711 



STEPNEY, GEORGE. 



STERLING, JOHN. 



713 





over the St. Lawrence, near Montreal, on the model of that over the 

 Menai Strait, in connection with the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, 

 for uniting Canada West with the western states of the United States 

 of America. He has recently completed the railway between Alex- 

 andria and Cairo, a distance of 140 miles, and has, during its construc- 

 tion, several times visited Egypt. On the line there are two tubular 



bridges ; one over the Damietta branch of the Nile, and the other 



over the large canal near Besket-al-Saba. The peculiarity of the 

 structures is that the trains run on the outside upon the top of the 

 tube instead of inside, as in tho case of the Britannia Bridge. He is 

 now constructing an immense bridge across the Nile at Kaffre Azzayat, 

 to replace the present Steam Ferry which is found to interfere too 

 much with the rapid transit of passengers. 



In addition to his railway labours Mr. Stephenson has taken a gene- 

 ral interest in public affaire and in scientific investigations. In 1847 

 he was returned as member of parliament, in the Conservative interest, 

 for Whitby in Yorkshire, for which place ho continues to sit. He has 

 also acted with great liberality to the Newcastle Literary and Philo- 

 sophical Society, paying off in 1855 a debt amounting to 3100Z. in 

 gratitude, as he expressed it, for the benefits he derived in early life 

 from that establishment, and to enable it to be as practically useful to 

 other young men. He has most liberally placed at the disposal of Mr. 

 Piazzi Smyth, his yacht and crew, to facilitate the interesting investi- 

 gations undertaken by that gentleman at the Island of Tenerifle, and 

 very valuable results have been obtained. He has been an honorary 

 but active member of the London Sanitary and Sewerage Commis- 

 sions ; he is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a member of the Institu- 

 tion of Civil Engineers since 1830, of which institution he was member 

 of council during the years 1845 to 1847, vice-president during those 

 from 1848 to 1855, and president during the years 1856 and 1857. 

 He has received a Great Gold Medal of honour from the French Expo- 

 sition d'lndustrie of 1855, and is said to have declined au offer of 

 knighthood in Great Britain. He is also the author of a work ' On 

 the Locomotive Steaui-Engine,' and another ' On the Atmospheric 

 Railway System,' published in 4to by Weale. 



STEPNEY, GEORGE, descended from an ancient family in Pem- 

 brokeshire, was born in Westminster, in 1663. In 1676 he was sent 

 to Westminster School, where he continued his studies till 1682, 

 when he removed to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he distinguished 

 himself in 1683 by a Latin ode on the marriage of the Princess Anne 

 to Prince George of Denmark. He took the degree of M.A. in 1689. 

 At Westminster he had formed a friendship with Charles Montague, 

 afterwards Earl of Halifax, which was continued at Cambridge. They 

 came to London together, and were both introduced into public life by 

 the Earl of Dorset. Stepney's life, which was short, was chiefly spent 

 in diplomatic employments. In 1692 he was sent as envoy to the 

 Elector of Brandenburg; in 1693, to the Emperor of Germany; in 

 1694, to the Elector of Saxony. In 1695 he published a poem, 

 dedicated to the memory of Queen Mary ; in 1696 he went as envoy 

 to the Electors of Mentz and Cologne, and to the congress at Frank- 

 fort ; in 1698 to Brandenburg, in 1699 to the King of Poland, in 1701 

 to the Emperor, and in 1706 to the States-General. He was made one 

 of the commissioners of trade in 1697. He died at Chelsea in 1707, 

 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. 



Stepney's poems are few, and of little value. He was one of the 

 ' eminent hands ' who were united with Dryden in the translation of 

 'Juvenal' in 1693. Johnson says, "he is a very licentious translator, 

 and does not recompense the neglect of his author by beauties of 

 his own." 



STERLING, JOHN, was born at Kaimes Castle, in the island of 

 Bute, Scotland, on the 20th of July 1806. Both his parents were 

 Irish by birth, though of Scottish descent ; and his father, Edward 

 Sterling (afterwards well known as a leading writer in, and editor of, 

 the 'Times' newspaper, but then pursuing the occupation of a 

 gentleman-farmer, after having been educated for the Irish bar, and 

 having served for some time as a captain in the army) had rented 

 Kaimes Castle a short time before his son's birth. John was the 

 second child of seven, five of whom died while he was still a youth, 

 leaving only himself and an elder brother, who yet (1857) survives. 

 In 1809, the family removed to Llanblethian, in Glamorganshire, 

 Wales ; and here John Sterling received his first school-education. 

 His father about this time began to contribute to the ' Times ' as an 

 occasional correspondent ; and the interest he thus took in politics 

 led him, on the peace of 1814, to remove again with his family to 

 Paris. Driven from Paris by the return of Napoleon from. Elba anc 

 the resumption of the war, the family iu 1815 settled in London 

 where gradually the father rose to his eminent position in the work 

 of politics and journalism. He was destined to outlive his sou. 



After having been at various schools in or near London, Sterling 

 was sent to the University of Glasgow ; whence, after a brief stay, he 

 was removed in 1824 to Trinity College, Cambridge. Here Julius 

 Hare, afterwards Archdeacon of Lewes, was his tutor, and here ht 

 formed the acquaintance of various young men afterwards dis 

 tinguished, including Frederick Maurice, Richard Trench, Spedding 

 J. M. Kemble, Venables, Charles Buller, and Monckton Milnes. Ii 

 the Union Debating Club of Cambridge, of which these and other 

 were members, Sterling was one of the chief speakers ; and it was her 

 perhaps that he first exhibited the qualities of intellect and characte 



which made him afterwards socially celebrated. From Trinity 

 'ollege, Sterling removed, along with his friend Maurice, to Trinity 

 lall, with an intention of studying law ; but in 1827 he left Cambridge 

 Itogether, without taking his degree. In 1828 the ' Athentcum,' 

 hen recently started by Mr. Silk Buckingham, was purchased by 

 terling. or at his instance, and he and Maurice conducted it and 

 wrote in it for some time. The speculation however in their hands 

 iid not answer commercially, and the journal was sold to its present 

 iroprietor. Sterling, to whom it was not absolutely necessary that 

 .e should engage in any employment for his living, continued to 

 eside in London, the centre of a circle of ardent and thoughtful 

 oung men, including not only his college friends, but such additions 

 is John Stuart Mill. An eager radicalism of opinion was then 

 sterling's characteristic. It was about the year 1828 that he first 

 Became acquainted with Coleridge, then living his recluse life at 

 lighgate ; and Coleridge's influence on Sterling was great and 

 enduring. It was evident in a three volume novel, entitled ' Arthur 

 Coningsby,' which he wrote in 1829-30, but which was not published 

 ill a year or two later. In November 1830 he married; and shortly 

 ifter, being in ill-health, he and his wife went to the West India 

 Bland of St. Vincent, where a valuable sugar estate had been be- 

 queathed to him, hia elder brother, and a couain, by one of hia 

 mother's uncles. He stayed about fifteen months in St. Vincent, 

 returning to England in August 1832. In the spring of 1833 his 

 novel was published, but obtained little recognition except among the 

 'ew. Chancing in that year to meet again his tutor, the Rev. Julius 

 rlare, at Bonn, the effect of their conversation on Sterling's mind, 

 ,hen vibrating under the prior influence of Coleridge, was that he 

 resolved to take holy orders in the English Church. He was ordained 

 deacon at Chichester, on Trinity Sunday, 1834, and immediately 

 )ecame curate of Hurstmouceaux in Sussex, where his friend was rector. 

 Sterling retained his curacy only eight months, resigning it in 

 February 1835, on account of delicate health. It is not improbable 

 :hat at the same time there was a change, or a tendency to change, in 

 lis opinions. From this time, at all events, there was a gradual 

 diyergence in his views from the fixed creed of the Church of England, 

 .hough his relations to many of its most excellent members continued 

 ;o be as intimate and affectionate as ever. It was in 1835 that he first 

 Became acquainted with Mr. Carlyle, then recently setttled in London; 

 and it seeins evident that gradually the influence of Mr. Carlyle 

 modified the results of that of Coleridge. " Coleridge," says Mr. 

 larlyle himself, in his memoir of Sterling, "was now dead, not long 

 since ; nor was his name henceforth much heard in Sterling's circle ; 

 ihough, on occasion, for a year or two to come, he would still assert 

 transcendant admiration, especially if Maurice were by to help. 

 But he was getting into German, into various inquiries and sources of 

 knowledge new to him, and his admirations and notions on many 

 ihiugs were silently and rapidly modifying themselves." Literature 

 was thenceforward Sterling's chief occupation ; though, from all the 

 accounts that remain of him, what he accomplished and has left 

 behind him in literature gives but a faint idea of the influence he 

 exerted in intellectual society, and especially in that of London, by 

 bis frankness and powers of talk. Very few men had BO many friends 

 or was so loved by them. It was unfortunate for them and him that 

 bis extremely precarious health caused him every now and then to 

 absent himself from London and seek a warmer climate. In 1836 he 

 went to the south of France; and in the following year he went to 

 Madeira. While at Madeira he wrote much, and sent some contri- 

 butions, in prose and verse, to ' Blackwood's Magazine.' In the spring 

 of 1838 he returned to England, and for a time he resided on the 

 southern sea coast, making frequent visits to London. He began to 

 write for the ' Westminster Review,' then under the charge of Mr. 

 John Stuart Mill ; he was also busy privately with various composi- 

 tions in prose and verse. It was at this time too that, in order to 

 secure Sterling's meeting with as many .of his friends as possible on 

 his flying visits to London, the famous so-called " Sterling Club " was 

 formed. A list of the members of this club is given in Mr. Carlyle's 

 ' Life of Sterling,' at page 203. 



Part of the years 1838 and 1839 were spent by Sterling in Italy; 

 and on his return he took up his abode in Clifton. It was while 

 residing here that he published under the general title of ' Poems, by 

 John Sterling ' (Moxon, 1839), a collection of his metrical effusions up 

 to that time. The two next years were spent in migrations from 

 place to place, including a second visit to Madeira, on account of 

 health. In 1841, while living at Falmouth, he published 'The Elec- 

 tion : a Poem, in Seven Books ' a poem of English life aud society. 

 He was then engaged on what he intended to be his best work 

 ' Strafford, a Tragedy,' which however was not published till 1843. 

 This year, 1843 (he had again been absent in Italy in the interim), 

 was one of calamity to him and his. His wife died in April, and his 

 own always feeble health was rendered more precarious than ever by 

 the accidental bursting of a blood-vessel. Sterling retired to Ventnor 

 in the Isle of Wight in June 1843, where his last labours were on a poem 

 on the subject of 'Cccur de Lion,' still unpublished. Here he sank 

 gradually, and on the 18th of September 1844, he diei at the age of 

 thirty-eight. A collection of his ' Essays and Tales ' from the ' Athe- 

 naeum,' ' Blackwood/ and other periodicals, was edited in two volumes, 

 with a memoir prefixed, by Archdeacon Hare, in 1848; the well- 



