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Address of the President to the Annual 22 A4DDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT TO THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, JANUARY17, 1843. BEFOREI resign this chair I have to perform the pleasing duky of thanking you for your attention to the Institution,which has enabled your Council to present to you the satirfactory Report that has just been read, and has rendered the discharge of my duty so agreeable. I take advantage of the opportunity thus afforded me, to refer to some points which may not be considered strictly within thescope of the Report of the Council. The Report has informed you of a considerable addition to the list of Honorary Members, by the election of several distinguished indi- viduals. These have been elected, not on account of their rank alone, but because with rank, they hold, orhave held, high stations, or have been placed insituations in which they have shown their desire to advance the sciences or arts connected with Civil Engineering ; or because they are themselves eminent as men of science and learning. None of them were proposed until they had, like all other candidates for election, expressed their desire to become Members ; and in many instances their wishes have been communicated in manner highly complimentary to the Institution and to its objects. Indeed, it is impossihle that public men, who have held the highest offices, possessing only the tithe of the understanding of a Welling- ton, a Brougham, a Lyndhurst, or a Peel, can be indifferent to the growing importance of Engineering to the welfare of this country, or not aware that the greatness, I may perhaps be justified in saying, and even the existence of the nation, mainly depend on it. It has been said that the Steam Engine, rendered powerful and practicable by Watt, fought the battles and gained the victorie-s of the last great war ; that by it the mines were drained, and the ores and coal rajsed, which, when applied to Arkwright’s and other improvements, mul- Downloaded by [ University Of Wollongong] on [16/09/16]. Copyright © ICE Publishing, all rights reserved. 23 tiplied in effect the power of' the country, reducing the price of mechanical labour a hundred-fold, and enabling us to supply fo- reigners with our Manufdctures, for which they returned the sinews of war;and that hence, notwithstanding an expense, beyond all precedent, continued for a quarter of a century, the country, even if the increase to the National Debt were deducted, was richer as well as more powerful and more populous at the end than at the begin- ning of the war. In this there is much truth, but the effect being indirect is not so obvious. In thelate Syrian and Chinese wars, however, there could be no doubt. In both cases the work was done chiefly by Steam Ships of War; and it could not have been done so quickly or so effectually in any other known wcy. The Steam Engine, therefore, may now be considered the great power in war as well as in peace ; and thence, in another light, the immense import- ance of the objects of thisInstitution, when it appears that the long-boasted wooden walls of Old England will henceforth be com- paratively inefficient without the co-operation of Steam. I do not mean by this to express any opinion of the justice or policy of the late wars-the most glorious part of them was, in my opinion, their termination. My object is to show why the lately elected Honorary Members have naturally been desirous of becoming so ; why we have elected them, and why we may expect them to take an interest in our proceedings and our progress. But there are other considerations more congenial to our civil posi- tion in which the individuals who have not written and published scienti6c works are to be regarded as worthy of the membership. Sir Robert Peel, now at thehead of the Government of this countr1, has not been unmindful that to the application, by his enterprising parent, of the discoveries of Watt and Arkwrighthe owes the position and education which startedhim in public life. At the Public Meeting in 1824, for erecting a monument to Watt, Sir Robert, then Mr. Secretary Peel, said, cc that he belonged to that very nu- ('merous class of persons who had derived a direct personal benefit 'r from the important discoveries of Watt, and ho acknowledged with " satisfaction and pride that he was one of those who derived all that " they possess from the honest, industry of others." His connexion with us is therefore natural ; and by evincing his desire to promote science and the useful as well as the fine arts, he has proved, and I am sure will continue to prove, himself a useful as well as an orna- mental Member. The Duke of Wellington, in being, while in office, mainly instru- Downloaded by [ University Of Wollongong] on [16/09/16]. Copyright © ICE Publishing, all rights reserved. mental in recommending the means for proceeding with the Thames Tunnel, and for completing the approaches to London Bridge (one of the greatest metropolitan improvements), considered that he only did his duty ; but Sir Mark Isambard Brunel, and Mr. Jones (Chairman of the London Bridge Committee), consider that to his Grace is mainly due the merit of these great works ; and that as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, he has always taken a lively interest in theworks of Dover Harbour andother improvementsupon the coast, I can bear witness, as well as to his knowleclge of works of Civil Engineering which he has lost no opportunity of cultivating. His Grace’s reply to a question by me, as to how he came to know so much of the dif- ferent plansof sluices for draining, &5., was, that when with the Army in Holland and Belgium he had plenty of time to ride round the country and to examine them. The Duke of Buccleuch has, in being the liberal President of tho College of Civil Engineers, shown his desire to advance the profes- sion ; and in the formation of Mines, Railways, Roads, Bridges, and Piers, upon his extensive estates, he gives the best practical illustra- tion of his taste for works of Engineering, and his wish to promote the objects of this Institution. Earl De Grey, as President of the Institute of British Architects, himself in taste an architect, and aware of the close connexion be- tween Architecture and Engineering, has abundantly shown the in- terest he feels for our success and progress. The Marquis of Northampton, as President of the Royal Society, would have had sufficient passport for Membership, even if his zeal for science, particularly geology, which we all agree with Dr. Buck- land to be intimately connected with our profession, were not known. At the last anniversary of the Royal Society, his Lordship, in pro- posing as a toast the success of this Institution, referred in very flattering terms to itsimportance and future prospects. The Speaker of the House of Commons, Mr. Shaw Lcfevre, has been a fellow-labourer with our Associate, Mr. Hanclley, in the appli- cation of Engineering to agriculture,-not only in the drainage of great districts, but in machinery of all kinds, from the steam plough downwards.-Our Member, Mr. Parkes, could fill up a long list of Mr.Sham Lefevre’s exertions in this way. As a Commissioner, ex- officio,of many of the most important public works, I have witnessed his attention to details which, unless he were fond of Engineering he would not think of, even if he had more leisure thm the onerous duties of Speaker of the Honse of Commons allow him. Downloaded by [ University Of Wollongong] on [16/09/16]. Copyright © ICE Publishing, all rights reserved. I might proceed to remark on the other recently elected Honorary Members, but they are so well known, and have by their writings shown themselves so qualified, that to do so would be an unneces., sary occupation of your time. Having referred to the subject of our Steam Fleet, I may mention that,until the year 1835, there was no Chief Engineer and In- spector of Machinery for the Navy, and that Mr. Peter Ewart, who died during the last summer, first held that office. As he was not a Member of the Institution he is not noticed in the Report of the Council ; but the situation he held, and his talents, will, I trust, be considered sufficient to make acceptable a short notice of some facts respecting him. Mr. Ewart was born on the14th ofMay, 1767,at Troquaire Manse, inthe county of Dumfries. His father, and two or three generations before him, were clergymen of the Church of Scotland. Peter was the youngest of a family of ten children, (six sons and four daughters). The father’s care was divided between the duties of ,his parish, his private studies, and the early education of his family, which he superintended,-the result proves how successfully ; two of his sons having been well known as among the most eminent merchants in Liverpool, and a third as Envoy of this country at the Court of Berlin, where he died at the early age of 32 years. At niue years of age Peter was sent to the Dumfries parish day-school, where he had the benefit of good masters, particularly of Dr. Din- widdie, an excellent mathematical teacher. At this period his natural turn for Mechanics showed itself. Hishours of recreation were spent in the shop of a watch and clock maker (named Crocket), which lay between the school and his home; and so well did he profit by what he saw there, that at the age of twelve he had, from materials which he had collected, made and finished a clock that performed well, and was the most interesting piece of furniture in his bed-room.
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