3.- Lives of the Engineers, with an Account of their principal Works ; comprising also a History of Inland Communication in Britain. By SAMUEL SMILES. With Portraits and numerous Illustrations. Vols. I. and II. London: John Murray. 1861. 8vo. pp. xvii. and 484, 502.

FROM our previous acquaintance with Mr. Smiles's writings we were inclined to look with interest for his new work, in the expectation of finding in it much that was both new and instructive, and these anticipations have been more than realized. The field of inquiry which he has marked out for himself has been comparatively neglected by other writers. Yet it possesses many attractive points, and no one could have been more successful than Mr. Smiles in bringing them out into a clear light. His knowledge of general literature is extensive and accurate; his industry is well-directed and persistent; and his style, without exhibiting much elegance or felicity of expression, is uniformly simple and perspicuous. The plan of his work, so far as it may be gathered from the two volumes now published, has been judiciously formed, and is skilfully elaborated. It includes a wide range of topics, each of which is of intrinsic interest or importance, and it affords ample scope for the exhibition of Mr. Smiles's uncommon skill as a biographer. His work cannot, indeed, possess so great a unity of interest as binds together Lord Campbell's "Lives of the Chancellors," or Dr. Hook's "Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury "; but the common relation to the history of civil engineering in England which was borne by the different persons whose lives are narrated, gives to his biographies such a degree of unity as warrants their publication in a connected form.

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The two volumes now before us are, we suppose, only an instalment of a rather voluminous work, though the writer's plan is nowhere distinctly stated. They are divided into eight parts of unequal length, of which three are of a general character, and may be regarded as almost purely introductory, while each of the others is confined to the life of some one person. The First Part is devoted to an account of the Early Works of Embanking and Draining," and includes a description of the works undertaken for draining Romney Marsh and the Great Level of the Fens. The Second Part contains the "Life of Sir Hugh Myddelton," the once famous engineer of the New River Water-Works for supplying the city of London. The Third Part treats of the "Early Roads and Modes of Travelling" in England, and sketches the life of John Metcalf, a blind and self-taught engineer, who acquired considerable local reputation in his own day, and well deserves the honor Mr. Smiles awards him. To us this is in many respects the most attractive division of his work. The Fourth Part, which also

comprises much curious and interesting matter, relates to the early "Bridges, Ferries, and Harbors." The last four Parts contain the Lives of James Brindley, whose name will be forever associated with the Duke of Bridgewater's Canal, of John Smeaton, the engineer of the Eddystone Lighthouse, of John Rennie, who constructed the Waterloo and London Bridges and the Plymouth Breakwater, and of Thomas Telford, one of the greatest engineers of this century, who built the suspension bridge over the Menai Strait, and was connected with many other important works. All of these topics, both general and special, Mr. Smiles has studied with a genuine love of his subject, and he has brought together much that would soon have perished, like all other traditional accounts, but which is well worth preserving. His volumes, we ought to add, are profusely illustrated with maps and plans from the magnificent ordnance surveys, and with other engravings.

In his Preface, Mr. Smiles gives some curious details as to the late growth of mechanical skill in England. One passage is so striking and suggestive, that we cannot refrain from quoting it at length, both as a fair specimen of his style, and on account of its intrinsic interest.

"Most of our modern branches of industry," he says, were begun by foreigners, many of whom were driven by persecution to seek an asylum in England. Our first cloth-workers, silk-weavers, and lace-makers were French and Flemish refugees. The brothers Elers, Dutchmen, began the pottery manufacture; Spillman, a German, erected the first paper-mill at Dartford; and Boomen, a Dutchman, brought the first coach into England.

"When we wanted any skilled work done, we almost invariably sent for foreigners to do it. Our first ships were built by Danes or Genoese. When the Mary Rose sank at Spithead in 1545, Venetians were hired to raise her. On that occasion Peeter de Andreas was employed, assisted by his ship-carpenter and three of his sailors, with 'sixty English maryners to attend upon them.' When an engine was required to pump water from the Thames for the supply of London, Peter Morice, the Dutchman, was employed to erect it. "Our first lessons in mechanical and civil engineering were principally obtained from Dutchmen, who supplied us with our first wind-mills, watermills, and pumping-engines. Holland even sent us the necessary laborers to execute our first great works of drainage. The Great Level of the Fens was drained by Vermuyden, and another Dutchman, Freestone, was employed to reclaim the marsh near Wells, in Norfolk. Canvey Island, near the mouth of the Thames, was embanked by Joas Croppenburgh and his company of Dutch workmen. When a new haven was required at Yarmouth, Joas Johnson, the Dutch engineer, was employed to plan and construct the works; and when a serious breach occurred in the banks of the Witham, at Boston, Matthew Hake was sent for from Gravelines in Flanders; and he brought with him not only the mechanics, but the manufactured iron required for the work. The art of bridge-building had sunk so low in England about the middle of the last century, that we were under the necessity of employing the Swiss engineer Labelye to build Westminster Bridge."

4.- Memoir of the Life of Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, Civil Engineer, Vice-President of the Royal Society, Corresponding Member of the Institute of France, &c., &c., &c. By RICHARD BEAMISH, F. R. S. London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts. 1862. 8vo. pp. xvii. and 359.

MARC ISAMBARD BRUNEL, one of the most distinguished mechanical engineers of this century, was born at Hacqueville in Normandy, on the 25th of April, 1769. At an early age he gave very strong evidence of a taste for mechanical pursuits, and while he was still a mere boy he constructed a quadrant, which was perfect in all its parts, after only a single cursory examination of one. On the breaking out of the French Revolution, his royalist principles rendered his continued residence in France unsafe, and accordingly he came to this country. Here he was naturalized, and spent rather more than five years, principally in the State of New York, engaged in various engineering operations and as an architect, in which latter capacity he superintended the erection of the old Park Theatre in the city of New York. In January, 1799, he embarked for England; and in that country the last fifty years of his life were passed. His death occurred on the 12th of December, 1849. In England he devoted himself with great assiduity to the profession for which his tastes and mental habitudes so admirably qualified him. Shortly after his arrival, he invented, and put into successful operation in the dock-yard at Plymouth, a very ingenious set of machines for the manufacture of ships' blocks, by means of which an immense saving of time and money was effected. At a little later period he invented machinery for the manufacture of army shoes, by which the quality of the work was much improved and a large reduction was made in the cost. He also constructed the government saw-mills at Chatham, and introduced various improvements which showed great mechanical ingenuity and skill. But the work with which his name is chiefly associated is the Thames Tunnel, commenced in 1825, and, after many difficulties and delays and a total suspension of the work during a period of several years, opened to the public in March, 1843. In the prosecution of this work Mr. Beamish was employed by Brunel as an assistant engineer, and he was therefore brought into frequent and intimate relations with the great mechanist. From personal recollections, and from materials furnished by Brunel's family and friends, he has drawn up the very full, and on the whole satisfactory, Memoir now before us. He is not, it is true, a practised writer, and he has not much skill as a biographer; but his thorough knowledge of his subject, and his graphic account of the construction of the Tunnel, to which a

large part of the volume is devoted, render his Memoir a valuable and instructive contribution to mechanical literature. Some abatement, however, must be made from the estimate which he places on the worth of Brunel's services as an engineer, and we have not been able to discover in his Memoir any recognition of the fact that the Tunnel fails to answer the purpose for which it was intended.

5.- Lectures on Modern History, delivered in Oxford, 1859-61, by GOLDWIN SMITH, M. A., Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford. Oxford and London: John Henry and James Parker. 1861. 8vo. pp. 210.

THIS little volume comprises five Lectures delivered at different times by Mr. Smith, in the regular discharge of his duties as Professor of Modern History at Oxford; but, with a single exception, they all have a general connection, and are designed to explain and defend the theory according to which the lecturer purposes to teach history. The first Lecture is the inaugural discourse pronounced by him on assuming the Professorship of Modern History under the revised statutes recently promulgated, and it is mainly devoted to an earnest plea in behalf of historical studies, and to an examination of the relation of history to jurisprudence and political economy. The next two Lectures are "On the Study of History," and contain a very thorough and satisfactory refutation of the doctrines of Comte and his disciples as applied to historical inquiries, together with an elaborate vindication of the doctrine that a philosophy of history is possible. In a Postscript the lecturer offers some very acute and weighty criticisms on the theory maintained by Mr. Mansel in his Bampton Lectures on the Limits of Religious Thought. The fourth Lecture continues the discussion of the subject, and treats of "Some Supposed Consequences of the Doctrine of Historical Progress." The last Lecture, which is the least satisfactory one in the volume, is "On the Foundation of the American Colonies." It presents, indeed, a tolerably good account of the foundation of the various Colonies, and offers some excellent observations on the folly and madness exhibited by the English government during the memorable struggle which ended in the forcible separation of the thirteen Colonies from the mother country; but, considered as a philosophical discussion of this important and suggestive theme, it fails utterly to confirm the favorable anticipations which we had formed from reading the previous Lectures. From some cause, Mr. Smith does not take a broad and firm grasp of his subject, nor does he generalize with much

skill from the facts narrated, or point out the relations of cause and effect with the ability of which the other Lectures give promise. From the first settlement of this country Englishmen have failed to understand American politics; and it is not, perhaps, surprising that Mr. Smith also should have failed, though it is unfortunate for his permanent reputation as a teacher of history. His style, though clear and vigorous, is hard and inflexible, and contrasts very unfavorably with that of the Professor of Ecclesiastical History, who was inaugurated not long before him, and who has also published a volume of academic Lectures which is noticed below. Still we shall look with much interest for his future publications, since it is certain that, even if they should not be attractive in this particular, they will contain many just observations and much acute reasoning.

6.

Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church. With an Introduction on the Study of Ecclesiastical History. By ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, D. D., Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Oxford, and Canon of Christ Church. From the Second London Edition, Revised. New York: Charles Scribner. 1862. 8vo. pp. 551.

THESE Lectures are the first fruits of Dr. Stanley's labors in the Professorship of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford, and their republication in this country will be cordially welcomed by all who are familiar with his previous writings. They fully justify the anticipations which were generally entertained on his appointment; and are a most brilliant and acceptable contribution to ecclesiastical literature. The style is glowing, animated, and picturesque, and the reader is borne along with much the same rush of feeling which an auditor must have experienced as he listened to the spoken words, while everywhere we discover the evidences of a ripe and various scholarship. No one has ever before shown so well how Church history may be written so as to be interesting; and no writer in this department ever had a more attractive field in which to labor. If Dr. Stanley should be able to complete the plan which he seems to have marked out for himself, and of which the Lectures now before us form only a fragment, he will enrich English literature with a series of volumes on ecclesiastical history of unrivalled brilliancy and power. One of these volumes — that on the History of the Jewish Church—is stated to be nearly ready for the press.

The volume now published opens with an inaugural course of three