Bidspirit auction | STEPHENSON ROBERT: (1803-1859)

STEPHENSON ROBERT: (1803-1859) - STEPHENSON ROBERT: (1803-1859) English civil engineer, the son of George Stephenson. A.L.S., Rob. Stephenson , one page, 8vo, n.p., 26th March 1858, to Mr. Freeman. Stephenson informs his correspondent that ' The subject of your note shall have my immediate attention at the Foreign office ' and continues to add 'I was most grieved to hear of the sad accident which has befallen your son but I trust all will be well '. Neatly mounted and slightly irregularly trimmed from a stiff page of an album, otherwise about VG Stephenson served as Member of Parliament for Whitby from 1847 until his death in 1859. In 1846 he had been elected a member of the Société d'Études du Canal de Suez and looked into the feasibility of a Suez canal, advising against it. In 1854 a railway line between Alexandria and Cairo opened, which Stephenson had assisted with by designing two tubular bridges. This was extended in 1858 (the same year as the present letter) to Suez. Stephenson spoke in Parliament in 1857 and 1858, on both occasions expressing his disapproval of British involvement in a Suez canal scheme.