i 







Miscellaneous Intelligence. 299 



tirely left to him. Finally his last appointment was that of Engineer 

 of the Naval Arsenal at Cronstadt ; a work which, had he survived, 

 would doubless have been executed with the success that attended his 

 other undertakings. 



In the midst of all this activity and usefulness, his seven years' en- 

 gagement having expired to a month, the railroad so far complete 

 that it could be delivered over without much urgency in twelve month's 

 time, just as, with his family (for^ as we should before have said, he had 

 married, in 1832, the accomplished sister of his friend McNeill) he 

 was about to revisit for a brief interval his native country — death call- 

 ed him away from his labors. His health had not been so robust as usual 

 for several months past; and an attack of sickness supervened, from 

 which, however, there appeared no cause to apprehend a disastrous is- 

 sue. But on the 6th of April, there came a sudden crisis; he gradu- 

 ally sunk and expired peacefully on the morning of the following day. 

 Every mark of respect, we are informed, was paid by the govern- 

 ment; and the direct condolence of the Emperor with the bereaved 

 Jady will be remembered with melancholy pleasure. It is to be pre- 

 sumed that our own government, which has recently so readily and 

 honorably responded to the appeal of an anxious British wife, will not 

 be backward in testifying proper respect to the remains of one who 

 has done so much to sustain the American character abroad. 



A few more words, and this notice must be closed. As an engineer, 

 Whistler's works speak for him. He was eminently a practical man ; 

 though hardly in the sense in which that phrase is frequently used. 

 For it is not going too far to say that no American cotemporary at least 

 possessed more of the theory of his profession or of the science of en- 

 gineering, which unfortunately in this vehement age is too often con- 

 sidered secondary to the impulses of, so-called, genius; while it is for- 

 gotten that science is genius taught by experience — experience, not one's 

 °wn alone, but that of others, too. With such views, Whistler had no 

 a ffinity. Accustomed to study his combinations, until he could with 

 Prophetic science (so to speak) almost divine their issue, none of his re- 

 sults are to be classed among the happy crudities or fortuitous suc- 

 cesses of the mere practical man : the end was foreseen from the be- 

 ginning, and the beginning calculated for the end. 



As a man, his character may be traced in the words— truth and 

 modesty. A blameless youth had been succeeded by a manhood of 

 d eep religious feeling and piety unfeigned. Though we cannot but 

 sorrow at parting with an old friend, and regret his being cut off ere 

 he had attained the ripest maturity of power and performance, we yet 

 bow at the inscrutable decrees of a beneficent Providence ; for our sor- 

 row and regret are mingled with the assurance that " the righteous is 

 toke n away from the evil to come." A - 



14. Stephen Endlicher, (Athen., No. 1122.)— We have to an- 

 nounce the death of Dr. Stephen Endlicher, Professor of Botany at 

 v, onna. He was well known in Europe, both as a botanist and as an 

 accomplished philologist,— and held the situation of Librarian to the 

 fnnperial Library at Vienna, One of his earliest contributions to botan- 

 J^al science was his ■ Flora Posoniensis'— which was published in 1831. 

 A «e plants were arranged in this 'Flora' according to the natural sys- 



