are so numerous all over Great Britain, that there is hardly a county in England, Wales, or Scotland, in which they may not be pointed out. Nor was the British empire a.one benefited by Mr. Telford's genius. In the year 1808, he was employed by the Swedish government to survey the ground, and lay out an inland naviga tion through the central parts of that kingdom. The design of this undertaking was to connect the great fresh water lakes, and to form a direct communication by water, between the North Sea and the Baltic. Mr. Telford's fame as an engineer has been principally spread in Great Britain by his great work, the Dublin road from London to Holyhead, including the Menai and Conway bridges. The Menai bridge, one of the greatest wonders of art in the world, is unquestionably the most imperishable monument of his capacity for extensive undertakings. This bridge is constructed over the small strait of the sea, which intervenes between the mainland of North Wales, and the island of Anglesea, and carries onward the road to Holyhead. Before its erection, the communication was carried on by means of ferry boats, and was therefore subject to delays and dangers. The bridge is at a point near the town of Bangor, from near which its appearance is strikingly grand. It is built partly of stone and partly of iron, on the suspension principle, and consists of seven stone arches, exceeding in magnitude every work of the kind in the world. They connect the land with the two main piers, which rise 53 feet above the level of the road, over the top of which the chains are suspended, each chain being 1714 feet from the fastenings in the rock. The first three-masted vessel passed under the bridge in 1826. Her topmasts were nearly as high as a frigate; but they cleared 12 feet below the centre of the roadway. The suspending power of the chains was calculated at 2016 tons; the total weight of each chain, 121 tons. This stupendous undertaking occasioned Mr. Telford more intense thought than any other of his works. He told a friend that his state of anxiety for a short time previous to the opening of the bridge was so extreme, that he had but little sound sleep, and that a much longer continuance of that condition of mind must have undermined his health. Not that he had any reason to doubt the strength and stability of every part of the structure, for he had employed all the precautions that he could imagine useful, as sug gested by his own experience and consideration, or by the zeal and talents of his very able and faithful assistants; yet the bare possibility, that some weak point might have escaped his and their vigilance in a work so new, kept the whole structure constantly in review before his mind's eye, to examine if he could discover a point that did not contribute its share to the perfection of the whole. In this, as in all his great works, he employed, as subengineers, men capable of appreciating and acting on his ideas; but he was no rigid stickler for his own plans, for he most readily acquiesced in the reasonable suggestions of his assistants, and thus identified them with the success of the work. In ascertaining the strength of the materials for the Menai bridge, he employed men of the highest rank for scientific character and attain ments. The genius of Telford, as has been stated, was not confined to his profession. Dr. Currie says, in his life of Burns, that a great number of manuscript poems were found among the papers of Burns, addressed to him by admirers of his genius, from different parts of Britain, as well as Ireland and America. Among these was a poetical epistle of superior merit, by Telford, and addressed to Burns, and in the versification generally employed by that poet himself. Its object is to recommend him to other subjects of a serious nature, similar to that of the Cottar's Saturday Night, and the reader will find that the advice is happily enforced by example We extract a portion of it : Mr. Telford was not more remarkable for his great professional abilities, than for his sterling worth in private life. His easiness f access, and the playfulness of his disposition, even to the close of life, endeared him to a numerous circle of friends, including all the most distinguished men of his time. He was the patron of merit in others, wherever it was to be found; and he was the means of raising many deserving individuals from obscurity to situations where their talents were seen, and soon appreciated. Up to the last period of his life, he was fond of young men, and of their company, provided they delighted in learning. His punctuality was universal. In the course of his very active life, he found time to acquire a knowledge of the Latin, French, and German languages. He understood Algebra well, but thought it led too much to abstraction, and too little to practice. Mathematical investigation he also held rather cheaply, and always, when practicable, resorted to experiment to determine the relative value of any plans on which it was his business to decide. He delighted to employ the rast in nature, yet did not despise minutia, a point too seldom attended to by projectors. For some years before his death, he gradually retired from professional employment, and he latterly amused his leisure hours by writing a detailed account of the principal undertakings which he had planned, and lived to see executed. The immediate cause of Mr. Telford's death was a repetition of severe bilious attacks, to which he had for some years been subject, and which, at length, proved fatal. His life, prolonged by temperance and cheerfulness, at length drew to a close, and he expired at his house, in Abingdon street, Westminster, September 2d, 1834. EDMUND CARTWRIGHT, THE INVENTOR OF THE POWER-LOOM. EDMUND CARTWRIGHT was born in the year 1743, and was the fourth son of William Cartwright, Esq. of Marnham, in Nottinghamshire. Being intended for the church, Edmund at the usual age was entered of University College, Oxford; from whence he was subsequently elected a Fellow of Magdalen College. He early distinguished himself by his literary attainments, an evidence of |