One of the most important subjects of discussion at these meetings with
Mr. Pease, was the establishment of a manufactory at Newcastle for the
building of locomotive engines.  Up to this time all the locomotives
constructed after Stephenson's designs, had been made by ordinary
mechanics working among the collieries in the North of England.  But he
had long felt that the accuracy and style of their workmanship admitted
of great improvement, and that upon this the more perfect action of the
locomotive engine, and its general adoption, in a great measure depended.
One great object that he had in view in establishing the proposed factory
was, to concentrate a number of good workmen, for the purpose of carrying
out the improvements in detail which he was constantly making in his
engine.  He felt hampered by the want of efficient help from skilled
mechanics, who could work out in a practical form the ideas of which his
busy mind was always so prolific.  Doubtless, too, he believed that the
manufactory would prove a remunerative investment, and that, on the
general adoption of the railway system which he anticipated, he would
derive solid advantages from the fact of his establishment being the only
one of the kind for the special construction of locomotive engines.

Mr. Pease approved of his design, and strongly recommended him to carry
it into effect.  But there was the question of means; and Stephenson did
not think he had capital enough for the purpose.  He told Mr. Pease that
he could advance 1000 pounds--the amount of the testimonial presented by
the coal-owners for his safety-lamp invention, which he had still left
untouched; but he did not think this sufficient for the purpose, and he
thought that he should require at least another 1000 pounds.  Mr. Pease
had been very much struck with the successful performances of the
Killingworth engine; and being an accurate judge of character, he
believed that he could not go far wrong in linking a portion of his
fortune with the energy and industry of George Stephenson.  He consulted
his friend Thomas Richardson in the matter; and the two consented to
advance 500 pounds each for the purpose of establishing the engine
factory at Newcastle.  A piece of land was accordingly purchased in Forth
Street, in August, 1823, on which a small building was erected--the
nucleus of the gigantic establishment which was afterwards formed around
it; and active operations were begun early in 1824.

While the Stockton and Darlington Railway works were in progress, our
engineer had many interesting discussions with Mr. Pease, on points
connected with its construction and working, the determination of which
in a great measure affected the formation and working of all future
railways.  The most important points were these:

1.  The comparative merits of cast and wrought iron rails.

2.  The gauge of the railway.

3.  The employment of horse or engine power in working it, when ready for
traffic.

The kind of rails to be laid down to form the permanent road was a matter
of considerable importance.  A wooden tramroad had been contemplated when
the first Act was applied for; but Stephenson having advised that an iron
road should be laid down, he was instructed to draw up a specification of
the rails.  He went before the directors to discuss with them the kind of
material to be specified.  He was himself interested in the patent for
cast-iron rails, which he had taken out in conjunction with Mr. Losh in
1816; and, of course, it was to his interest that his articles should be
used.  But when requested to give his opinion on the subject, he frankly
said to the directors, "Well, gentlemen, to tell you the truth, although
it would put 500 pounds in my pocket to specify my own patent rails, I
cannot do so after the experience I have had.  If you take my advice, you
will not lay down a single cast-iron rail."  "Why?" asked the directors.
"Because they will not stand the weight, and you will be at no end of
expense for repairs and relays."  "What kind of road, then," he was
asked, "would you recommend?"  "Malleable rails, certainly," said he;
"and I can recommend them with the more confidence from the fact that at
Killingworth we have had some Swedish bars laid down--nailed to wooden
sleepers--for a period of fourteen years, the waggons passing over them
daily; and there they are, in use yet, whereas the cast rails are
constantly giving way."

The price of malleable rails was, however, so high--being then worth
about 12 pounds per ton as compared with cast-iron rails at about 5
pounds 10s.--and the saving of expense was so important a consideration
with the subscribers, that Stephenson was directed to provide, in the
specification, that only one-half of the rails required--or about 800
tons--should be of malleable iron, and the remainder of cast-iron.  The
malleable rails were of the kind called "fish-bellied," and weighed 28
lbs. to the yard, being 2.25 inches broad at the top, with the upper
flange 0.75 inch thick.  They were only 2 inches in depth at the points
at which they rested on the chairs, and 3.25 inches in the middle or
bellied part.

When forming the road, the proper gauge had also to be determined.  What
width was this to be?  The gauge of the first tramroad laid down had
virtually settled the point.  The gauge of wheels of the common vehicles
of the country--of the carts and waggons employed on common roads, which
were first used on the tramroads--was about 4 feet 8.5 inches.  And so
the first tramroads were laid down of this gauge.  The tools and
machinery for constructing coal-waggons and locomotives were formed with
this gauge in view.  The Wylam waggon-way, afterwards the Wylam
plate-way, the Killingworth railroad, and the Hetton rail road, were as
nearly as possible on the same gauge.  Some of the earth-waggons used to
form the Stockton and Darlington road were brought from the Hetton
railway; and others which were specially constructed were formed of the
same dimensions, these being intended to be afterwards employed in the
working of the traffic.

As the period drew near for the opening of the line, the question of the
tractive power to be employed was anxiously discussed.  At the Brusselton
incline, fixed engines must necessarily be made use of; but with respect
to the mode of working the railway generally, it was decided that horses
were to be largely employed, and arrangements were made for their
purchase.  The influence of Mr. Pease also secured that a fair trial
should be given to the experiment of working the traffic by locomotive
power; and three engines were ordered from the firm of Stephenson and
Co., Newcastle, which were put in hand forthwith, in anticipation of the
opening of the railway.  These were constructed after Mr. Stephenson's
most matured designs, and embodied all the improvements which he had
contrived up to that time.  No. I. engine, the "Locomotion," which was
first delivered, weighed about eight tons.  It had one large flue or tube
through the boiler, by which the heated air passed direct from the
furnace at one end, lined with fire-bricks, to the chimney at the other.
The combustion in the furnace was quickened by the adoption of the
steam-blast in the chimney.  The heat raised was sometimes so great, and
it was so imperfectly abstracted by the surrounding water, that the
chimney became almost red-hot.  Such engines, when put to their speed,
were found capable of running at the rate of from twelve to sixteen miles
an hour; but they were better adapted for the heavy work of hauling
coal-trains at low speeds--for which, indeed, they were specially
constructed--than for running at the higher speeds afterwards adopted.
Nor was it contemplated by the directors as possible, at the time when
they were ordered, that locomotives could be made available for the
purposes of passenger travelling.  Besides, the Stockton and Darlington
Railway did not run through a district in which passengers were supposed
to be likely to constitute any considerable portion of the traffic.

We may easily imagine the anxiety felt by Mr. Stephenson during the
progress of the works towards completion, and his mingled hopes and
doubts (though his doubts were but few) as to the issue of this great
experiment.  When the formation of the line near Stockton was well
advanced, Mr. Stephenson one day, accompanied by his son Robert and John
Dixon, made a journey of inspection of the works.  The party reached
Stockton, and proceeded to dine at one of the inns there.  After dinner,
Stephenson ventured on the very unusual measure of ordering in a bottle
of wine, to drink success to the railway.  John Dixon relates with pride
the utterance of the master on the occasion.  "Now, lads," said he to the
two young men, "I venture to tell you that I think you will live to see
the day when railways will 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 upon a railway than to walk on foot.  I know there are great
and almost insurmountable difficulties to be encountered; but what I have
said will come to pass as sure as you 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 thus far adopted, notwithstanding my more than ten years'
successful experiment at Killingworth."  The result, however, outstripped
even the most sanguine anticipations of Stephenson; and his son Robert,
shortly after his return from America in 1827, saw his father's
locomotive generally employed as the tractive power on railways.

The Stockton and Darlington line was opened for traffic on the 27th
September, 1825.  An immense concourse of people assembled from all parts
to witness the ceremony of opening this first public railway.  The
powerful opposition which the project had encountered, the threats which
were still uttered against the company by the road-trustees and others,
who declared that they would yet prevent the line being worked, and
perhaps the general unbelief as to its success which still prevailed,
tended to excite the curiosity of the public as to the result.  Some went
to rejoice at the opening, some to see the "bubble burst;" and there were
many prophets of evil who would not miss the blowing up of the boasted
travelling engine.  The opening was, however, auspicious.  The
proceedings commenced at Brusselton Incline, about nine miles above
Darlington, where the fixed engine drew a train of loaded waggons up the
incline from the west, and lowered them on the east side.  At the foot of
the incline a locomotive was in readiness to receive them, Stephenson
himself driving the engine.  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 local
chronicler of the day almost went beside himself in describing the
extraordinary event:--"The signal being given," he says, "the engine
started off with this immense train of carriages; and such was its
velocity, that in some parts the speed was frequently 12 miles an hour!"
By the time it reached Stockton there were about 600 persons in the train
or hanging on to the waggons, which must have gone at a safe and steady
pace of from four to six miles an hour from Darlington.  "The arrival at
Stockton," it is added, "excited a deep interest and admiration."

The working of the line then commenced, and the results were such as to
surprise even the most sanguine of its projectors.  The traffic upon
which they had formed their estimates of profit proved to be small in
comparison with that which flowed in upon them which they had never
dreamt of.  Thus, what the company had principally relied upon for their
receipts was the carriage of coals for land sale at the stations along
the line, whereas the haulage of coals to the seaports for exportation to
the London market was not contemplated as possible.  When the bill was
before Parliament, Mr. Lambton (afterwards Earl of Durham) succeeded in
getting a clause inserted, limiting the charge for the haulage of all
coal to Stockton-on-Tees for the purpose of shipment to 0.5d. per ton per
mile; whereas a rate of 4d. per ton was allowed to be taken for all coals
led upon the railway for land sale.  Mr. Lambton's object in enforcing
the low rate of 0.5d. was to protect his own trade in coal exported from
Sunderland and the northern ports.  He believed, in common with everybody
else, that the 0.5d. rate would effectually secure him against
competition on the part of the Company; for it was not considered
possible to lead coals at that price, and the proprietors of the railway
themselves considered that such a rate would be utterly ruinous.  The
projectors never contemplated sending more than 10,000 tons a year to
Stockton, and those only for shipment as ballast; they looked for their
profits almost exclusively to the land sale.  The result, however, was as
surprising to them as it must have been to Mr. Lambton.  The 0.5d. rate
which was forced upon them, instead of being ruinous, proved the vital
element in the success of the railway.  In the course of a few years, the
annual shipment of coal, led by the Stockton and Darlington Railway to
Stockton and Middlesborough, was more than 500,000 tons; and it has since
far exceeded this amount.  Instead of being, as anticipated, a
subordinate branch of traffic, it proved, in fact, the main traffic,
while the land sale was merely subsidiary.

The anticipations of the company as to passenger traffic were in like
manner more than realised.  At first, passengers were not thought of; and
it was only while the works were in progress that the starting of a
passenger coach was seriously contemplated.  The number of persons
travelling between the two towns was very small; and it was not known
whether these would risk their persons upon the iron road.  It was
determined, however, to make trial of a railway coach; and Mr. Stephenson
was authorised to have one built at Newcastle, at the cost of the
company.  This was done accordingly; and the first railway passenger
carriage was built after our engineer's design.  It was, however, a very
modest, and indeed a somewhat uncouth machine, more resembling the
caravans still to be seen at country fairs containing the "Giant and the
Dwarf" and other wonders of the world, than a passenger-coach of any
extant form.  A row of seats ran along each side of the interior, and a
long deal table was fixed in the centre; the access being by means of a
door at the back end, in the manner of an omnibus.

                    [Picture: The First Railway Coach]

This coach arrived from Newcastle the day before the opening, and formed
part of the railway procession above described.  Mr. Stephenson was
consulted as to the name of the coach, and he at once suggested "The
Experiment;" and by this name it was called.  The Company's arms were
afterwards painted on her side, with the motto "Periculum privatum
utilitas publica."  Such was the sole passenger-carrying stock of the
Stockton and Darlington Company in the year 1825.  But the "Experiment"
proved the forerunner of a mighty traffic: and long time did not elapse
before it was displaced, not only by improved coaches (still drawn by
horses), but afterwards by long trains of passenger-carriages drawn by
locomotive engines.

"The Experiment" was fairly started as a passenger-coach on the 10th
October, 1825, a fortnight after the opening of the line.  It was drawn
by one horse, and performed a journey daily each way between the two
towns, accomplishing the distance of twelve miles in about two hours.
The fare charged was a shilling without distinction of class; and each
passenger was allowed fourteen pounds of luggage free.  "The Experiment"
was not, however, worked by the company, but was let to contractors who
worked it under an arrangement whereby toll was paid for the use of the
line, rent of booking-cabins, etc.

The speculation answered so well, that several private coaching companies
were shortly after got up by innkeepers at Darlington and Stockton, for
the purpose of running other coaches upon the railroad; and an active
competition for passenger traffic sprang up.  "The Experiment" being
found too heavy for one horse to draw, besides being found an
uncomfortable machine, was banished to the coal district.  Its place was
then supplied by other and better vehicles,--though they were no other
than old stage-coach bodies purchased by the company, and each mounted
upon an underframe with flange-wheels.  These were let on hire to the
coaching companies, who horsed and managed them under an arrangement as
to tolls, in like manner as the "Experiment" had been worked.  Now began
the distinction of inside and outside passengers, equivalent to first and
second class, paying different fares.  The competition with each other
upon the railway, and with the ordinary stagecoaches upon the road, soon
brought up the speed, which was increased to ten miles an hour--the
mail-coach rate of travelling in those days, and considered very fast.

Mr. Clephan, a native of the district, has described some of the curious
features of the competition between the rival coach companies:--"There
were two separate coach companies in Stockton, and amusing collisions
sometimes occurred between the drivers--who found on the rail a novel
element for contention.  Coaches cannot pass each other on the rail as on
the road; and, as the line was single, with four sidings in the mile,
when two coaches met, or two trains, or coach and train, the question
arose which of the drivers must go back?  This was not always settled in
silence.  As to trains, it came to be a sort of understanding that empty
should give way to loaded waggons; and as to trains and coaches, that the
passengers should have preference over coals; while coaches, when they
met, must quarrel it out.  At length, midway between sidings, a post was
erected, and a rule was laid down that he who had passed the pillar must
go on, and the 'coming man' go back.  At the Goose Pool and Early Nook,
it was common for these coaches to stop; and there, as Jonathan would
say, passengers and coachmen 'liquored.'  One coach, introduced by an
innkeeper, was a compound of two mourning-coaches,--an approximation to
the real railway-coach, which still adheres, with multiplying exceptions,
to the stage-coach type.  One Dixon, who drove the 'Experiment' between
Darlington and Shildon, is the inventor of carriage-lighting on the rail.
On a dark winter night, having compassion on his passengers, he would buy
a penny candle, and place it lighted amongst them on the table of the
'Experiment'--the first railway-coach (which, by the way, ended its days
at Shildon as a railway cabin), being also the first coach on the rail
(first, second, and third class jammed all into one) that indulged its
customers with light in darkness."

The traffic of all sorts increased so steadily and so rapidly that
considerable difficulty was experienced in working it satisfactorily.  It
had been provided by the first Stockton and Darlington Act that the line
should be free to all parties who chose to use it at certain prescribed
rates, and that any person might put horses and waggons on the railway,
and carry for himself.  But this arrangement led to increasing confusion
and difficulty, and could not continue in the face of a large and
rapidly-increasing traffic.  The goods trains got so long that the
carriers found it necessary to call in the aid of the locomotive engine
to help them on their way.  Then mixed trains of passengers and
merchandise began to run; and the result was that the railway company
found it necessary to take the entire charge and working of the traffic.
In course of time new coaches were specially built for the better
accommodation of the public, until at length regular passenger-trains
were run, drawn by the locomotive engine,--though this was not until
after the Liverpool and Manchester Company had established this as a
distinct branch of their traffic.

                [Picture: The No. I. Engine at Darlington]

The three Stephenson locomotives were from the first regularly employed
to work the coal trains; and their proved efficiency for this purpose led
to the gradual increase of the locomotive power.  The speed of the
engines--slow though it seems now--was in those days regarded as
something marvellous.  A race actually came off between No. I. engine,
the "Locomotion," and one of the stage-coaches travelling from Darlington
to Stockton by the ordinary road; and it was regarded as a great triumph
of mechanical skill that the locomotive reached Stockton first, beating
the stage-coach by about a hundred yards!  The same engine continued in
good working order in the year 1846, when it headed the railway
procession on the opening of the Middlesborough and Redcar Railway,
travelling at the rate of about fourteen miles an hour.  This engine, the
first that travelled upon the first public railway, has recently been
placed upon a pedestal in front of the railway station at Darlington.

For some years, however, the principal haulage of the line was performed
by horses.  The inclination of the gradients being towards the sea, this
was perhaps the cheapest mode of traction, so long as the traffic was not
very large.  The horse drew the train along the level road, until, on
reaching a descending gradient, down which the train ran by its own
gravity, the animal was unharnessed, and, when loose, he wheeled round to
the other end of the waggons, to which a "dandy-cart" was attached, its
bottom being only a few inches from the rail.  Bringing his step into
unison with the speed of the train, the horse learnt to leap nimbly into
his place in this waggon, which was usually fitted with a well-filled
hay-rack.

The details of the working were gradually perfected by experience, the
projectors of the line being scarcely conscious at first of the
importance and significance of the work which they had taken in hand, and
little thinking that they were laying the foundations of a system which
was yet to revolutionise the internal communications of the world, and
confer the greatest blessings on mankind.  It is important to note that
the commercial results of the enterprise were considered satisfactory
from the opening of the railway.  Besides conferring a great public
benefit upon the inhabitants of the district and throwing open entirely
new markets for coal, the profits derived from the traffic created by the
railway yielded increasing dividends to those who had risked their
capital in the undertaking, and thus held forth an encouragement to the
projectors of railways generally, which was not without an important
effect in stimulating the projection of similar enterprises in other
districts.  These results, as displayed in the annual dividends, must
have been eminently encouraging to the astute commercial men of Liverpool
and Manchester, who were then engaged in the prosecution of their
railway.  Indeed, the commercial success of the Stockton and Darlington
Company may be justly characterised as the turning-point of the railway
system.

Before leaving this subject, we cannot avoid alluding to one of its most
remarkable and direct results--the creation of the town of
Middlesborough-on-Tees.  When the railway was opened in 1825, the site of
this future metropolis of Cleveland was occupied by one solitary
farmhouse and its outbuildings.  All round was pasture-land or mud-banks;
scarcely another house was within sight.  In 1829 some of the principal
proprietors of the railway joined in the purchase of about 500 or 600
acres of land five miles below Stockton--the site of the modern
Middlesborough--for the purpose of there forming a new seaport for the
shipment of coals brought to the Tees by the railway.  The line was
accordingly extended thither; docks were excavated; a town sprang up;
churches, chapels, and schools were built, with a custom-house,
mechanics' institute, banks, shipbuilding yards, and iron-factories.  In
ten years a busy population of some 6000 persons (since increased to
about 23,000) occupied the site of the original farmhouse. {144}  More
recently, the discovery of vast stores of ironstone in the Cleveland
Hills, closely adjoining Middlesborough, has tended still more rapidly to
augment the population and increase the commercial importance of the
place.

It is pleasing to relate, in connexion with this great work--the Stockton
and Darlington Railway, projected by Edward Pease and executed by George
Stephenson--that when Mr. Stephenson became a prosperous and a celebrated
man, he did not forget the friend who had taken him by the hand, and
helped him on in his early days.  He continued to remember Mr. Pease with
gratitude and affection, and that gentleman, to the close of his life,
was proud to exhibit a handsome gold watch, received as a gift from his
celebrated _protege_, bearing these words;--"Esteem and gratitude: from
George Stephenson to Edward Pease."

                    [Picture: Middlesborough-on-Tees]




CHAPTER IX.
THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY PROJECTED.


The rapid growth of the trade and manufactures of South Lancashire gave
rise, about the year 1821, to the project of a tramroad for the
conveyance of goods between Liverpool and Manchester.  Since the
construction of the Bridgewater Canal by Brindley, some fifty years
before, the increase in the business transacted between the two towns had
become quite marvellous.  The steam-engine, the spinning-jenny, and the
canal, working together, had accumulated in one focus a vast aggregate of
population, manufactures, and trade.

Such was the expansion of business caused by the inventions to which we
have referred, that the navigation was found altogether inadequate to
accommodate the traffic, which completely outgrew all the Canal
Companies' appliances of wharves, boats, and horses.  Cotton lay at
Liverpool for weeks together, waiting to be removed; and it occupied a
longer time to transport the cargoes from Liverpool to Manchester than it
had done to bring them across the Atlantic from the United States to
England.  Carts and waggons were tried, but proved altogether
insufficient.  Sometimes manufacturing operations had to be suspended
altogether, and during a frost, when the canals were frozen up, the
communication was entirely stopped.  The consequences were often
disastrous, alike to operatives, merchants, and manufacturers.

Expostulation with the Canal Companies was of no use.  They were
overcrowded with business at their own prices, and disposed to be very
dictatorial.  When the Duke first constructed his canal, he had to
encounter the fierce opposition of the Irwell and Mersey Navigation,
whose monopoly his new line of water conveyance threatened to interfere
with. {147}  But the innovation of one generation often becomes the
obstruction of the next.  The Duke's agents would scarcely listen to the
remonstrances of the Liverpool merchants and Manchester manufacturers,
and the Bridgewater Canal was accordingly, in its turn, denounced as a
monopoly.

Under these circumstances, any new mode of transit between the two towns
which offered a reasonable prospect of relief was certain to receive a
cordial welcome.  The scheme of a tramroad was, however, so new and
comparatively untried, that it is not surprising that the parties
interested should have hesitated before committing themselves to it.  Mr.
Sandars, a Liverpool merchant, was amongst the first to broach the
subject.  He had suffered in his business, in common with many others,
from the insufficiency of the existing modes of communication, and was
ready to give consideration to any plan presenting elements of practical
efficiency which proposed a remedy for the generally admitted grievance.
Having caused inquiry to be made as to the success which had attended the
haulage of heavy coal-trains by locomotive power on the northern
railways, he was led to the opinion that the same means might be equally
efficient in conducting the increasing traffic in merchandise between
Liverpool and Manchester.  He ventilated the subject amongst his friends,
and about the beginning of 1821 a committee was formed for the purpose of
bringing the scheme of a railroad before the public.

The novel project having become noised abroad, attracted the attention of
the friends of railways in other quarters.  Tramroads were by no means
new expedients for the transit of heavy articles.  The Croydon and
Wandsworth Railway, laid down by William Jessop as early as the year
1801, had been regularly used for the conveyance of lime and stone in
waggons hauled by mules or donkeys from Merstham to London.  The sight of
this humble railroad in 1813 led Sir Richard Phillips in his 'Morning
Walk to Kew' to anticipate the great advantages which would be derived by
the nation from the general adoption of Blenkinsop's engine for the
conveyance of mails and passengers at ten or even fifteen miles an hour.
In the same year we find Mr. Lovell Edgworth, who had for fifty years
been advocating the superiority of tram or rail roads over common roads,
writing to James Watt (7th August, 1813): "I have always thought that
steam would become the universal lord, and that we should in time scorn
post-horses; an iron railroad would be a cheaper thing than a road upon
the common construction."

Thomas Gray, of Nottingham, was another speculator on the same subject.
Though he was no mechanic nor inventor, he had an enthusiastic belief in
the powers of the railroad system.  Being a native of Leeds, he had, when
a boy, seen Blenkinsop's locomotive at work on the Middleton cogged
railroad, and from an early period he seems to have entertained almost as
sanguine views on the subject as Sir Richard Phillips.  It would appear
that Gray was residing in Brussels in 1816, when the project of a canal
from Charleroi, for the purpose of connecting Holland with the mining
districts of Belgium, was the subject of discussion; and, in conversation
with Mr. John Cockerill and others, he took the opportunity of advocating
the superior advantages of a railway.  He was absorbed for some time with
the preparation of a pamphlet on the subject.  He shut himself up,
secluded from his wife and relations, declining to give them any
information as to his mysterious studies, beyond the assurance that his
scheme "would revolutionise the whole face of the material world and of
society."  In 1820 Mr. Gray published the result of his studies in his
'Observations on a General Iron Railway,' in which, with great cogency,
he urged the superiority of a locomotive railway over common roads and
canals, pointing out, at the same time, the advantages to all classes of
the community of this mode of conveyance for merchandise and persons.  In
this book Mr. Gray suggested a railway between Manchester and Liverpool,
"which," he observed, "would employ many thousands of the distressed
population of Lancashire."  The treatise must have met with a ready sale,
as we find that two years later it had passed into a fourth edition.  In
1822 Mr. Gray added diagrams to the book, showing, in one, suggested
lines of railway connecting the principal towns of England, and in
another, the principal towns of Ireland.

These speculations show that the subject of railways was gradually
becoming familiar to the public mind, and that thoughtful men were
anticipating with confidence the adoption of steam-power for the purposes
of railway traction.  At the same time, a still more profitable class of
labourers was at work--first, men like Stephenson, who were engaged in
improving the locomotive and making it a practicable and economical
working power; and next, those like Edward Pease of Darlington, and
Joseph Sandars of Liverpool, who were organising the means of laying down
the railways.  Mr. William James, of West Bromwich, belonged to the
active class of projectors.  He was a man of considerable social
influence, of an active temperament, and had from an early period taken a
warm interest in the formation of tramroads.  Acting as land-agent for
gentlemen of property in the mining districts, he had laid down several
tramroads in the neighbourhood of Birmingham, Gloucester, and Bristol;
and he published many pamphlets urging their formation in other places.
At one period of his life he was a large iron-manufacturer.  The times,
however, went against him.  It was thought he was too bold, some
considered him even reckless, in his speculations; and he lost almost his
entire fortune.  He continued to follow the business of a land-agent, and
it was while engaged in making a survey for one of his clients in the
neighbourhood of Liverpool early in 1821, that he first heard of the
project of a railway between that town and Manchester.  He at once called
upon Mr. Sandars, and offered his services as surveyor of the proposed
line, and his offer was accepted.

   [Picture: Map of Liverpool and Manchester Railway.  (Western Part.)]

   [Picture: Map of Liverpool and Manchester Railway.  (Eastern Part.)]

A trial survey was then begun, but it was conducted with great
difficulty, the inhabitants of the district entertaining the most violent
prejudices against the scheme. In some places Mr. James and his surveying
party even encountered personal violence. The farmers stationed men at
the field-gates with pitchforks, and sometimes with guns, to drive them
back. At St. Helen's, one of the chainmen was laid hold of by a mob of
colliers, and threatened to be hurled down a coal-pit. A number of men,
women, and children, collected and ran after the surveyors wherever they
made their appearance, bawling nicknames and throwing stones at them. As
one of the chainmen was climbing over a gate one day, a labourer made at
him with a pitchfork, and ran it through his clothes into his back; other
watchers running up, the chainman, who was more stunned than hurt, took
to his heels and fled. But that mysterious-looking instrument---the
theodolite---most excited the fury of the natives, who concentrated on
the man who carried it their fiercest execrations and most offensive
nicknames.

A powerful fellow, a noted bruiser, was hired by the surveyors to carry
the instrument, with a view to its protection against all assailants; but
one day an equally powerful fellow, a St. Helen's collier, cock of the
walk in his neighbourhood, made up to the theodolite bearer to wrest it
from him by sheer force.  A battle took place, the collier was soundly
pummelled, but the natives poured in volleys of stones upon the surveyors
and their instruments, and the theodolite was smashed to pieces.

An outline-survey having at length been made, notices were published of
an intended application to Parliament.  In the mean time Mr. James
proceeded to Killingworth to see Stephenson's locomotives at work.
Stephenson was not at home at the time, but James saw his engines, and
was very much struck by their power and efficiency.  He saw at a glance
the magnificent uses to which the locomotive might be applied.  "Here,"
said he, "is an engine that will, before long, effect a complete
revolution in society."  Returning to Moreton-in-the-Marsh, he wrote to
Mr. Losh (Stephenson's partner in the patent) expressing his admiration
of the Killingworth engine.  "It is," said he, "the greatest wonder of
the age, and the forerunner, as I firmly believe, of the most important
changes in the internal communications of the kingdom."  Shortly after,
Mr. James, accompanied by his two sons, made a second journey to
Killingworth, where he met both Losh and Stephenson.  The visitors were
at once taken to where the locomotive was working, and invited to mount
it.  The uncouth and extraordinary appearance of the machine, as it came
snorting along, was somewhat alarming to the youths, who expressed their
fears lest it should burst; and they were with some difficulty induced to
mount.

The engine went through its usual performances, dragging a heavy load of
coal-waggons at about six miles an hour, with apparent ease, at which Mr.
James expressed his extreme satisfaction, and declared to Mr. Losh his
opinion that Stephenson "was the greatest practical genius of the age,"
and that, "if he developed the full powers of that engine (the
locomotive), his fame in the world would rank equal with that of Watt."
Mr. James informed Stephenson and Losh of his survey of the proposed
tramroad between Liverpool and Manchester, and did not hesitate to state
that he would thenceforward advocate the construction of a locomotive
railroad instead of the tramroad which had originally been proposed.

Stephenson and Losh were naturally desirous of enlisting James's good
services on behalf of their patent locomotive, for as yet it had proved
comparatively unproductive.  They believed that he might be able so to
advocate it in influential quarters as to ensure its more extensive
adoption, and with this object they proposed to give him an interest in
the patent.  Accordingly they assigned him one-fourth of any profits
which might be derived from the use of the patent locomotive on any
railways constructed south of a line drawn across England from Liverpool
to Hull.  The arrangement, however, led to no beneficial results.  Mr.
James endeavoured to introduce the engine on the Moreton-on-Marsh
Railway; but it was opposed by the engineer of the line, and the attempt
failed.  He next urged that a locomotive should be sent for trial upon
the Merstham tramroad; but, anxious though Stephenson was respecting its
extended employment, he was too cautious to risk an experiment which
might only bring discredit upon the engine; and the Merstham road being
only laid with cast-iron plates, which would not bear its weight, the
invitation was declined.

It turned out that the first survey of the Liverpool and Manchester line
was very imperfect, and it was determined to have a second and more
complete one made in the following year.  Robert Stephenson was sent over
by his father to Liverpool to assist in this survey.  He was present with
Mr. James on the occasion on which he tried to lay out the line across
Chat Moss,--a proceeding which was not only difficult but dangerous.  The
Moss was very wet at the time, and only its edges could be ventured on.
Mr. James was a heavy, thick-set man; and one day, when endeavouring to
obtain a stand for his theodolite, he felt himself suddenly sinking.  He
immediately threw himself down, and rolled over and over until he reached
firm ground again, in a sad mess.  Other attempts which he subsequently
made to enter upon the Moss for the same purpose, were abandoned for the
same reason--the want of a solid stand for the theodolite.

On the 4th October, 1822, we find Mr. James writing to Mr. Sandars, "I
came last night to send my aid, Robert Stephenson, to his father, and
to-morrow I shall pay off Evans and Hamilton, two other assistants.  I
have now only Messrs. Padley and Clarke to finish the copy of plans for
Parliament, which will be done in about a week or nine days' time."  It
would appear however, that, notwithstanding all his exertions, Mr. James
was unable to complete his plans and estimates in time for the ensuing
Session; and another year was thus lost.  The Railroad Committee became
impatient at the delay.  Mr. James's financial embarrassments reached
their climax; and, what with illness and debt, he was no longer in a
position to fulfil his promises to the Committee.  They were, therefore,
under the necessity of calling to their aid some other engineer.

Mr. Sandars had by this time visited George Stephenson at Killingworth,
and, like all who came within reach of his personal influence, was
charmed with him at first sight.  The energy which he had displayed in
carrying on the works of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, now
approaching completion; his readiness to face difficulties, and his
practical ability in overcoming them; the enthusiasm which he displayed
on the subject of railways and railway locomotion,--concurred in
satisfying Mr. Sandars that he was, of all men, the best calculated to
help forward the Liverpool undertaking at this juncture.  On his return
he stated this opinion to the Committee, who approved his recommendation,
and George Stephenson was unanimously appointed engineer of the projected
railway.

It will be observed that Mr. Sandars had held to his original purpose
with great determination and perseverance, and he gradually succeeded in
enlisting on his side an increasing number of influential merchants and
manufacturers both at Liverpool and Manchester.  Early in 1824 he
published a pamphlet, in which he strongly urged the great losses and
interruptions to the trade of the district by the delays in the
forwarding of merchandise; and in the same year he had a Public
Declaration drawn up, and signed by upwards of 150 of the principal
merchants of Liverpool, setting forth that they considered "the present
establishments for the transport of goods quite inadequate, and that a
new line of conveyance has become absolutely necessary to conduct the
increasing trade of the country with speed, certainty, and economy."

A public meeting was then held to consider the best plan to be adopted,
and resolutions were passed in favour of a railroad.  A committee was
appointed to take the necessary measures; but, as if reluctant to enter
upon their arduous struggle with the "vested interests," they first
waited on Mr. Bradshaw, the Duke of Bridgewater's canal agent, in the
hope of persuading him to increase the means of conveyance, as well as to
reduce the charges; but they were met by an unqualified refusal.  They
suggested the expediency of a railway, and invited Mr. Bradshaw to become
a proprietor of shares in it.  But his reply was--"All or none!"  The
canal proprietors, confident in their imagined security, ridiculed the
proposed railway as a chimera.  It had been spoken about years before,
and nothing had come of it then: it would be the same now.

In order to form a better opinion as to the practicability of the
railroad, a deputation of gentlemen interested in the project proceeded
to Killingworth, to inspect the engines which had been so long in use
there.  They first went to Darlington, where they found the works of the
Stockton line in progress, though still unfinished.  Proceeding next to
Killingworth with Mr. Stephenson, they there witnessed the performances
of his locomotive engines.  The result of their visit was, on the whole,
so satisfactory, that on their report being delivered to the committee at
Liverpool, it was finally determined to form a company of proprietors for
the construction of a double line of railway between Liverpool and
Manchester.

The first prospectus of the scheme was dated the 29th October, 1824, and
had attached to it the names of the leading merchants of Liverpool and
Manchester.  It was a modest document, very unlike the inflated balloons
which were sent up by railway speculators in succeeding years.  It set
forth as its main object the establishment of a safe and cheap mode of
transit for merchandise, by which the conveyance of goods between the two
towns would be effected in 5 or 6 hours (instead of 36 hours by the
canal), whilst the charges would be reduced one-third.  On looking at the
prospectus now, it is curious to note that, while the advantages
anticipated from the carriage of merchandise were strongly insisted upon,
the conveyance of passengers--which proved to be the chief source of
profit--was only very cautiously referred to.  "As a cheap and
expeditious means of conveyance for travellers," says the prospectus in
conclusion, "the railway holds out the fair prospect of a public
accommodation, the magnitude and importance of which cannot be
immediately ascertained."  The estimated expense of forming the line was
set down at 400,000 pounds,--a sum which was eventually found quite
inadequate.  The subscription list when opened was filled up without
difficulty.

While the project was still under discussion, its promoters, desirous of
removing the doubts which existed as to the employment of steam power on
the proposed railway, sent a second deputation to Killingworth for the
purpose of again observing the action of Stephenson's engines.  The
cautious projectors of the railway were not yet quite satisfied; and a
third journey was made to Killingworth, in January, 1825, by several
gentlemen of the committee, accompanied by practical engineers, for the
purpose of being personal eye-witnesses of what steam-carriages were able
to perform upon a railway.  There they saw a train, consisting of a
locomotive and loaded waggons, weighing in all 54 tons, travelling at the
average rate of about 7 miles an hour, the greatest speed being about 9.5
miles an hour.  But when the engine was run with only one waggon attached
containing twenty gentlemen, five of whom were engineers, the speed
attained was from 10 to 12 miles an hour.

In the mean time the survey was proceeded with, in the face of great
opposition from the proprietors of the lands through which the railway
was intended to pass.  The prejudices of the farming and labouring
classes were strongly excited against the persons employed upon the
ground, and it was with the greatest difficulty that the levels could be
taken.  At one place, Stephenson was driven off the ground by the
keepers, and threatened to be ducked in the pond if found there again.
The farmers also turned out their men to watch the surveying party, and
prevent them entering upon any lands where they had the power of driving
them off.

One of the proprietors declared that he would order his game-keepers to
shoot or apprehend any persons attempting a survey over his property.
But one moonlight night a survey was obtained by the following ruse.
Some men, under the orders of the surveying party, were set to fire off
guns in a particular quarter; on which all the game-keepers on the watch
made off in that direction, and they were drawn away to such a distance
in pursuit of the supposed poachers, as to enable a rapid survey to be
made during their absence.

When the canal companies found that the Liverpool merchants were
determined to proceed with their scheme--that they had completed their
survey, and were ready to apply to Parliament for an Act to enable them
to form the railway--they at last reluctantly, and with a bad grace, made
overtures of conciliation.  They promised to employ steam-vessels both on
the Mersey and on the Canal.  One of the companies offered to reduce its
length by three miles, at a considerable outlay.  At the same time they
made a show of lowering their rates.  But it was too late; for the
project of the railway had now gone so far that the promoters (who might
have been conciliated by such overtures at an earlier period) felt they
were fully committed to it, and that now they could not well draw back.
Besides, the remedies offered by the canal companies could only have had
the effect of staving off the difficulty for a brief season,--the
absolute necessity of forming a new line of communication between
Liverpool and Manchester becoming more urgent from year to year.
Arrangements were therefore made for proceeding with the bill in the
parliamentary session of 1825.

On this becoming known, the canal companies prepared to resist the
measure tooth and nail.  The public were appealed to on the subject;
pamphlets were written and newspapers were hired to revile the railway.
It was declared that its formation would prevent cows grazing and hens
laying.  The poisoned air from the locomotives would kill birds as they
flew over them, and render the preservation of pheasants and foxes no
longer possible.  Householders adjoining the projected line were told
that their houses would be burnt up by the fire thrown from the
engine-chimneys; while the air around would be polluted by clouds of
smoke.  There would no longer be any use for horses; and if railways
extended, the species would become extinguished, and oats and hay be
rendered unsaleable commodities.  Travelling by rail would be highly
dangerous, and country inns would be ruined.  Boilers would burst and
blow passengers to atoms.  But there was always this consolation to wind
up with--that the weight of the locomotive would completely prevent its
moving, and that railways, even if made, could _never_ be worked by
steam-power.

Indeed, when Mr. Stephenson, at the interviews with counsel, held
previous to the Liverpool and Manchester bill going into Committee of the
House of Commons, confidently stated his expectation of being able to
impel his locomotive at the rate of 20 miles an hour, Mr. William
Brougham, who was retained by the promoters to conduct their case,
frankly told him that if he did not moderate his views, and bring his
engine within a _reasonable_ speed, he would "inevitably damn the whole
thing, and be himself regarded as a maniac fit only for Bedlam."

The idea thrown out by Stephenson, of travelling at a rate of speed
double that of the fastest mail-coach, appeared at the time so
preposterous that he was unable to find any engineer who would risk his
reputation in supporting such "absurd views."  Speaking of his isolation
at the time, he subsequently observed, at a public meeting of railway men
in Manchester: "He remembered the time when he had very few supporters in
bringing out the railway system--when he sought England over for an
engineer to support him in his evidence before Parliament, and could find
only one man, James Walker, but was afraid to call that gentleman,
because he knew nothing about railways.  He had then no one to tell his
tale to but Mr. Sandars, of Liverpool, who did listen to him, and kept
his spirits up; and his schemes had at length been carried out only by
dint of sheer perseverance."