IXXX llEPOHT — 1875. 



Ifc -would bo impossible for inc to do justice to even a small part of tke 

 engineering works which have survived fourteen eontiu'ies of strife, and 

 remain to this day as monuments of the skill, the energy, and ability of the 

 great Eoman people. Fortunately their works are more accessible than 

 those of which I have hitherto spoken, and many of you are probably already 

 familiar with them. 



Conquerors of the greater part of the civilized world, the admirable orga- 

 nization of the Romans enabled them to make good use of the unbounded 

 resources which were at their disposal. Yet, while the capital was enriched, 

 the development of the resources of the most distant provinces of the empire 

 was never neglected. 



"War, with all its attendant evils, has often indirectly benefited mankind. 

 In the long sieges which took place during the old wars of Greece and Rome, 

 the inventive power of man was taxed to the utmost to provide machines for 

 attack and defence. The ablest mathematicians and philosophers were 

 pressed into the service, and helped to turn the scale in favour of their 

 employers. The world has to regret the loss of more than one, who, like 

 Archimedes, fell slain by the soldiery while applying the best scientific know- 

 ledge of the day to devising means of defence during the siege*. In these 

 days, too, science owes much to the labours of engineers and able men, 

 whose time is 8j>ent in making and improving guns, the materials composing 

 them, and armour plates to resist them, or in studying the motion of ships 

 of war in a seaway. 



The necessity for roads and bridges for military purposes has led to their 

 being made where the necessary stimiJus from other causes was wanting ; 

 and so means of communication, and the interchange of commodities, so 

 essential to the prosperity of any community, have thus been provided. Such 

 was the case under the Eoman Empire. So, too, in later times, the ambition 

 of Napoleon covered France and the countries subject to her with an admi- 

 rable system of military roads. At the same time, we must do Napoleon the 

 justice of saying that his genius and foresight gave a great impetus to the 

 construction of aU works favourable to commercial progress. So, again, in 

 this country it was the rebellion of 1745, and the want felt of roads for 

 military purposes, which first led to the construction of a system of roads in 

 it unequalled since the time of the Eoman occupation. And lastly, in India, 

 in Germany, and in Eussia, more than one example could be pointed out 

 where industry will benefit by railways which have originated in military 

 precautions rather than in commercial rcquixements. 



But to return to Eome. Eoads followed the tracks of her legions into the 

 most distant provinces of the empire. Three hundred and seventy-two great 

 roads are enumerated, together more than 48,000 miles in length, according 

 to the itinerary of Antoninus. 



The water supply of Eome during the first century of our era woi^ld 



* Archimedes, n, c. 287-212 ; killed at the siege of Syracuse by the Eoman soldiers. 



