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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[March, 



their desire to advance the sciences or arts connected with Civil Engineering ; 

 or because they are themselves eminent as men of science and learning. 

 None of them were proposed until they had, like all other candidates for 

 election, expressed their desire to become Members ; and in many instances 

 their wishes have been communicated in a manner highly complimentary to 

 the Institution and to its objects. Indeed it is impossible that public men, 

 who have held the highest offices, possessing only the tithe of the under- 

 standing of a Wellington, a Brougham, aLyndhurst, or a Peel, can be indiffe- 

 rent to the growing importance of engineering to the welfare of this country, 

 or not aware that the greatness, I may, perhaps, be justified in saying, and 

 even the existence of the nation, mainly depend on it. It has been said that 

 the steam engine, rendered powerful and practicable by Watt, fought the 

 battles and gained the victories of the last great war ; that by it the mines 

 were drained, and the ores and coal raised, which, when applied to Ark- 

 wright's and other improvements, multiplied in effect the power of the 

 country, reducing the price of mechanical labour a hundred-fold, and en- 

 abling us to supply foreigners with our manufactures, for which they re- 

 turned us the sinews of war; and that, hence, notwithstanding an expense, 

 beyond all precedent, continued for a quarter of a century, the country, even 

 if the increase to the national debt were deducted, was richer as well as 

 more powerful and more populous at the end than at the beginning of the 

 war. In this there is much truth, but the effect being indirect is not so 

 obvious. In the late Syrian and Chinese wars, however, there could be no 

 doubt. In both cases the work was done chiefly by steam ships of war ; 

 and it could not have been done so quickly or so effectually in any other 

 known way. The steam engine, therefore, may now be considered the great 

 power in war as well as in peace ; and hence, in another light, the immense 

 importance of the objects of this Institution, when it appears that the long- 

 boasted wooden walls of Old England will henceforth be comparatively 

 inefficient without the co-operation of steam. I do not mean by this to 

 express any opinion of the justice or policy of the late wars — the most glo- 

 rious part of them was, in my opinion, their termination. My object is to 

 show why the lately elected honorary members have naturally been desirous 

 of becoming so ; why we have elected them, and why we may expect them 

 to take an interest in our proceedings and our progress. But there are other 

 considerations more congenial to our civil position in which the individuals 

 who have not written and published scientific works are to be regarded as 

 worthy of the membership. 



Sir Robert Peel, now at the bead of the government of this country, has 

 not been unmindful that to the application, by his enterprising parent, of 

 the discoveries of Watt and Arkwright he owes the position and education 

 which started him in public life. At the public meeting in 1824, for erecting 

 a monument to Watt, Sir Robert, then Mr. Secretary Peel, said, " that he 

 belonged to that very numerous class of persons who had derived a direct 

 personal benefit from the important discoveries of Watt, and he acknow- 

 ledged with satisfaction and pride that he was one of those who derived all 

 that they possess from the honest industry of others." His connexion with 

 us is therefore natural : and by evincing his desire to promote science and 

 the useful as well as the fine arts, he has proved, and I am sure will continue 

 to prove, himself a useful as well as an ornamental member. 



The Duke of Wellington, in being, while in office, mainly instrumental in 

 recommending the means for proceeding with the Thames Tunnel, and for 

 completing the approaches to London Bridge (one of the greatest metropo- 

 litan improvements), considered that he only did his duty ; but Sir Mark 

 Isambard Brunei, and Mr. Jones (Chairman of the London Bridge Com- 

 mittee), consider that to his Grace is mainly due the merit of these great 

 works; and that as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, he has always taken 

 a lively interest in the works of Dover Harbour and other improvements upon 

 the coast, I can bear witness, as well as to his knowledge of works of civil 

 engineering, which he has lost no opportunity of cultivating. His Grace"s 

 reply to a qnestion by me, as to how he came to know so much of the dif- 

 ferent plans of sluices for draining, &c., was, that when with the army in 

 Holland and Belgium he had plenty of time to ride round the country and to 

 examine them. 



The Duke of Buccleuch has, in being the liberal President of the College 

 of Civil Engineers, shown his desire to advance the profession ; and in the 

 formation of mines, railways, roads, bridges, and piers, upon his extensive 

 estates, he gives the best practical illustration of his taste for works of en- 

 gineering, and his wish to promote the objects of this Institution. 



Earl De Grey, as President of the Institute of British Architects, himself 

 in taste an architect, and aware of the close connexion between architecture 

 and engineering, has abundantly shown the interest he feels for our success 

 and progress. 



The Marquis of Northampton, as President of the Royal Society, would 

 have had sufficient passport for membership, even if his zeal for science, par- 

 ticularly geology, which we all agree with Dr. Buckland to be intimately 

 connected with our profession, were not known. At the last anniversary of 

 the Royal Society, his Lordship, in proposing as a toast the success of this 

 Institution, referred in very flattering terms to its importance and future 

 prospects. 



The Speaker of the House of Commons, Mr. Shaw Lefevre, has been a 

 fellow-labourer with our associate, Mr. Handley, in the application of en- 

 gineering to agriculture, — not only in the drainage of great districts, but in 

 machinery of all kinds, from the steam plough downwards. — Our member, 

 Mr. Parkes, could till up a long list of Mr. Shaw Lefevre's exertions in this 



way. As a Commissioner, ex officio, of many of the most important public 

 works, I have witnessed his attention to details which, unless he were fond 

 of engineering, he would not think of, even if he had more leisure than the 

 onerous duties of Speaker of the House of Commons allow him. 



I might proceed to remark on the other recently elected honorary mem- 

 bers, but they are so well known, and have by their writings shown them- 

 selves so qualified, that to do so would be an unnecessary occupation of your 

 time. 



The late Mr. Ewart. — Having referred to the subject of our steam fleet, I 

 may mention that, until the year 1835, there was no chief engineer and in- 

 spector of machinery for the navy, and that Mr. Peter Ewart, who died 

 during the last summer, first held that office. As he was not a member of 

 the Institution he is not noticed in the report of the Council ; but the 

 situation he held, and his talents, will, I trust, he considered sufficient to 

 make acceptable a short notice of some facts respecting him. 



Mr. Ewart was born on the 14th of May 1767, at Troquaire Manse, in the 

 county of Dumfries. His father, and two or three generations before him, 

 were clergymen of the church of Scotland. Peter was the youngest of a 

 family of ten children (six sons and four daughters). The father's care was 

 divided between the duties of his parish, his private studies, and the early 

 education of his family, which he superintended, — the result proves how 

 successfully ; two of his sons having been well known as among the most 

 eminent merchants in Liverpool, and a third as Envoy of this country at the 

 Court of Berlin, where he died at the early age of 32 years. At nine years 

 of age Peter was sent to the Dumfries parish day-school, where he had the 

 benefit of good masters, particularly of Dr. Dinwiddie, an excellent mathe- 

 matical teacher. At this period his natural turn for mechanics showed 

 itself. His hours of recreation were spent in the shop of a watch and clock 

 maker (named Crocket), which lay between the school and his home ; and 

 so well did he profit by what he saw there, that at the age of twelve he had, 

 from materials which he had collected, made and finished a clock that per- 

 formed well, and was the most interesting piece of furniture in his bed-room. 

 In his fifteenth year he went to Edinburgh and attended a course of lectures, 

 probably those of Professors Robinson and Playfair, as these distinguished 

 philosophers were subsequently on the most intimate terms with Ewart. 

 John Rennie, the late eminent engineer, had a short time before this begun 

 business as a millwright in East Lothian, and on Ewart's leaving Edinburgh 

 he was sent to Rennie. Ewart told me that he was Rennie's first apprentice ; 

 that Rennie had one journeyman ; and that one of the jobs of the trio was 

 the construction of a small water-mill (the Knows Mill), upon Phantassie 

 farm, for which a shed was lent by Rennie's elder brother George, who after- 

 wards stood as high as an agriculturist as his brother John did as an en- 

 gineer. He described to me the scene that took place on the day this mill 

 was started, when, inspired by the success of his first work, his master 

 foretold, to the astonishment of his journeyman and apprentice, his own 

 future greatness. 



The facts that the celebrated James Watt was about this time employed 

 in the erection of his steam-engine to work the Albion Mills, which stood at 

 the south-east angle of Blackfriars Bridge, now Albion-place, that he applied 

 to Professor Robinson to recommend to him an intelligent well-educated 

 mechanic to superintend the mill-work, and that Robinson fortunately re- 

 commended Rennie, the Lothian millwright, who had distinguished himself 

 in his class, are well known. And here I would call the attention of my 

 young friends to the illustration which Robinson's recommendation, as well 

 as Rennie's success, affords, that a practical knowledge of millwrighting is 

 one of the best, if not the very best, foundation for engineering. Soon after 

 Rennie's arrival in London he sent for his apprentice Ewart to assist him in 

 the erection of the mills, — a proof of his opinion and his friendship. Ewart 

 followed his master. How well he had calculated the expense of the journey 

 may be collected from the fact that the last penny he had was paid as toll 

 for passing Blackfriars Bridge to enable him to reach the mill. For four 

 years, 1784 to 1788, Ewart worked as a millwright at these mills, whence 

 he was sent by Mr. Rennie to Soho, to construct a water-wheel for Mr. 

 Bouiton's rolling-mill, and was afterwards taken into the service of Boulton 

 and Watt, to erect their steam-engines. There he had ample scope for his 

 abilities, and the advantage of Watt as his friend ; this friendship terminated 

 only with AVatt's life, and was continued by the present Mr. Watt, whom I 

 have often heard speak with the greatest respect of Ewart's abilities and 

 excellent qualities. 



In 1791 he was sent by Boulton and Watt to fix one of their engines 

 upon the cloth-works of Benjamin Gott and Co., Leeds. Mr. Gott, who 

 was then a young man, and became afterwards on the most public-spirited 

 and liberal, as well as greatest manufacturers in this country, was just the 

 person to appreciate Ewart's qualities ; the engine superintendent became 

 his friend, and that friendship remained firm and unchanged for nearly half 

 a century. I have heard Mr. Gott speak in the highest terms of Ewart. 

 The following anecdote, told me by Mr. Gott, proves that others well able 

 to judge entertained the same opinion. A gentleman speaking of Ewart at 

 Gott's table, said he had met with but few better practical mechanics than 

 Ewart. " You have been a fortunate man," said Professor Playfair. who 

 was of the party, "for I have never met with one." In 1795 and 1796 he 

 assisted the present Mr. Watt in planning the buildings and works of the 

 Soho foundry, shortly after which, he quitted engineering as a profession, 

 and became' a manufacturer, first at Stockport with Mr. Ohlknow, then 

 shortlv after in Manchester with Mr. Gregg, and afterwards he took a cotton 



