and an earnest supporter of the project from its commencement, were present, together with a large number of distinguished personages. The Northumbrian' engine took the lead of the procession, and was followed by the other locomotives and their trains, which accommodated about six hundred persons. Many thousands of spectators cheered them on their way-through the deep ravine of Olive Mount; up the Sutton incline; over the Sankey viaduct, beneath which a multitude of persons had assembled-carriages filling the narrow lanes, and barges crowding the river. The people gazed with wonder and admiration at the trains which sped along the line, far above their heads, at the rate of twenty-four miles an hour. At Parkside, seventeen miles from Liverpool, the engines stopped to take in water. Here a deplorable accident occurred to one of the most distinguished of the illustrious visitors present, which threw a deep shadow over the subsequent proceedings of the day. The Northumbrian' engine. with the carriage containing the Duke of Wellington, was drawn up on one line, in order that the whole of the trains might pass in review before him and his party on the other. Mr. Huskisson had, unhappily, alighted from the carriage, and was standing on the opposite road, along which the Rocket engine was observed rapidly coming up. At this moment the Duke of Wellington, between whom and Mr. Huskisson some coolness had existed, made a sign of recog nition, and held out his hand. A hurried but friendly grasp was given; and before it was loosened, there was a general cry from the bystanders of Get in, get in !? Flurried and confused, Mr. Huskisson endeavoured to get round the open door of the carriage which projected over the opposite rail, but in so doing he was struck down by the Rocket,' and falling with his leg doubled across the rail. the limb was instantly crushed. His first words, on being raised, were, I have met my death," which unhappily proved too true. for he expired that same evening in the neighbouring parsonage of Eccles. It was cited at the time, as a remarkable fact, that the Northumbrian' engine conveyed the wounded body of the unfortunate gentleman a distance of about fifteen miles in twenty-five minutes, or at the rate of thirty-six miles an hour. This incredible speed burst upon the world with all the effect of a new and unlooked-for phenomenon.

The fortune of George Stephenson was now made. He became a great man. He was offered, but refused, a knighthood, and his latter days were spent as those of a country gentleman. He died in 1848,

at the age of sixty-seven.

George Stephenson at Sir Robert Peel's seat of Drayton.

Though mainly an engineer, he was also a daring thinker on many scientific questions; and there was scarcely a subject of speculation, or a department of recondite science, on which he had not employed his faculties in such a way as to have formed large and original views. At Drayton the conversation often turned upon such topics, and Mr. Stephenson freely joined in it. One one occasion, an animated discussion took place between himself and Dr. Buckland on one of his favourite theories as to the formation of coal. But the result was, that Dr. Buckland, a much greater master of tongne-fence than Stephenson, completely silenced him. Next morning before breakfast, when he was walking in the grounds deeply pondering, Sir William Follett came up and asked what he was thinking about? Why, Sir William, I am thinking over that argument I had with Buckland last night. I know I am right, and that if I had only the command of words which he has, I'd have beaten him." Let me know all about it.' said Sir William, and I'll see what I can do for you.' The two sat down in an arbour. where the astute lawyer made himself thoroughly acquainted with the points of the case; entering into it with all the zeal of an advocate abont to plead the dearest interests of his client. After he had mastered the subject, Sir William rose up, rubbing his hands with glee, and said: Now I am ready for him.' Sir Robert Peel was made acquainted with the plot, and adroitly introduced the subject of the controversy after dinner. The result was, that in the argument which followed, the man of science was overcome by the man of law; and Sir William Follett had at all points the mastery over Dr. Buckland. What do you say, Mr. Stephenson ?' asked Sir Robert, Lughing. 'Why,' said he, I will only say this, that of all the powers

above and under the earth, there seems to me to be no power so greet as the gift of the gab.' One day at dinner, during the same visit, a scientific lady asked him the question, Mr. Stephenson, what do you consider the most powerful force in nature?' 'Oh!' said he, in a gallant spirit, I will soon answer that question: it is the eye of a woman for the man who loves her; for if a woman look with affection on a young man, and he should go to the uttermost ends of the earth, the recollection of that look will bring him back; there is no other force in nature that could do that.' One Sunday, when the party had just returned from church, they were standing together on the terrace near the hall, and observed in the distance a railway train flashing along, throwing behind it a long line of white steam. Now, Buckland,' said Mr. Stephenson, I have a poser for you. Can you tell me what is the power that is driving that train ?' Well,' said the other I suppose it is one of your big engines.' 'But what drives the engine?' 'Oh, very likely a canny Newcastle driver." • What do you say to the light of the sun? How can that be?' asked the doctor. It is nothing else,' said the engineer; it is light bottled up in the earth for tens of thousands of years-light, absorbed by plants and vegetables, being necessary for the condensation of carbon during the process of their growth, it f be not carbon in another form-and now, after being buried in the earth for long ages in fields of cal, that latent light is again brought forth and liberated, made to work, as in that locomotive, for great human purposes. The idea was certainly a most striking and original one: like a flash of light, it illuminated in an instant an entire field of science.

ELIZA METEYARD.

In 1865-6 appeared 'The Life of Josiah Wedgwood,' two volumes, by ELIZA METEYARD, a lady who had previously written several sales and other productions under the name of Silverpen.' In 1871 Miss Meteyard produced a series of biographies, under the title of 'A Group of Englishmen' (1795 to 1815), being records of the younger Wedgwoods and their friends, embracing the history of photography.

HENRY, LORD COCKBURN-DEAN RAMSAY-DR R. CHAMBERS.

The awakened curiosity of the public regarding Scottish history and manners-mainly to be attributed to Sir Walter Scott's worksinduced the late HENRY COCKBURN (1779-1854) to write and publish (1856) Memorials of his Time,' or sketches of the public character and social habits of the leading citizens of Edinburgh, from the end of the last century to the culminating-point in the celebrity of the Scottish capital at the date of the Waverley novels. The author of the Memorials,' Lord Cockburn, a Scottish judge, was shrewd, observant, and playful-a genial humourist and man of fine taste, with a vein of energetic eloquence, when roused, that was irresistible with a Scottish audience. In 1874 were issued two more volumes of the same description, Journal of Henry Cockburn, being a Continuation of the "Memorials of His Own Time."

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Of a similar character with the Memorials,' though more gossiping and anecdotical, is the work entitled Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character,' 1857, by the REV. EDWARD BANNERMAN RAMSAY (1793-1872), minister of St. John's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh (1830), and dean of the diocese from 1841 till his death. This vol ume has gone through twenty-one editions. Dean Ramsay was a man of various graces and accomplishments, and as a clergyman he

combined deep and fervent piety with genuine toleration and beneyolence. The Reminiscences' form a curious record of old times and manners fast disappearing. It is the best refutation of sidney Smith's unfortunate joke that the Scotch have no humour, and it has done almost as much as the Waverley novels to make Scotch customs, phrases, and traits of character familiar to Englishmen at home and abroad.

Edinburgh Society Eighty Years Since.-From Memorials of his Time,' by HENRY COCKBURN.

There was far more coarseness in the formal age than in the free one. Two vices especially, which have been long banished from respectable society, were very prevaleut, if not universal, among the whole upper rauks-swearing and drunkenness. Nothing was more common than for gentlemen who had dined with ladies, and meant to rejoin them, to get drunk. To get drunk in a tavern, seen.cd to be considered as a natural, if not an intended consequence of going to one. Swearing was thought the right, and the mark, of a gentleman. And, tried by this test, nobody, who had not seen them, could now be made to believe how many gentlemen there were. Not that people were worse-tempered then than now. They were only coarser in their manners, and had got into a bad style of admonition and dissent. The naval chaplain justified his cursing the sailors, because it made them listen to him; and Braxfield [a Scottish judge] apologised to a lady whom he damned at whist for bad play, by declaring that he had mistaken her for his wife. This odious practice was applied with particular offensiveness by those in authority towards their inferiors. In the army it was universal by officers towards soldiers, and far more frequent than is now credible by masters towards servants.

The prevailing dinner was about three o'clock. Two o'clock was quite common, if there was no company. Hence it was no great deviation from their usual custom for a family to dine on Sundays between sermons,' that is, between one and two. The hour, in time, but not without groans and predictions, became four, at which it stuck for several years. Then it got to five, which, however, was thought positively revolutionary; and four was long and gallantly adhered to by the haters of change as the good old hour." At last, even they were obliged to give in, but they only yielded inch by inch, and made a desperate stand at half-past four. Even five, however, triumphed, and continued the average polite hour from (I think) about 1-06 or 1807 till about 1820. Six has at last prevailed, and half-an-hour later is not unusual. As yet this is the furthest stretch of London imitation, except in country houses devoted to grouse or deer.

The procession from the drawing-room to the dining-room was formerly arranged on a different principle from what it is now. There was no such alarming proceeding as that of each gentleman approaching a lady, and the two hooking together. This would have excited as much borror as the waltz at first did, which never shewed itself without denunciations of continental manners by correct gentlemen and worthy mothers and aunts. All the ladies first went off by themselves in a regular row according to the ordinary rules of precedence. Then the gentlemen moved off in single file; so that when they reached the dining-room, the ladies were all there, lingering about the backs of the chairs, till they could see what their fate was to be. Then began the selection of partners, the leaders of the male line having the advantage of priority and of course the magnates had an affinity for each other.

The dinners themselves were much the same as at present. Any difference is in a more liberal adoption of the cookery of France. Healths and toasts were special torments: oppressions which cannot now be conceived. Every glass during dinner required to be dedicated to the health of some one. This prandial nuisance was hor rible, but it was nothing to what followed. For after dinner, and before the ladies retired, there generally began what were called 'rounds' of toasts, and, worst of all, there were sentiments. These were short epigrammatic sentences, expressive of moral feelings and virtues, and were thought refined and elegant productions. The glasses being filled. a person was asked for his or for her sentiment, when this or something similar was committed: May the pleasures of the evening bear the re

flections of the morning;' or 'May the friends of our youth be the companions of our old age;' or 'Delicate pleasures to susceptible minds,' &c.

Early dinners begat suppers. But suppers are so delightful, that they have survived long after dinners have become late. Indeed this has immemorially been a favourite Edinburgh repast. How many are the reasons, how strong the associations that inspire the last of the day's friendly meetings! Supper is cheaper than dinner; shorter, less ceremonious, and more poetical. The business of the day is over; and its still fresh events interests. It is chiefly intimate associates that are drawn together at that familiar hour, of which night deepens the sociality. If there be any fun, or heart, or spirit in a man at all, it is then, if ever, that it will appear. So far as I have seen social life, its brightest sunshine has been on the last repast of the day.

As to the comparitive religiousness of the present and the preceding generation, any such comparison is very difficult to be made. Religion is certainly more the fashion than it used to be. There is more said about it; there has been a great rise. and consequently a great competition of sects; and the general mass of the religious public has been enlarged. On the other hand, if we are to believe one half of what some religious persons themselves assure us, religion is now almost extinct. My opinion is that the balance is in favour of the present time. And I am certain that it would be much more so, if the modern dictators would only accept of that as religion which was considered to be so by their devout fathers.

Scottish Nationality-From Preface to Dean Ramsay's 'Reminiscences.'

There is no mistaking the national attachment so strong in the Scottish character. Men return after long absence in this respect unchanged; whilst absent, Scotchmen never forget their native home. In all varieties of lands and climates their hearts ever turn towards the land o' cakes and brither Scots.' Scottish festivals are kept with Scottish feeling on 'Greenland's icy mountains' or 'India's coral strand.' I received an amusing account of an ebullition of this patriotic feeling from my late noble friend the Marquis of Lothian, who met with it when travelling in India. He happened to arrive at a station upon the eve of St. Andrew's Day, and received an invitation to join a Scottish dinner-party in commemoration of old Scotland. There was a great deal of Scottish enthusiasm. There were seven sheepheads (singed) down the table; and Lord Lothian told me that after dinner he sang with great applause The Laird o' Cockpen.'

Love of country must draw forth good feeling in men's minds. as it will tend to make them cherish a desire for its welfare and improvement. To claim kindred with the honourable and high-minded, as in some degree allied with them, must imply at least an appreciation of great and good qualities. Whatever, then, supplies inen with a motive for following upright and noble conduct-whatever advances in them a kindly benevolence towards fellow-countrymen in distress, will always exercise a beneficial effect upon the hearts and intellects of a Christian people; and these objects are, I think, all more or less fostered and encouraged under the influence of that patriotic spirit which identifles national honour and national happiness with its own.

I desire to preserve peculiarities which I think should be recorded. because they are national, and because they are reminiscences of genuine Scottish life. No doubt these peculiarities have been deeply tinged with the quaint and quiet humour which is more strictly characteristic of our countrymen than their wit. And, as exponents of that humour, our stories may often have excited some narmless merriment in those who have appreciated the real fun of the dry Scottish character That, I trust, is no offence. I should never be sorry to think that, within the limits of becoming mirth,' I had contributed, in however small a degree, to the entertainment and recreation of my countrymen I am convinced that every one, whether clergyman or layinan. who adds something to the innocent enjoyment of human life, has joined in a good work, inasmuch as he has diminished the inducement to vicious indulgence. God knows there is enough of sin and of sorrow in the world to make sad the heart of every Christian man. No one, I think, need be ashamed of hav ing sought to cheer the darker hours of his fellow-travellers' steps through life, or to beguile their hearts, when weary and heavy-laden, into cheerful and amusing trains of thought. So far as my experience of life goes, I have never found that the

cause of morality or of religion was promoted by sternly checking all tendencies of our nature to relaxation and amusement. If mankind be too ready to enter upon pleasures which are dangerous or questionable, it is the part of wisdom and of benevolence to supply them with sources of interest, the enjoyment of which shall be innocent and permissible.

What Lord Cockburn and Dean Ramsay did for their time by personal observation and memory, has been done for a much earlier period, through the medium of books and manuscripts, by DR. ROвERT CHAMBER3, in his Domestic Annals of Scotland from the Reformation to the Revolution,' two volumes, 1858; and from the Revolution to the Rebellion of 1745,' in one volume, 1861. His object, as stated in the preface to the work, was to detail the series of occurrences beneath the region of history, the effects of passion, superstition, and ignorance in the people, the extraordinary natural events which disturbed their tranquillity; the calamities which affected their wellbeing, the traits of false political economy by which that wellbeing was checked, and generally those things which enable us to see how our forefathers thought, felt, and suffered, and how, on the whole, ordinary life looked in their days.' The language of the original contemporary narrators is given wherever it was sufficiently intelligible and concise. This work has been very successful. Three other volumes by its author are devoted to local and national annals -The History of the Rebellion of 1745-6,' Traditions of Edinburgh,' and 'Popular Rhymes of Scotland.' These are valuable as embodying much curious information presented in a form agreeable and attractive. The History of the Rebellion' is, indeed, an important contribution to our historical literature. Dr. Chambers's best services, as has been justly remarked,' were devoted to his native country; and, with the exception of his illustrious contemporary, Sir Walter Scott, no other author has done so much to illustrate its social state, its scenery, romantic historical incidents, and antiquities -the lives of its eminent men-and the changes in Scottish society and the condition of the people (especially those in the capital) during the last two centuries.' The life of Dr. R. Chambers has been written by his brother, Dr. W. Chambers.* Both were born in Peebles-William, April 16, 1800; Robert, July 10, 1802-of an old Peebleshire family, who, at the beginning of the century, were substantial woollen manufacturers. Robert has thus graphically described his native town:

Picture of an old Scottish Town-From Memoir of Robert Chambers.'

In the early years of this century, Peebles was little advanced from the condition in which it had mainly rested for several hundred years previously. It was eminently a quiet place- As quiet as the grave or as Peebles,' is a phrase used by Cockburn. It was said to be a finished town, for no new houses (exc ptions to be of course allowed for) were ever built in it. Situated. however, among beautiful pastoral hills, with a singularly pure atmosphere, and with the pellucid Tweed run

Memoir of Robert Chambers, with Autobiographic Reminiscences, by William Chambers, 1872