Ill 



may have some difficulty in making it interesting ; but I have chosen 

 it because it is a subject I ought to understand better than any 

 other." 



Half the address was devoted to the history of works of a nature 

 corresponding to those of modern civil engineering, in a long series, 

 comprising those of the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Peruvians, the 

 Hindoos and Mahomedans, the Chinese, the Carthaginians, the 

 Greeks, and the Romans, down to the present day. Modern engi- 

 neering works were then alluded to, particularly steam navigation 

 and the electric telegraph ; and in regard to the speaker's own 

 special subject, railways, he dwelt more on economical than con- 

 structive views. He pointed out in a striking manner the great 

 benefits that they had conferred on mankind. He said : 



" Railways add enormously to the national wealth. It may be 

 safely assumed that the railways in the British Islands now save the 

 nation a much larger sum annually than the gross amount of all the 

 dividends payable to the proprietors, without at all taking into 

 account the benefit arising from the saving in time. The benefits 

 under this head defy calculation, and cannot, with any accuracy, be 

 put into money. But it would not be at all over-estimating this 

 question to say that in time and money the nation gains at least 

 what is equivalent to 10 per cent, on all the capital expended." 



He argued from this that even where a railway would only yield a 

 small dividend to its proprietors, it was to the national interest that 

 it should be carried out by Government aid. 



He also alluded to the subject of safety in railway travelling : 



" It is well that the elements on which this depends should be 

 clearly understood. It will be thought that longer experience in the 

 management of railways should go to ensure greater safety, but 

 there are other elements of the question. It depends on the perfec- 

 tion of the machine in all its parts ; it depends also on the nature 

 and quantity of traffic ; and, lastly, 011 human care and attention ; for 

 so many of these accidents as arise from the fallibility of men will 

 never be eliminated until the race be improved." 



He, however, gave some remarkable statistics to show how minute 

 the risk of accident really is, and quoted the saying of a former 

 President of the Board of Trade that he felt safer in a railway 

 carriage than anywhere else. " And," added Sir John, " he was not 

 far wrong." 



He took interest in geology, and published, in 1842, some good 

 descriptions of fossil footsteps and fossil trees that had been dis- 

 covered in works under his care. He further presented to the Man- 

 chester Geological Society, in 1843, a somewhat elaborate theoretical 

 paper on the Origin of the Deposits of Coal. 



He was elected into the Royal Society, by the propositions of 



