CURRENT EVENTS.

Wellington Independent, Volume XV, Issue 1396, 13 January 1860, Page 5

CURRENT EVENTS.

(From the European Times, October 18.J The public wi'l learn with regret the death of Mr. Robert Stephenson, tbe eminent engineer, which took place on the 12th. The deceased gentleman had been in a feeble state of health for some time previously, and laboured under a complication of maladies — dropsy, congestion of the liver, and other symptoms denoting impending dissolution. An ample fortune, fine taste, and a spirit of adventure induced Mr. Stephenson to maintain a handsome yacht, in which he visited countries far and near, and on his return from Norway recently, whither he had proceed^ ed when the Pailiamentary session was brought to a close, be was attacked with sea sickness, which induced jaundice, and this seems to have laid the foundation of disease which has thus terminated fatally. Mr. Stephenson's reputation, great as it was, was overshadowed by that of his illustrious father, although his own works

have not been fewov inconsiderable. His fame as an engineer will rest on his tubular bridges over the Conway and Menai Straits in North Wales, and the still greater work of the same kind over the St. Lawrence, in North America. It is remarkable that the country should have< lost in the space of a few weeks, its two greatest engineers — Mr. Brunei and now Mr. Stephenson both, descended from men whose talents placedthem, in their day, in the very first rank of the profession to which they devoted their sons. Of late years Mr. Stephenson led a life of elegaut enjoyment, but Brunei, less fortunate in his means, was putting forth all his energies when his career was arrested by death. The one appears to have perfected his work, the other was only at the beginning of a new phase of his caieer, and it is probable that, hud Brunei survived a few years more, he would have materially influenced the maritime transit of the world. As the Great Eastern owes her existence to his daring genius, we may regret that he was not spared to watch over her early career on the ocean, not less on account of his own fame than for the advantage of mankind. Mr. Stephensou has sat in Parliament for ten or twelve years as the member for Whitby, on Conservative principles, but he rarely troubled the House, and contented himself with a silent vote on all the great questions of the day. The trial trip of the Great Eastern from Portland to Holy bead has been been the subject of a good deal of criticism, and the general, result is regardad with very different feelings in different quarters. As a whole, however, the speed of the. ship is not regarded as over favorable. The enormous capacity of the Great Eastern was mainly designed to obviate what many are now inclined to regard as her failing point Tho London Times on the 14th, in a leading article on the subject of the trial trip, takes rather a gloomy view of the results. " She sailed from Portland on Saturday afternoon," says the writer " and steamed at little more than half speed to the Start Light, achieving nearly thirteen knots an hour. This reswlt, eminently satisfactory as as it is, is not to be treated as a maxt7num t for here we must begin with the system of allowances and deductions. The centre of gravity was below the centre of motion. Tbe vessel was in bad trim, for she ought to have been eighteen inches more down by the stern, to_ enable the screw to exert its full power, a defect which one would think might, without much difficulty, have been avoided. From the Start to the Eddystone Lighlhouse, a distance of twenty knots, or nearly twenty-nine miles, the full force of the vessel was to be tried, and the distance was accomplished in an hour and three-quarters at the late of about sixteen miles and a-hal( an hour. Tbe vessel was under easy steam run ning at little more than half speed, accomplishes nearly fifteen miles an hour, and when pushed ! lt i uer full speed goes only sixteen miles and a half. But here again au allowance has to be made which entirely vitiates the calculation, for the escape valve got jammed and the fires lad to l>e reduced, and the speed taken off to release it, so that all we can conclude is that the vessel can go something more than sixteen and a half miles an hour, though how much more we have at present nu data for estimating." The writer next alludes to the rolling of. the vessel as a proof that she has not secured the absence of motion and sea sickness, and declares that she has not attained a. speed greater than that of several commercial vessels, and far inferior to to the speed of her Majesty's yacht. " May it not turn out," he concludes, '• that this wonderful and brilliant experiment is destined to prove, the wisdom of the more gradual and cautious course of improvement which lias, in a period of 20 years, given us vessels like the Persia and the Arabia, in the place of the Sirius and the Great Western." Perhaps this medium view o( tbe great ship's success and failure may prove tolerably con ect; and it embodies, ire believe, pretty faithfully, the general judgment of the public.

The Queen is known to be fond of excitement and a? the applause of her loving subjects is *weet music to her ears, she has an opportunity of enjoying it whenever she makes her autumn excursion to and from the north, The return of the Court from Balmoral has been and will be more than usually demonstrative. Her Majesty is at present the guest of Cuiouel Pennant, at Penrbyu Castle, and to-day attended Divine Service at Bangor Cathedral, adjoining the Colonel's princely residence. Being then only twenty miles from the great steam-ship, it is only natural that the head of the State should desire to visit it, — a feeling in>which the direc tors, it is needless to say joyously participate. North Wales is therefore at the present moment the focus of attraction, and its mo»t northerly port is receiving more guests than it ever had before, or will probably ever have again. There are few places in the empire to which the public would less willingly flock than to Holy head, for H is deficient in attraction of every kind, and especially in that kind of attraction which large masses of people like when they come together hotel accommodation and the creature duinfoj'ts therewith connected. But two such sights as the largest ship in the world and the greatest Sovereign in the world, are inducing thousands and tens of thousands to seek its inhospitable quarters- The early part of the ensuing week will bring with it eveuts to be lemembered in the district, and these events cannot fail to tell favourably on the exchequer of the Great Eastern Company. We are glad to observe that Mr. Walter^ the member for Berkshire, has taken the field in an effort to raise the character of the 'present class of agricultural labourers by a piocess which kas in it something nobler than the . bestowal, at agiicultural meetings of small gratuities, for length of servitude and freedom fiom pauperism — the bestowal of which gratuities, in the manner in which they are doled out, cannot fail to degrade the class and impair their self respect. If, instead of this system, the employers of labour in the agricultural counties were to encourage their tenautry by pecuniary aid where it is needed, the results as*regards society would be far greater. An instructive anecdote is finding currency in the newspapers which aptly illustrates our meaning. A small farmer, struggling with adversity, was unable to pay his rent — was getting constantly in arrears. This arose from no disinclination to labour, from no inaptitude to pursue his calling with advantage but simply from want of means. The noble proprietor went over the farm with the tenant, and told him that a new arrangement must supersede the old one,— that instead of the man managing the farm for himself, he must manage it for the proprietor; in fact he must become his setvaut instead of his tenant. Wood, seed, manure, and erevy requisite for making the farm productive, were forwarded by order of the great man. Soon the aspect of things changed. The farm became productive and remunerative, and, when the tide of prosperity had returned the arrears of rent were cancelled and the poor man new start in life. It is in something of this had a spirit that Mr. Walter takes the field. He is desirous of giving the tiller of the soil something more cheering and beneficial than the small crumbs of consolation usually dispensed at an annual agricultural dinner, where soft words

take the place of good deeds. In no country in the world is the soil in such few hands as in England, and our law of primogeniture perpetuates ibis system from one generation to another. Tbe small farmer, destitute of capital, cannot struggle successfully against the competition which surrounds him, and he is thrown into the class below— the agricultural labourer, whose wages in some counties scarcely riseabove eight or nine shillings a week. We are told that property has its duties as well as its rights, and Mr. Walter's rendering of this axiom is calculated to aid those who will help themselves. We'cannot, perhaps, expect that the agricultural landlords should make sacrifices for others greater than the rest of society, but they ought at least to equal in liberality those who are engaged in the occupations of trade and commerce. We can spin and manufacture for the whole of mankind, but we cannot by any human process increase the area of tbe land, and, as our laws forbid land to find its way into the market by the ordinary vicissitudes to which all other description of property are exposed, tbe lords of the soil, — a comparatively select few in this country, — have obligations to fulfil from which other classes of the community are exempt, and these obligations it is the object of Mr. Walter to enforce by all moral means, the strongest of which is tbe public opinion of the nation.