowledge and position to bear in deterring others from expenditure which he considered un- necessary.

In his direction of public works he adopted an admirable management; admitting, almost at a glance, of his forming a precise idea of the state of all and every work under his charge. One of his chief characteristics consisted in the judgment with which he selected those he intended to take part under him, and in the power he possessed, not only of preserving harmony amongst them, but of creating in their hearts a warm friend- ship towards himself capable of supporting them and him amidst any difficulties. Amongst them his visits to the scene of their labours were always hailed, not more for the solution of

in the way of bridge- making, in an able article on Iron Bridges, contributed by Mr. Stephenson himself to the Bncyclopoedia Brilannica.

• It is worth while to remark, that at the beginning of the

present oentury the Duke of Bridgewater was almost the only person who foresaw the future Importance of the railway system, if fully developed. As he chuckled over the huge income which ne drew from his canal-shares, he is reported to have cried out one day, in the spirit of prophecy: “Con-