and whose success owed so much to the bold patriotic firinness and eloquence of the latter. His great political speeches and addresses before Conventions and at public dinners and receptions, given at different times through his long term of public life, and which fill volumes, cannot here be distinctly noticed. The reader may, independent of oratorical considerations, enrich his mind with varied knowledge by their perusal. In 1852, Mr. Webster gave a discourse before the Historical Society of New York, on his favourite books and authors; and in the same month presided at the Metropolitan Hall Assembly, when Mr. Bryant read his eulogy on the novelist Cooper. He also spoke briefly but most appropriately on Cooper's character and writings. His last great speech in Fanieu Hall, the hall in which the deep cathedral tones of his voice had so often resounded, was given to the men of Boston, in May, 1852. On his return to Marshfield, he met in Boston the most cordial and I may say magnificent public reception; and in the afternoon of the same day he addressed on the Boston Common the vast assemblage who came to do him honour. This was the last time that his voice was heard in Boston. He returned to Marshfield, gave to his friends and neighbours a short calm address on the topics which then agitated the country. His gigantic form, which had held out in vigour for 70 years, was fatally assailed by disease; and on Oct. 24th, within hearing of the ocean's waves, whose majestic scenes had long been his delight, he expired. The last words he is said to have spoken, were—“I still live:" and in the deepest sense of these words did his countrymen inscribe them as a motto in public places, when cities were darkened with badges of mourning. Yes: in the profoundest sense-in the ideas he has uttered, in the results he effected, in the perpetuity and cohesion of the American Union, in the memory, gratitude, and respect of his country,may his words now be quoted, "I still live."

The highest excellence of the Parliament of England culminated in three chief stars of English thought and eloquence-Pitt, Fox, and Burke; and the corresponding fact in the three prime stars of American parliamentary history-Calhoun, Clay, and Webster, is, at least, an interesting coincidence. These were a different style of men from those different, because the times and the circumstances both required and created them different. Webster differs from Burke, in not having that perpetual finish of sentences and fine radiance of fancy, which, whilst they make his pages elegantly classical, also tend to weary the reader after a time. Webster is more Teutonic, is bold and massive, has a great manly force and vigour backing up every sentence and paragraph. His imagination is less subtle, but more epic and strong. Burke makes you feel that you stand in the presence of art-fine and elegant art: Webster makes you conscious of being in the presence of nature, with wild forest, river, vale, mountain, cataract, cliff, and far-extending plains around you and within your horizon. American patriots have already said of their three illustrious dead

"Seek not for those a separate doom,

Whom fate made brothers in the tomb;
But search the land of living men,
Where shall we find their like again?"

All in all, no man had Webster's varied combination
of strength; and in physical form, in feature, and
expression, I never saw his equal.
There was ma-
jesty-there was sublimity in his look. In him men
saw in life what Shakspere drew in fancy-

"The combination and the form, indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man."

Webster was great by nature. Wherever his intellect chose to appear, he made the region around luminous as by the presence of a sun. He had, without doubt,

his personal vices; the fashionable life and tempta tions of Washington city in a measure withdrew him from the rigid sobriety and strict habits of virtue belonging to his earlier life; but they never over turned his sentiments of morality and religion. Te the last Webster had faith in GoD and in principle. The words which he uttered in Fanieu Hall, on the character of Jefferson and Adams, I now apply to him:-"A superior and commanding human intellect, a truly great man, when Heaven vouchsafes so rare a gift, is not a temporary flame, burning bright for a while, and then expiring, giving place to returning darkness. It is rather a spark of radiant heat as well as radiant light, with power to enkindle the common mass of human mind; so that when it glimmers in its own decay, and finally goes out in death, no night follows, but it leaves the world all light, all on fire, from the potent contact of its own spirit. Bacon died, but the human understanding, raised by the touch of his miraculous wand to a perception of the true philosophy, and the just mode of inquiring after truth, has kept on its course successfully and glori ously. Newton died, yet the courses of the spheres are still known, and they yet move on in the orbits which he saw and described in the infinity of space."

In a sense like that here signified, Daniel Webster 'still lives;'-in the literature of the New World, in the political history of his great country, in the pro: ductions of oratory, of which every nation is proud. in diplomacy, in the idea of the magnitude and para mount importance of national union, and in the per petuated impression of vast abilities and true patriotism;- he lives, and shall continue to live, in the memory of his countrymen and of other nations.

HIGH AND LOW STEAM PRESSURE.

BY MR. WM. MCNAUGHT, C.E.,

OF THE UNION WORKS, ROCHDALE.

[Delivered before the National Association of Operative Engineers, at Manchester, June, 1858.]

ALL practical Engineers, as well as the majority of the public, are agreed as to the desirability and ımportance, both for the interests of trade and commerce and the safety of human life, of arriving at a satisfactory solution of the problem-How to attain the greatest amount of steam power with the greatest safety and economy. Certainly one means of safety must be allowed to be the keeping down of the pressure as low as may be desirable: at the same time it must not be forgotten that there is such a thing as unwise economy, and the question is, how to obtain at one time the greatest power, economy, and safety. In order to attain these desirable results, it is necessary that we first understand the nature of the prinples with which we have to deal.

Experiments of the nature required to satisfactorily prove certain results, are not so easy to be made as some persons would think; on the contrary, to make a good experiment is one of the most difficult things a man can attempt, especially if he desires to elicit the truth on the important subject which we are met to consider.

Before proceeding to discuss the comparative merits of high and low pressure, I should remark that “high” and "low" are merely relative terms, and that what we now call low pressure steam was within my recollection called high pressure. It is satisfactory to find that the desire on the part of operative engineers to understand the why and the wherefore of the mysteries of their craft, has kept pace with modern improvements in machinery. Fifteen years ago, it would have been impossible for me to have delivered this lecture to an audience of working engineers,— geometrical diagrams were then so little understood.

Mr. McNaught mentioned a case of an engine that was worked apparently at high pressure, to show that caution was necessary in accepting experiments upon engines alone. The lecturer referred to his diagrams to illustrate this case. What we want (continued Mr. McNaught) is to get the best effect with the least pressure in the boiler. I need not call your attention to recent boiler explosions, for I do not wish to enter at all into their causes; but it cannot be disputed that the lower the pressure is kept in the boiler, the greater the safety. Let us see if we can solve the problem proposed. I must first of all say that my firm conviction is, that the only way to get the best results with the lowest pressure of steam, is by the single cylinder engine. I must allow at the same time that the single cylinder is a species of engine that has never yet been made to meet modern requirements, resulting from the practice of cutting off the steam at an early part of the stroke: in fact, I do not believe that it ever will be, so long as the beam is a necessary appendage of the steam engine, which seems likely to be the case for some time to come. We shall probably have to submit to the employment of the beam until public opinion, which is at present in its favour, changes. The best engineer in the world can only introduce

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