igher place as a
literary journal. Few good men have had sons so worthy of their sire.

In August also died George Stephenson, Knight of the Order of Leopold,
F.B.S., the originator of our railway system. This eminent engineer is
a rare example of a self-taught genius. Born of parents too poor to
give him any schooling, at eighteen years of age, when full grown, and
following the occupation of a fireman, he was not ashamed to
commence his education at an evening school. His steady industry and
unconquerable perseverance ultimately won for him a position second to
none in his profession. Looking at the influence of his labours on
the whole human race, there are few names on the pages of history so
pre-eminent as that of George Stephenson.

On the 21st of September, Lord William George Frederick Cavendish
Bentinck, M.P. for Lynn, was suddenly removed by death. He was found
dead in the grounds where he had been walking alone. As leader of the
opposition, his death, so unexpected and so painfully sudden, made a
great sensation.

In November Lord Melbourne, who had filled the office of premier in the
beginning of her majesty's reign, departed this life. The queen was much
indebted to the courtly and constitutional skill of this nobleman in
her first essays of government. He was her majesty's faithful subject,
minister, and friend, and she was justly much attached to her preceptor.
He was too indolent, and too little acquainted with the tone and temper
of the whole people for the office of premier. He was, however, a man
of superior intellect and extensive culture, and was well versed in
constitutional law.

Dr. James Pritchard, the celebrated naturalist and ethnologist, died in
this month.

The death of Colonel Sir Frederick Augustus D'Este, K.C.B., son of the
Duke of Sussex by Lady Augustus Murray, daughter of the Earl of Dunmore,
was the last decease of a remarkable person publicly noted in this year.
The marriage of his royal highness without the consent of the crown
rendered it invalid, and Sir Augustus was unable to obtain the
inheritance or title of his father.

Thus terminated the events of 1848 which admit of record in a work like
the present. The year expired leaving England on the whole stronger, and
more confident in her stability and power. The whirlwind which had swept
over the nations, shaking down the trophies and glories of antiquity
which had remained after the first great French revolution, did not