by improving the road; then followed the contrivance of springs, which further facilitated the working of the huge machine. Amidst all difficulty and ridicule, the master-mind clung with undoubting faith to the certainty of eventual success.

In 1819, the owners of the Hetton Colliery, in the county of Durham, resolved to have their waggon-way, about eight miles in length, altered into a locomotive railroad, and Stephenson was appointed engineer. It was opened on the 18th of November, 1822, amidst crowds of spectators, five engines of his manufacture being at work upon it, which moved about four miles an hour, each engine drawing after it sixty-four tons weight. The experiment was perfectly decisive as to the value of the locomotive for the traction of heavy goods, where the traffic was great, and a nearly level road could be secured; but the way was by no means clear to its adoption for the transit of general merchandise, much less of passengers.

Edward

While the Hetton road was being formed, a far more important project was also advancing to completion, namely, the Stockton and Darlington Railway for the use of the public. The history of the undertaking has the charm of a romance. Its originator was one of that rapidly diminishing class of men, whose attire and creed seem to separate them from the sordid and even material interests of the present world, and to belong rather to the monastery than the exchange; but who are found in practice to be, in mercantile energy, and sharpness, and success, second to none. Pease discerned in 1817, the desirableness of a railroad from the neighbourhood of Darlington to Stockton, his main object being the delivery of coals along the line of the road. Not twenty shares were subscribed for in Stockton; but, influenced by Mr. Pease, the Quakers took up the project, and in 1818, a bill was before Parliament. The proposed line ran near one of the Duke of Cleveland's fox covers; and, for that reason, the noble duke opposed, and just succeeded in defeating the measure. In 1819, the sturdy projectors were ready with another bill for a line, so altered as to leave the foxes undisturbed; but the turnpike-road trustees raised an alarm of the total ruin of their trusts; whereupon Mr. Pease issued a notice, offering to buy up their securities, or any of them, at the original price; and so that clamour was hushed. In January, 1820, George III. died, and the proceedings were suspended. On the 19th of April, 1821, the bill passed. Stephenson still, to use his own words, "only the engine-wright at Killingworth," introduced himself to Mr. Pease, roundly told him that locomotives would entirely supersede all horse- power upon railroads, and strongly urged him to adopt them on his projected

line. "Come over," said he, "to Killingworth, and see what my Blucher' can do; seeing is believing, sir." The sharpsighted Quaker discerned in the applicant the man he wanted; and employed him, first to make a new survey, and afterwards to construct the road. As the time for the opening approached, an eager discussion arose whether horse-power, fixed engines, or locomotives, should be employed. Mr. Pease, influenced by the engineer, induced the directors to give the locomotive a trial; and three engines were ordered for the purpose of Stephenson and Co. On an experimental trip they were found capable of running from twelve to fifteen miles an hour; but were better fitted for the slow and heavy work for which they had been built. The day of opening approached, but previously to its arrival, Stephenson, accompanied by his son and John Dixon, made a survey of the works, and then went to an inn at Stockport to dine; where he adopted the very unusual measure of ordering a bottle of wine, to drink success to the railway. To this select audience, he made this remarkable speech:

"Now, lads, I will tell you that I think you will live to see the day, though I may not live so long, when railways will come to supersede almost all other methods of conveyance in this country-when mail coaches will go by railway, and railroads will become the great highway for the king and all his subjects. The time is coming when it will be cheaper for a working man to travel on a railway than to walk on foot. I know there are great and almost insurmountable difficulties that will have to be encountered; but what I have said will come to pass as sure as we live. I only wish I may live to see the day, though that I can scarcely hope for, as I know how slow all human progress is, and with what difficulty I have been able to get the locomotive adopted, notwithstanding my more than ten years' successful experiment at Killingworth.' -Pp. 196, 197.

The 27th of September, 1825, was the day of opening. The assembly to witness it was immense. Some were there to gratify curiosity, some to rejoice in the event, some to see the bubble burst.

"The train consisted of six waggons, loaded with coals and flour; after these was the passenger coach, filled with the directors and their friends, and then twenty-one waggons fitted up with temporary seats for passengers; and, lastly, came six waggon-loads of coals, making in all a train of thirty-eight vehicles. The signal being given, the train started, and it accomplished the first eight and threequarter miles in sixty-five minutes. The arrival at Stockton excited deep interest and admiration."-P. 198.

The success was decisive. A passenger and goods traffic

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sprung up immediately; and in a set race between the engine Active," and one of the regular stage coaches, "Active" won the race by about a hundred yards.

During the progress of the bill for the formation of this road, a curious incident occurred, showing the helplessness of the poor, through their want of representatives in Parliament; the tricks which even the best of our legislators will play, and the manner in which cunning often defeats itself. Mr. Lambton, afterwards Earl of Durham, held extensive colliery property near Stockton, and was anxious to guard against competition with the collieries near Darlington; and he, therefore, got inserted into the bill a clause, forbidding more than a half-penny a ton per mile to be charged on any coal brought along the line, to Stockton, for shipment; neither he, nor any one else, dreaming that its conveyance at that rate was, or ever would be, possible. His object was to establish a monopoly at the expense of the public-and he had his reward. The half-penny rate proved the vital element in the success of the railway; and in the course of a few years, the annual shipment of coal from it exceeded five hundred thousand tons.

This line was worked partly by horses, partly by fixed engines, and partly by locomotives. The passenger traffic was very rudely provided for, and did not create any general hope of the substitution of locomotives for coaches. For that, the last and crowning achievement, we have to look to the next great railway project.

The very pressing want of some improved means for the transit of merchandise, between Liverpool and Manchester, led the enterprising merchants of those towns to form a company for the construction of a double line of railway between them. A deputation was sent to Killingworth, to inspect the working of the railroad there, and they reported favourably of the locomotives, both for economy and speed. Stephenson was appointed surveyor; and when, despite the most pertinacious and annoying opposition, he had completed his survey, he was called as a witness before a committee of the House of Commons, and tormented by a three days' cross-examination, conducted by men trained to the art of perplexing witnesses, and hired to defeat the purpose he had most at heart. The bill was lost, poor Stephenson being made the butt of ridicule by the leading counsel, and stigmatized as an ignoramus, a fool, and even a maniac; though he was the only man present, and indeed the only man in the world, who understood the business for which that committee had been convened. Thoroughly honest, and, as to railroads, the wise man of all the earth, he lacked two things on which-humbling as the

confession is the weight of words very much depends, namely, a great name and glibness of speech.

The bill was speedily introduced again; but it was not deemed wise to venture a second time on Stephenson as a witness, and his place was supplied by engineers and surveyors of the highest reputation. The route was slightly changed to avoid game preserves, and other means were adopted to conciliate opponents. The bill passed; and Stephenson was appointed engineer, at a salary of £1,000 a year. The work involved the peculiar difficulty arising from Chat Moss, a bog four miles across. The engineer had no experience to guide him; public opinion predicted utter failure; "for weeks and weeks" he went on pouring materials into the insatiable bog without the least sign of being able to raise the solid embankment one single inch; his assistants were fast losing all hope; the directors began to speak of the task as impracticable; other engineers were consulted, and they reported unfavourably; a board meeting was called to consider whether the work should be abandoned; fortunately, the indomitable engine-wright of Killingworth never for one moment doubted the issue, and six months after that board meeting, he took a party of the directors' friends over the Moss by a locomotive, on their way to dine at Manchester. Kilsby Tunnel, less than a mile and a half in length, cost £350,000: the cost of the four miles over Chat Moss was £28,000.

When the line was approaching completion, it was necessary to determine what motive power should be employed upon it. To us, now, it must appear marvellous and almost astounding, that after the experience which has been explained, there should have existed the slightest doubt. There did exist the greatest doubt. Telford and the Rennies discountenanced the locomotive; and the directors, deluged with all sorts of plans, called in two professional engineers of high standing, Mr. Walker of Limehouse, and Mr. Rastrick of Stourbridge. These gentlemen examined the Northern railways, and then concurred in recommending the use of fixed engines in preference to locomotives. George Stephenson stood alone. a single professional man of any eminence countenanced him; but, firmer than the pillars of Staffa amid the swell of the Atlantic, he held fast his confidence; pointed out to the directors the prodigious disadvantages of working so long a line by fixed engines; challenged them to let him produce an engine for the purpose of trial, pledging himself that it should work heavy goods along the line with speed, regularity, and safety. Swayed by his resoluteness, they offered a prize of £500 for a locomotive which should best fulfil certain con

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ditions, be ready not later than October 1st, 1829, and not exceed £550 in price. The trial commenced on the 6th, and was not concluded till the 14th. Four engines started, one of them being the "Rocket" from Stephenson's manufactory at Newcastle. The other three, from different causes, failed. The "Rocket" drew its appointed load at an average speed of fifteen miles an hour, ten being the speed required; and when the prize had been adjudged, Stephenson ordered it to be brought out and disengaged from its load of twenty tons, and to the admiration, if not awe, of the spectators, it made two trips at the rate of thirty-five miles an hour. The shares of the company immediately rose ten per cent. The grand triumph of the age was won.

The sublime invention which is changing the aspect of the whole world, owes its existence, progress, and perfection entirely to voluntary effort, and chiefly to individual energy. Government, from first to last, did nothing to develope, but much to obstruct, an enterprise which might have seemed, beyond almost any other, to justify and require the interference of the state. So early as 1812, Stephenson produced his first engine, and remarked to his friends that "there was no limit to the speed of such an engine, if the works could be made to stand it." For the following seventeen years, instead of seeing the worth of this mighty instrument and fostering_the_invention, government had to be fought, and conquered or bribed, at every step. So late as 1825, Stephenson appeared before a committee of the House of Commons; told them that he had laid down or superintended six railways, improved three others, and constructed fifty-five engines, of which sixteen were locomotives; that his locomotives had been at work eleven years, and had exceeded his most sanguine expectations; that twenty tons might be drawn eight miles, and forty tons four miles an hour; that indeed he had no doubt they might go at the rate of twelve miles an hour; but the testimony of this man was overborne by the vague assertions of theorists, the babbling of conceited advocates, and the covetousness of senatorial landowners. The following year the bill was again brought forward, and after its promoters had expended £27,000, leave was granted, or rather extorted, to make a railroad from Liverpool to Manchester. During the progress of the works, application was made to government for monetary aid. Telford was consulted, and replied that he did not know whether either fixed engines or locomotives would answer, and though both had answered for fifteen years, the aid was refused. After the all-decisive experiment of 1829, the government was directing its attention to the improvement of the old