1 APRIL 1876, Page 3

Several present and passed Ministers attended the annual dinner of

the Institute of Civil Engineers on Saturday, and made plea- sant speeches. Lord Carnarvon told his entertainers that Governments lived longest through their public works, which were remembered when all else was forgotten ; that engineers had been mainly instrumental in developing the Colonial Em- pire, through harbours, works of irrigation, roads, and above all, through railways and telegraphs. Mr. Lowe told them -that it was impossible to exaggerate the debt owing by the world to Civil Engineers ; that if the Greek intellect had turned to the school of Archimedes instead of the school of Plato, Rome would never have yielded to the barbarian ; and that engineers had made it impossible for a new Attila,

Alaric, or Genseric to overrun the civilised world ; which, con- sidering that Russia may one day find a Moltke, is a bold word. The Netherlands Minister told them how "in my little country" -engineers are about to drain the Zuyder Zee ; and Mr. Goschen zapped all the pleasantnesses by telling them that "so established was their profession that the hereditary principle had begun. to appear in it," and the representative of Stephenson the founder is Principal of the Institute. The Engineers were delighted, and did not even complain that, while all men know of the Temple, and of Hiram who contracted for it, and of Solomon who paid for it, the name of the actual builder is as forgotten as the name of that greatest of discoverers—the man who first used fire.