CHAP. XXI. THE CIVIL ENGINEERS' INSTITUTE. 479 



His great wealth enabled him to perform many 

 generous acts in a right noble and yet modest manner, 

 not letting his right hand know what his left hand did. 

 Of the numerous kindly acts of his which have been 

 made public, we may mention the graceful manner in 

 which he repaid the obligations which both himself and 

 his father owed to the Newcastle Literary and Philosophi- 

 cal Institute, when working together as humble experi- 

 menters in their cottage at Killingworth. The Institute 

 was struggling under a debt of 6200/., which seriously 

 impaired its usefulness as an educational agency. Robert 

 Stephenson offered to pay one-half of the sum, provided 

 the local supporters of the Institute would raise the 

 remainder ; and conditional also on the annual subscrip- 

 tion being reduced from two guineas to one, in order 

 that the usefulness of the institution might be extended. 

 The generous offer was accepted, and the debt extin- 

 guished. 



Both father and son were offered knighthood, and 

 both declined it. George Stephenson, however, did 

 desire to be admitted to the membership of the Institute 

 of Civil Engineers, the chair of which his son afterwards 

 so ably filled. But there were two obstacles to George's 

 admission to the Institute : the first was, that he had 

 served no regular apprenticeship as an engineer ; and 

 the second was, that he should go through the form 

 required of the youngest member of the profession, and 

 fill in a paper detailing his experience, to which he 

 must afterwards obtain the signatures of several mem- 

 bers of the Institute, recommending him personally and 

 professionally for election. He could not comply with 

 the first condition, and his son strongly recommended 

 him not to comply with the second. The council of the 

 Institute were willing to waive the former, but not the 

 latter point. Probably he thought it was too much to 

 ask of him, that he should undergo the probationary 

 test required from comparatively unknown juniors, and 



