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Gold Medal of Honour for the invention and introduction of tlie 

 system of tubular plate-iron bridges, and First Class Silver Medals 

 to Messrs. William Fairbairn and Eaton Hodgkinson, for tbeir co- 

 operation in the experiments ; and also to Mr. Edwin Clark, for 

 his aid in the consideration of the designs and in the construction 

 of the bridge itself. As a further recognition, the Emperor added 

 the decoration of the Legion of Honour. This system of construc- 

 tion has since been extended to the Victoria Bridge across the 

 St. Lawrence River, in Canada, the total length of which is nearly 

 two miles, in twenty-five spans. That bridge is the greatest example 

 of the system, which has, however, also been employed on a large 

 scale by Mr. Robert Stephenson, in the bridges across the Nile, at 

 Benah and at Kaffre Azzayat, on the Egyptian Railway from Alex- 

 andria to Suez. The limits of this memoir will only permit the 

 further mention of the remarkable constructions on the sea- shore 

 between Conway and Bangor, for the protection of the Chester and 

 Holyhead Railway ; and the recent restoration of the iron bridge at 

 Sunderland, which was the last engineering work upon which he was 

 actively engaged. 



Mr. Robert Stephenson was considered as the leader in the cele- 

 brated discussion, called the "battle of the gauges," for determining 

 whether the narrow or the broad gauge should be the standard for the 

 Kingdom. Events have since proved how correct were his views; and 

 notwithstanding the brilliant talents of his friend, but then oppo- 

 nent, the late Mr. Brunei, the broad gauge did not spread beyond a 

 certain district. It was, moreover, to his strenuous and persistent 

 opposition that was due the rejection of the atmospheric system of 

 traction, attempted to be introduced on the Dalkey, the Croydon, 

 and the South Devon Railways. 



For some years after he reduced the sphere of his active profes- 

 sional employment, he was engaged in several important public in- 

 vestigations, such as that of the Consulting Commission of the 

 Metropolitan Sewers, and others. He made able investigations and 

 reports upon various great undertakings, of which the Liverpool 

 Water-works may be mentioned as an example ; and he wrote the 

 article " Iron Bridges" in the < Encyclopaedia Metropolitana. 5 



The work of his predilection was, however, the management of 

 the Engine Factory at Newcastle-on-Tyne. To that he devoted him- 



