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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



December, 



VValhalla, at Ratisbon ; aad in our own country the Towu-hall, at Bir- 

 mingham. Hut in both these buildings the disproportionate magnitude of 

 the sub-structures on which they are raised, or rather hoisted, shows that 

 they were built rather ia imitation of Grecian art tbaa from generous 

 sympathy with its real spirit. 



If we would rival the Grecian architects, (and why should we Dot 

 not hope to rival them ?) we must do it, not by servile copyiag of indi- 

 vidual forms — not by slavish adherence to precedent, but by becoming 

 thoroughly imbued with the very essence and feeling of Greek art. We 

 must think and feel as felt and thought the architects of the Acropolis. 

 Me must make our designs as simple and uncomplicated as were theirs 

 (leaving the efl'ects of beautiful complexity to mediasval art). We must 

 put back our columns and pediments into their right places ; above all, 

 we must make our knowledge systematic and exact — we must reduce 

 our practice to the accuracy of a science by first learning, and afterwards 

 exemplifying, the philosophy of classic architecture. 



THE NEGLECTED FOUNDER OF THE RAILWAY SYSTEM. 

 (From the Railway Reviexo.) 



In our last number, we published a letter from a highly intelligent cor- 

 correspondent, on the subject of the neglect with which Thomas Gray, the 

 founder — the great genius, who not only originated the railway system, but 

 pointed out the mode by which it might attain perfectibility, has been 

 treated. In consequence of the appearance of that letter, we have received 

 sundry communications, together with the pamphlet above referred to ; each 

 and all proposing certain steps to be taken, with the laudable oliject of res- 

 Cuing from undeserved indigence, and from the still more depressive feeling 

 of neglected desert, the declining years of a man, the bold and vigorous 

 conceptions of whose genius have been the source of wealth to thousands ; 

 of employment to millions; and who has laid the foundation of a new 

 scheme of industrial prosperity, not only ia this country, hut in every other 

 region of the civilized globe. 



We have been much struck by the perusal of these communications, and 

 give them in their original shape ; but, from a conviction that as their 

 authors wrote with a greater degree of knowledge of Mr. Gray's claims than 

 is shared by the railway public, we fear their somewhat indignant recla- 

 mations would have an efiect the reverse of what they intended. Nay, 

 must we confess it? We ourselves, though, in the dim vista of past years, 

 remembering the name of Thomas Grey, as the pioneer of the railway 

 movement, were until lately wholly unaware that he was not only un- 

 rewarded, but that he added one more melancholy example to the long list 

 of men of genius, whose prophetic spirit meets with contumely and neglect 

 in their own day, and whose transcenilant talent is only appreciated when a 

 life of poverty has closed in a premature grave. 



Too often does it happen, that " the dull cold ear of death" is for ever 

 shot to those praises which, if early bestowed, might have stimulated the 

 energies, not merely of luckless inventors, but of hundreds of others, who 

 now, from prudential motives, avoid a divergence from the beaten common- 

 place tracks of life, lest they also share the fate of those predecessors to 

 whom monuments of marble have been awarded when dead, though bread 

 has been denied them when living. But, whilst we admit this to be a la- 

 mentable truth, we at the same time deny that there is any want of libe- 

 rality or generosity in the British public. It is true, many a man of ori- 

 ginal genius has seen fortunes reaped from his ideas, whilst he himself has 

 gone wholly unrewarded ; but it has generally arisen from the circumstance, 

 that he has not possessed the mechanical or commercial ability practically 

 to carry out those ideas, and adapt them to the existing state of society. 

 This latter qualification, in the eye of the historian and of the reflective 

 man, will necessarily be of inferior merit ; but, in the eye of contemporaries, 

 it is obvious that it contains within itself the elements which command 

 business and pecuniary success. Each qualification deserves its reward, and 

 an ample reward; and it is not altogether fair that the creative power, which 

 gave the impulse to all, should he left to perish without its proportionate 

 return either in fame or in pecuniary recompense. In these days, all is 

 accomplished by a subdivion of labour; and were the claims of Thomas 

 Gray fairly known, we are sure that no mean petty jealousy on the part 

 of engineers or projectors of railways would interfere between his deserved 

 claims and their long-protracted remuneration. The British public is essen- 

 tially noble in its impulses ; liberal and generous to the last degree in its 

 actions ; though properly cautious and prudent in forming its decisions. 

 We submit the claim of Thomas Gray as it is submitted to us ; if it will 

 not bear strict scrutiny, we shall be the first to protest against it ; but 

 if it will — if it be, what we believe it to be, undeniable — then are we sure 

 that the railway public, who have hitherto shown themselves the most 

 liberal and generous of the various sections of the British commercial com- 

 munity, will not suffer the great founder of railways to close his eyes in 

 poverty, leaving his family to those rougli chances of life from which the 

 genius of their projector should fairly have rescued them. 



To our brethren of the press we appeal, to assist our efforts in making 

 Mr. Gray's case known. Neither of Mr. Gray, nor of Mr. Wilson, of Haar- 

 lem (the writer of the pamphlet), have we the slightest personal know, 

 ledge. The pamphlet of the latter bears intrinsic evidence, however, as 

 highly favourable to the heart of the author, as it ia compUmentary to the 

 genius of its subject, Mr. Gray. 



The author of the pamphlet has spent the greater part of his life abroad ; 

 and in Germany, Holland, and Belgium, finding the name of Gray quoted as 

 a high authority on the continent, naturally, on revisiting England, after a 

 lapse of some twenty-six years, expected to find that Gray, if he had not 

 made a fortune, was at least looked up to as a consummate railroad autho- 

 rity. On the contrary, he finds him in the position which he thus describes. 

 With great difficulty Mr. Gray was traced to Exeter. "There," says Mr. 

 Wilson, I find him still writing upon railroads, although he can no longer 

 afford to publish. The author, inventor, of the railway system is actually 

 condemned to waste his invaluable capacity, his energies and information, on 

 the uncertain, scarcely compatible, occupation of dealing in glass on com- 

 mission, aud trading with glaciers. His good wife may, probably, have 

 often had occasion to repeat the queries she formerly addressed to him, 

 when so deeply and exclusively occupied with his railway cogitations, 

 " What good will result to you from your scheme for travelling by steam, 

 with the civilisation of the world, and the benefit of human kind, which are 

 to be the consequence .' " 



After giving a variety of details, which alike confirm our view of Mr. 

 Gray's comprehensive and prophetic genius, and of the ability and judg- 

 ment with which he digested all the details of his vast plan, and which only 

 make us regret that he had not consulted some practical man of business to 

 introduce them earlier and more effectually into action, the pamphleteer 

 thus concludes his remarks : — 



" 1 learn, with deep regret, from himself, and so I think will the public, 

 that a man such as I have briefly described, a man of whom it may be said 

 in railway science, as of Sir Christopher Wren in architectural, — 



*' Monumentum si q'lseras circumspicei" 

 that such a man is left to vegetate how and as best he may, in obscurity, 

 and with means no less precarious than scanty, in the midst of those 

 magnificent works which have arisen, and are still rising, all around him, 

 and of which no man living, 1 believe, can truly say but himself, I am 

 the creator of all. Independently of the great railway system, of which he 

 is the author and inventor, of the years painfully spent in bringing it 

 to perfection, he expended years more as a railway teacher, writer, lec- 

 turer, in his own country, informing the public mind, combating public 

 prejudices, achieving public convictions, and enlisting public sympathies 

 in favour of the railway system and railways ; and all this unaided, and at 

 his own cost of time and means. He has laboured incessantly for more 

 than a score of years, but what has he gained ? As I have before observed, 

 he has sowed, but others have reaped profit, honour, and all. At least I 

 shall have the satisfaction, as this pamphlet sees the light, of vindicating 

 his rightful possession of the honour; but how, where, by whom, is he to 

 be reimbursed what should have been the lion's share of the profit .= Iq 

 my conviction, it is the bounden duty of the government, of which you, sir, 

 are the worthy head, to repair its own neglect, and the wrongs of fortune, 

 to a subject whose name and fame are public property, and will be claimed 

 as such by posterity if the present generation remain passive. I think, 

 moreover, that the obligation upon railway companies and their proprieta- 

 ries is no less stringent. Every pound invested, and every dividend re- 

 ceived, bears the coinage of Thomas Gray. The railway mine is his dis- 

 covery, and they but the workers, who should be too glad to pay toll aad 

 seigniorage. 



Mr. Rowland Hill has been rewarded munificently for his Penny Postage 

 scheme. The public gained a million, but the revenue lost so much, by 

 this reform. With all its advantages, the policy of the reform is still a 

 question, though I need not discuss it. But what are the advantages of 

 penny postage, in comparison to the railway system .' — but as the mole 

 hill to the mountain. The latter creates millions upon millions, and gives 

 bread and employment to hundreds of thousands directly, indirectly to as 

 many more. It assists revenue instead of discounting it. It accelerates 

 the march of mind, no less than of industry. It is the creator of wealth, 

 whilst it economises its use. It tends to equalise conditions, to redress the 

 overbearing ascendancy of great capital and capitalists ; to raise the humble 

 and the labourer in the social scale, whilst from rank and station it detracts 

 none of their due. Of agriculture, commerce, manufactures, it is already 

 become the corner-stone of the economical fabric; — of national safety and 

 defence, the right arm. 



Roman Remains. — The remains of a Roman villa, of considerable cstenl, 

 have been recently discovered near Wheatley, Oxfordshire, and some exciivations have 

 been made under the direction of Dr. Bromet, a member of the Committee of the Arcbreo- 

 logical Institute. All that has yet been made out is a hypocaust and a bath. Drawings 

 of these have been made by Mr. Jewitt for the institute. These remains are distant about 

 a mile and a half from the Bishop of Oxford, at Cuddesden ; his lordship has taken much 

 interest in the excavations, and has requested Dr. Buckland to superintend tlio con- 

 tinuance of them. 



