XXX111 



self as a labour of love, thinking over improvements and designing 

 innovations, the necessity for which had become apparent in the 

 working of his lines of railway. 



In the year 1847, Mr. Robert Stephenson was elected to represent 

 Whitby in Parliament, and he continued to sit for that borough until 

 his decease. He did not speak much in the House ; but when he 

 spoke he always commanded attention, and on such questions as that 

 of the Canal of the Isthmus of Suez, which he is well known to have 

 strenuously opposed, he carried every one with him. He was a very 

 useful member of Committees ; and had his life been spared, there is 

 no doubt that his services would have been even more frequently re- 

 quired by the Government, who had already learned to appreciate 

 the honesty and truthfulness of his views. 



He was devotedly attached to scientific investigations, and, as far 

 as his occupations permitted, he was a frequent attendant at the 

 various learned societies of which he was a member. He was elected 

 a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1849, and served on the Council. 

 He joined the Institution of Civil Engineers in the year 1830, was a 

 member of Council, and filled the office of President from 1856 to 

 1858. IJe was also a Member of the Geological, Geographical, 

 Astronomical, and Meteorological Societies, and of the Institute of 

 Mechanical Engineers, as well as of numerous societies in the coun- 

 try. The honorary degree of D.C.L. was conferred upon him by the 

 University of Oxford in 1857; and he had previously received a 

 similar honour from the University of Durham. 



A most successful professional career, unceasing activity and in- 

 dustry, combined with wisely considered investments, resulted in 

 producing a very large fortune, which he employed during his life- 

 time most liberally, and from which at his decease, after providing 

 munificently for his numerous relatives, and recollecting all his friends 

 and dependents, he bequeathed upwards of .=25,000 to a few chari- 

 table institutions and scientific societies, and this after having given 

 such sums as 363000 at a time to the Literary and Philosophical So- 

 ciety of Newcastle, to relieve it from debt, and to extend its sphere 

 of utility, especially to young men of the working class an advantage, 

 by which Stephenson himself had profited in early life, and which he 

 had never forgotten. 



The health of Mr. Stephenson had not been good for the last two 



