258 Literary and Philosophical Society. 



and he knew well that without Mr. Eaton Hodgkinson or 

 a man of equal powers his calculations would be insuffi- 

 cient. He was a most lovable man, gentle and agreeable 

 as well as handsome, and with a force of character never- 

 theless which raised him to a high station. People 

 instinctively believed in him, and he instinctively seemed 

 to see into the minds of men as well as into the character 

 of his work without the intellectual training so necessary 

 to lesser endowments. If he was a little vain of his 

 progress, it is only that which nearly all men who have 

 risen so rapidly are blamed for showing. The long dispute 

 as to the honour which he received from his work at the 

 Menai tubular bridge, and which some considered to belong 

 solely to Eaton Hodgkinson, we cannot enter upon ; cer- 

 tainly, however, all who knew both the men must feel that 

 the abilities of the latter were not of a kind which would 

 have enabled him to bring important public undertakings 

 to a practical conclusion. 



Eaton Hodgkinsoiiy F.R.S., &c. 



The life of Mr. Hodgkinson must be treated also in a 

 few lines according to our habit here, and we must at least 

 tell that he was born at Anderton, in the parish of Great 

 Budworth, Cheshire, on February 26, 1789, and that he 

 died at Eglesfield House, Higher Broughton, Manchester, 

 in 1 86 1. His father had a farm, and his mother was left to 

 continue it and keep her three children, being a widow 

 when Eaton was only six years old. It is said that he got 

 nervousness and hesitation of speech by maltreatment at 

 the Northwich High School, whither he was sent in prepara- 

 tion for Cambridge by the advice of his uncle the Rev. 



