George Stephenson's idea was at that time regarded as but the dream of a
chimerical projector.  It stood before the public friendless, struggling
hard to gain a footing, scarcely daring to lift itself into notice for
fear of ridicule.  The civil engineers generally rejected the notion of a
Locomotive Railway; and when no leading man of the day could be found to
stand forward in support of the Killingworth mechanic, its chances of
success must indeed have been pronounced but small.

When such was the hostility of the civil engineers, no wonder the
reviewers were puzzled.  The 'Quarterly,' in an able article in support
of the projected Liverpool and Manchester Railway,--while admitting its
absolute necessity, and insisting that there was no choice left but a
railroad, on which the journey between Liverpool and Manchester, whether
performed by horses or engines, would always be accomplished "within the
day,"--nevertheless scouted the idea of travelling at a greater speed
than eight or nine miles an hour.  Adverting to a project for forming a
railway to Woolwich, by which passengers were to be drawn by locomotive
engines, moving with twice the velocity of ordinary coaches, the reviewer
observed:--"What can be more palpably absurd and ridiculous than the
prospect held out of locomotives travelling _twice as fast_ as
stagecoaches!  We would as soon expect the people of Woolwich to suffer
themselves to be fired off upon one of Congreve's ricochet rockets, as
trust themselves to the mercy of such a machine going at such a rate.  We
will back old Father Thames against the Woolwich Railway for any sum.  We
trust that Parliament will, in all railways it may sanction, limit the
speed to _eight or nine miles an hour_, which we entirely agree with Mr.
Sylvester is as great as can be ventured on with safety."

At length the survey was completed, the plans were deposited, the
requisite preliminary arrangements were made, and the promoters of the
scheme applied to Parliament for the necessary powers to construct the
railway.  The Bill went into Committee of the Commons on the 21st of
March, 1825.  There was an extraordinary array of legal talent on the
occasion, but especially on the side of the opponents to the measure;
their counsel including Mr. (afterwards Baron) Alderson, Mr. (afterwards
Baron) Parke, Mr. Harrison, and Mr. Erle.  The counsel for the bill were
Mr. Adam, Mr. Serjeant Spankie, Mr. William Brougham, and Mr. Joy.

Evidence was taken at great length as to the difficulties and delays in
forwarding raw material of all kinds from Liverpool to Manchester, as
also in the conveyance of manufactured goods from Manchester to
Liverpool.  The evidence adduced in support of the bill on these grounds
was overwhelming.  The utter inadequacy of the existing modes of
conveyance to carry on satisfactorily the large and rapidly-growing trade
between the two towns was fully proved.  But then came the gist of the
promoter's case--the evidence to prove the practicability of a railroad
to be worked by locomotive power.  Mr. Adam, in his opening speech,
referred to the cases of the Hetton and the Killingworth railroads, where
heavy goods were safely and economically transported by means of
locomotive engines.  "None of the tremendous consequences," he observed,
"have ensued from the use of steam in land carriage that have been
stated.  The horses have not started, nor the cows ceased to give their
milk, nor have ladies miscarried at the sight of these things going
forward at the rate of four miles and a half an hour."  Notwithstanding
the petition of two ladies alleging the great danger to be apprehended
from the bursting of the locomotive boilers, he urged the safety of the
high-pressure engine when the boilers were constructed of wrought-iron;
and as to the rate at which they could travel, he expressed his full
conviction that such engines "could supply force to drive a carriage at
the rate of five or six miles an hour."

The taking of the evidence as to the impediments thrown in the way of
trade and commerce by the existing system extended over a month, and it
was the 21st of April before the Committee went into the engineering
evidence, which was the vital part of the question.

On the 25th George Stephenson was called into the witness-box.  It was
his first appearance before a Committee of the House of Commons, and he
well knew what he had to expect.  He was aware that the whole force of
the opposition was to be directed against him; and if they could break
down his evidence, the canal monopoly might yet be upheld for a time.
Many years afterwards, when looking back at his position on this trying
occasion, he said:--"When I went to Liverpool to plan a line from thence
to Manchester, I pledged myself to the directors to attain a speed of 10
miles an hour.  I said I had no doubt the locomotive might be made to go
much faster, but that we had better be moderate at the beginning.  The
directors said I was quite right; for that if, when they went to
Parliament, I talked of going at a greater rate than 10 miles an hour, I
should put a cross upon the concern.  It was not an easy task for me to
keep the engine down to 10 miles an hour, but it must be done, and I did
my best.  I had to place myself in that most unpleasant of all
positions--the witness-box of a Parliamentary Committee.  I was not long
in it, before I began to wish for a hole to creep out at!  I could not
find words to satisfy either the Committee or myself.  I was subjected to
the cross-examination of eight or ten barristers, purposely, as far as
possible, to bewilder me.  Some member of the Committee asked if I was a
foreigner, and another hinted that I was mad.  But I put up with every
rebuff, and went on with my plans, determined not to be put down."

Mr. Stephenson stood before the Committee to prove what the public
opinion of that day held to be impossible.  The self-taught mechanic had
to demonstrate the practicability of accomplishing that which the most
distinguished engineers of the time regarded as impracticable.  Clear
though the subject was to himself, and familiar as he was with the powers
of the locomotive, it was no easy task for him to bring home his
convictions, or even to convey his meaning, to the less informed minds of
his hearers.  In his strong Northumbrian dialect, he struggled for
utterance, in the face of the sneers, interruptions, and ridicule of the
opponents of the measure, and even of the Committee, some of whom shook
their heads and whispered doubts as to his sanity, when he energetically
avowed that he could make the locomotive go at the rate of 12 miles an
hour!  It was so grossly in the teeth of all the experience of honourable
members, that the man "must certainly be labouring under a delusion!"

And yet his large experience of railways and locomotives, as described by
himself to the Committee, entitled this "untaught, inarticulate genius,"
as he has so well been styled, to speak with confidence on such a
subject.  Beginning with his experience as a brakesman at Killingworth in
1803, he went on to state that he was appointed to take the entire charge
of the steam-engines in 1813, and had superintended the railroads
connected with the numerous collieries of the Grand Allies from that time
downwards.  He had laid down or superintended the railways at Burradon,
Mount Moor, Springwell, Bedlington, Hetton, and Darlington, besides
improving those at Killingworth, South Moor, and Derwent Crook.  He had
constructed fifty-five steam-engines, of which sixteen were locomotives.
Some of these had been sent to France.  The engines constructed by him
for the working of the Killingworth Railroad, eleven years before, had
continued steadily at work ever since, and fulfilled his most sanguine
expectations.  He was prepared to prove the safety of working
high-pressure locomotives on a railroad, and the superiority of this mode
of transporting goods over all others.  As to speed, he said he had
recommended 8 miles an hour with 20 tons, and 4 miles an hour with 40
tons; but he was quite confident that much more might be done.  Indeed,
he had no doubt they might go at the rate of 12 miles.  As to the charge
that locomotives on a railroad would so terrify the horses in the
neighbourhood, that to travel on horseback or to plough the adjoining
fields would be rendered highly dangerous, the witness said that horses
learnt to take no notice of them, though there _were_ horses that would
shy at a wheelbarrow.  A mail-coach was likely to be more shied at by
horses than a locomotive.  In the neighbourhood of Killingworth, the
cattle in the fields went on grazing while the engines passed them, and
the farmers made no complaints.

Mr. Alderson, who had carefully studied the subject, and was well skilled
in practical science, subjected the witness to a protracted and severe
cross-examination as to the speed and power of the locomotive, the stroke
of the piston, the slipping of the wheels upon the rails, and various
other points of detail.  Mr. Stephenson insisted that no slipping took
place, as attempted to be extorted from him by the counsel.  He said, "It
is impossible for slipping to take place so long as the adhesive weight
of the wheel upon the rail is greater than the weight to be dragged after
it."  As to accidents, Stephenson said he knew of none that had occurred
with his engines.  There had been one, he was told, at the Middleton
Colliery, near Leeds, with a Blenkinsop engine.  The driver had been in
liquor, and put a considerable load on the safety-valve, so that upon
going forward the engine blew up and the man was killed.  But he added,
if proper precautions had been used with that boiler, the accident could
not have happened.  The following cross-examination occurred in reference
to the question of speed:--

"Of course," he was asked, "when a body is moving upon a road, the
greater the velocity the greater the momentum that is generated?"
"Certainly."--"What would be the momentum of 40 tons moving at the rate
of 12 miles an hour?"  "It would be very great."--"Have you seen a
railroad that would stand that?"  "Yes."--"Where?"  "Any railroad that
would bear going 4 miles an hour: I mean to say, that if it would bear
the weight at 4 miles an hour, it would bear it at 12."--"Taking it at 4
miles an hour, do you mean to say that it would not require a stronger
railway to carry the same weight 12 miles an hour?"  "I will give an
answer to that.  I dare say every person has been over ice when skating,
or seen persons go over, and they know that it would bear them better at
a greater velocity than it would if they went slower; when they go quick,
the weight in a measure ceases."--"Is not that upon the hypothesis that
the railroad is perfect?"  "It is; and I mean to make it perfect."

It is not necessary to state that to have passed the ordeal of so severe
a cross-examination scatheless, needed no small amount of courage,
intelligence, and ready shrewdness on the part of the witness.  Nicholas
Wood, who was present on the occasion, has since stated that the point on
which Stephenson was hardest pressed was that of speed.  "I believe," he
says, "that it would have lost the Company their bill if he had gone
beyond 8 or 9 miles an hour.  If he had stated his intention of going 12
or 15 miles an hour, not a single person would have believed it to be
practicable."

The Committee also seem to have entertained considerable alarm as to the
high rate of speed which had been spoken of, and proceeded to examine the
witness further on the subject.  They supposed the case of the engine
being upset when going at 9 miles an hour, and asked what, in such a
case, would become of the cargo astern.  To which the witness replied
that it would not be upset.  One of the members of the Committee pressed
the witness a little further.  He put the following case:--"Suppose, now,
one of these engines to be going along a railroad at the rate of 9 or 10
miles an hour, and that a cow were to stray upon the line and get in the
way of the engine; would not that, think you, be a very awkward
circumstance?"  "Yes," replied the witness, with a twinkle in his eye,
"very awkward--_for the coo_!"  The honourable member did not proceed
further with his cross-examination; to use a railway phrase, he was
"shunted."  Another asked if animals would not be very much frightened by
the engine passing them, especially by the glare of the red-hot chimney?
"But how would they know that it wasn't painted?" said the witness.

On the following day, the engineer was subjected to a very severe
examination.  On that part of the scheme with which he was most
practically conversant, his evidence was clear and conclusive.  Now, he
had to give evidence on the plans made by his surveyors, and the
estimates which had been founded on such plans.  So long as he was
confined to locomotive engines and iron railroads, with the minutest
details of which he was more familiar than any man living, he felt at
home, and in his element.  But when the designs of bridges and the cost
of constructing them had to be gone into, the subject being in a great
measure new to him, his evidence was much less satisfactory.

Mr. Alderson cross-examined him at great length on the plans of the
bridges, the tunnels, the crossings of the roads and streets, and the
details of the survey, which, it soon clearly appeared, were in some
respects seriously at fault.  It seems that, after the plans had been
deposited, Stephenson found that a much more favourable line might be
made; and he made his estimates accordingly, supposing that Parliament
would not confine the Company to the precise plan which had been
deposited.  This was felt to be a serious blot in the parliamentary case,
and one very difficult to be got over.

For three entire days was our engineer subjected to this
cross-examination.  He held his ground bravely, and defended the plans
and estimates with remarkable ability and skill; but it was clear they
were imperfect, and the result was on the whole damaging to the measure.

The case of the opponents was next gone into, in the course of which the
counsel indulged in strong vituperation against the witnesses for the
bill.  One of them spoke of the utter impossiblity of making a railway
upon so treacherous a material as Chat Moss, which was declared to be an
immense mass of pulp, and nothing else.  "It actually," said Mr.
Harrison, "rises in height, from the rain swelling it like a sponge, and
sinks again in dry weather; and if a boring instrument is put into it, it
sinks immediately by its own weight.  The making of an embankment out of
this pulpy, wet moss, is no very easy task.  Who but Mr. Stephenson would
have thought of entering into Chat Moss, carrying it out almost like wet
dung?  It is ignorance almost inconceivable.  It is perfect madness, in a
person called upon to speak on a scientific subject, to propose such a
plan.  Every part of this scheme shows that this man has applied himself
to a subject of which he has no knowledge, and to which he has no science
to apply."  Then adverting to the proposal to work the intended line by
means of locomotives, the learned gentleman proceeded: "When we set out
with the original prospectus, we were to gallop, I know not at what rate;
I believe it was at the rate of 12 miles an hour.  My learned friend, Mr.
Adam, contemplated--possibly alluding to Ireland--that some of the Irish
members would arrive in the waggons to a division.  My learned friend
says that they would go at the rate of 12 miles an hour with the aid of
the devil in the form of a locomotive, sitting as postilion on the fore
horse, and an honourable member sitting behind him to stir up the fire,
and keep it at full speed.  But the speed at which these locomotive
engines are to go has slackened: Mr. Adam does not go faster now than 5
miles an hour.  The learned serjeant (Spankie) says he should like to
have 7, but he would be content to go 6.  I will show he cannot go 6; and
probably, for any practical purposes, I may be able to show that I can
keep up with him _by the canal_. . . .  Locomotive engines are liable to
be operated upon by the weather.  You are told they are affected by rain,
and an attempt has been made to cover them; but the wind will affect
them; and any gale of wind which would affect the traffic on the Mersey
would render it _impossible_ to set off a locomotive engine, either by
poking of the fire, or keeping up the pressure of the steam till the
boiler was ready to burst."  How amusing it now is to read these
extraordinary views as to the formation of a railway over Chat Moss, and
the impossibility of starting a locomotive engine in the face of a gale
of wind!

Evidence was called to show that the house property passed by the
proposed railway would be greatly deteriorated--in some places almost
destroyed; that the locomotive engines would be terrible nuisances, in
consequence of the fire and smoke vomited forth by them; and that the
value of land in the neighbourhood of Manchester alone would be
deteriorated by no less than 20,000 pounds!  Evidence was also given at
great length showing the utter impossibility of forming a road of any
kind upon Chat Moss.  A Manchester builder, who was examined, could not
imagine the feat possible, unless by arching it across in the manner of a
viaduct from one side to the other.  It was the old story of "nothing
like leather."  But the opposition mainly relied upon the evidence of the
leading engineers--not like Stephenson, self-taught men, but regular
professionals.  One of these, Mr. Francis Giles, C.E., had been
twenty-two years an engineer, and could speak with some authority.  His
testimony was mainly directed to the utter impossibility of forming a
railway over Chat Moss.  "_No engineer in his senses_," said he, "would
go through Chat Moss if he wanted to make a railroad from Liverpool to
Manchester. . . .  In my judgment _a railroad certainly cannot be safely
made over Chat Moss without going to the bottom __of the Moss_.  The soil
ought all to be taken out, undoubtedly; in doing which, it will not be
practicable to approach each end of the cutting, as you make it, with the
carriages.  No carriages would stand upon the Moss short of the bottom.
My estimate for the whole cutting and embankment over Chat Moss is
270,000 pounds nearly, at those quantities and those prices which are
decidedly correct . . . It will be necessary to take this Moss completely
out at the bottom, in order to make a solid road."

When the engineers had given their evidence, Mr. Alderson summed up in a
speech which extended over two days.  He declared Mr. Stephenson's plan
to be "the most absurd scheme that ever entered into the head of man to
conceive.  My learned friends," said he, "almost endeavoured to stop my
examination; they wished me to put in the plan, but I had rather have the
exhibition of Mr. Stephenson in that box.  I say he never had a plan--I
believe he never had one--I do not believe he is capable of making one.
His is a mind perpetually fluctuating between opposite difficulties: he
neither knows whether he is to make bridges over roads or rivers, of one
size or of another; or to make embankments, or cuttings, or inclined
planes, or in what way the thing is to be carried into effect.  Whenever
a difficulty is pressed, as in the case of a tunnel, he gets out of it at
one end, and when you try to catch him at that, he gets out at the
other."  Mr. Alderson proceeded to declaim against the gross ignorance of
this so-called engineer, who proposed to make "impossible ditches by the
side of an impossible railway" upon Chat Moss; "I care not," he said,
"whether Mr. Giles is right or wrong in his estimate, for whether it be
effected by means of piers raised up all the way for four miles through
Chat Moss, whether they are to support it on beams of wood or by erecting
masonry, or whether Mr. Giles shall put a solid bank of earth through
it,--in all these schemes there is not one found like that of Mr.
Stephenson's, namely, to cut impossible drains on the side of this road;
and it is sufficient for me to suggest and to show, that this scheme of
Mr. Stephenson's is impossible or impracticable, and that no other
scheme, if they proceed upon this line, can be suggested which will not
produce enormous expense.  I think that has been irrefragably made out.
Every one knows Chat Moss--every one knows that the iron sinks
immediately on its being put upon the surface.  I have heard of culverts,
which have been put upon the Moss, which, after having been surveyed the
day before, have the next morning disappeared; and that a house (a poet's
house, who may be supposed in the habit of building castles even in the
air), story after story, as fast as one is added, the lower one sinks!
There is nothing, it appears, except long sedgy grass, and a little soil
to prevent its sinking into the shades of eternal night.  I have now
done, sir, with Chat Moss, and there I leave this railroad."

The case of the principal petitioners against the bill occupied many more
days, and on its conclusion the committee proceeded to divide on the
preamble, which was carried by a majority of only _one_--37 voting for
it, and 36 against it.  The clauses were next considered, and on a
division the first clause, empowering the Company to make the railway,
was lost by a majority of 19 to 13.  In like manner, the next clause,
empowering the Company to take land, was lost; on which the bill was
withdrawn.

Thus ended this memorable contest, which had extended over two
months--carried on throughout with great pertinacity and skill,
especially on the part of the opposition, who left no stone unturned to
defeat the measure.  The want of a third line of communication between
Liverpool and Manchester had been clearly proved; but the engineering
evidence in support of the proposed railway having been thrown almost
entirely upon Stephenson, who fought this, the most important part of the
battle, single-handed, was not brought out so clearly as it would have
been, had he secured more efficient engineering assistance--which he was
not able to do, as the principal engineers of that day were against the
locomotive railway.  The obstacles thrown in the way of the survey by the
landowners and canal companies, by which the plans were rendered
exceedingly imperfect, also tended in a great measure to defeat the bill.

The rejection of the bill was probably the most severe trial George
Stephenson underwent in the whole course of his life.  The circumstances
connected with the defeat of the measure, the errors in the levels, his
rigid cross-examination, followed by the fact of his being superseded by
another engineer, all told fearfully upon him, and for some time he was
as much weighed down as if a personal calamity of the most serious kind
had befallen him.

Stephenson had been so terribly abused by the leading counsel for the
opposition in the course of the proceedings before the
Committee--stigmatised by them as an ignoramus, a fool, and a
maniac--that even his friends seem for a time to have lost faith in him
and in the locomotive system, whose efficiency he nevertheless continued
to uphold.  Things never looked blacker for the success of the railway
system than at the close of this great parliamentary struggle.  And yet
it was on the very eve of its triumph.

The Committee of Directors appointed to watch the measure in Parliament
were so determined to press on the project of a railway, even though it
should have to be worked merely by horse-power, that the bill had
scarcely been thrown out ere they met in London to consider their next
step.  They called their parliamentary friends together to consult as to
future proceedings; and the result was that they went back to Liverpool
determined to renew their application to Parliament in the ensuing
session.

It was not considered desirable to employ Mr. Stephenson in making the
new survey.  He had not as yet established his reputation as an engineer
beyond the boundaries of his own district; and the promoters of the bill
had doubtless felt the disadvantages of this in the course of their
parliamentary struggle.  They therefore resolved now to employ engineers
of the highest established reputation, as well as the best surveyors that
could be obtained.  In accordance with these views they engaged Messrs.
George and John Rennie to be the engineers of the railway; and Mr.
Charles Vignolles was appointed to prepare the plans and sections.  The
line which was eventually adopted differed somewhat from that surveyed by
Mr. Stephenson.  The principal parks and game-preserves of the district
were carefully avoided.  The promoters thus hoped to get rid of the
opposition of the most influential of the resident landowners.  The
crossing of certain of the streets of Liverpool was also avoided, and the
entrance contrived by means of a tunnel and an inclined plane.  The new
line stopped short of the river Irwell at the Manchester end, by which
the objections grounded on an illegal interruption to the canal or river
traffic were in some measure removed.  The opposition of the Duke of
Bridgewater's trustees was also got rid of, and the Marquis of Stafford
became a subscriber for a thousand shares.  With reference to the use of
the locomotive engine, the promoters, remembering with what effect the
objections to it had been urged by the opponents of the bill, intimated,
in their second prospectus, that "as a guarantee of their good faith
towards the public they will not require any clause empowering them to
use it; or they will submit to such restrictions in the employment of it
as Parliament may impose."

The survey of the new line having been completed, the plans were
deposited, the standing orders duly complied with, and the bill went
before Parliament.  The same counsel appeared for the promoters, but the
examination of witnesses was not nearly so protracted as on the previous
occasion.  The preamble was declared proved by a majority of 43 to 18.
On the third reading in the House of Commons, an animated, and what now
appears a very amusing discussion took place.  The Hon. Edward Stanley
moved that the bill be read that day six months; and in his speech he
undertook to prove that the railway trains would take _ten hours_ on the
journey, and that they could only be worked by horses.  Sir Isaac Coffin
seconded the motion, and in doing so denounced the project as a most
flagrant imposition.  He would not consent to see widows' premises
invaded; and "What, he would like to know, was to be done with all those
who had advanced money in making and repairing turnpike-roads?  What was
to become of coach-makers and harness-makers, coach-masters and coachmen,
inn-keepers, horse-breeders, and horse-dealers?  Was the house aware of
the smoke and the noise, the hiss and the whirl, which locomotive
engines, passing at the rate of 10 or 12 miles an hour, would occasion?
Neither the cattle ploughing in the fields or grazing in the meadows
could behold them without dismay.  Iron would be raised in price 100 per
cent., or more probably exhausted altogether!  It would be the greatest
nuisance, the most complete disturbance of quiet and comfort in all parts
of the kingdom, that the ingenuity of man could invent!"

Mr. Huskisson and other speakers, though unable to reply to such
arguments as these, strongly supported the bill; and it was carried on
the third reading by a majority of 88 to 41.  The bill passed the House
of Lords almost unanimously, its only opponents being the Earl of Derby
and his relative the Earl of Wilton.

                    [Picture: Surveying on Chat Moss]




CHAPTER X.
CHAT MOSS--CONSTRUCTION OF THE RAILWAY.


The appointment of principal engineer to the railway was taken into
consideration at the first meeting of the directors held at Liverpool
subsequent to the passing of the Act.  The magnitude of the proposed
works, and the vast consequences involved in their experiment, were
deeply impressed upon their minds; and they resolved to secure the
services of a resident engineer of proved experience and ability.  Their
attention was naturally directed to Mr. Stephenson; at the same time they
desired to have the benefit of the Messrs. Rennie's professional
assistance in superintending the works.  Mr. George Rennie had an
interview with the Board on the subject, at which he proposed to
undertake the chief superintendence, making six visits in each year, and
stipulating that he should have the appointment of the resident engineer.
But the responsibility attaching to the direction in the matter of the
efficient carrying on of the works, would not admit of their being
influenced by ordinary punctilios on the occasion; and they accordingly
declined this proposal, and proceeded to appoint Mr. Stephenson their
principal engineer at a salary of 1000 pounds per annum.

He at once removed his residence to Liverpool, and made arrangements to
commence the works.  He began with the "impossible thing"--to do that
which the most distinguished engineers of the day had declared that "no
man in his senses would undertake to do"--namely, to make the road over
Chat Moss!  It was indeed a most formidable undertaking; and the project
of carrying a railway along, under, or over such a material as that of
which it consisted, would certainly never have occurred to an ordinary
mind.  Michael Drayton supposed the Moss to have had its origin at the
Deluge.  Nothing more impassable could have been imagined than that
dreary waste; and Mr. Giles only spoke the popular feeling of the day
when he declared that no carriage could stand on it "short of the
bottom."  In this bog, singular to say, Mr. Roscoe, the accomplished
historian of the Medicis, buried his fortune in the hopeless attempt to
cultivate a portion of it which he had bought.

Chat Moss is an immense peat bog of about twelve square miles in extent.
Unlike the bogs or swamps of Cambridge and Lincolnshire, which consist
principally of soft mud or silt, this bog is a vast mass of spongy
vegetable pulp, the result of the growth and decay of ages.  The spagni,
or bog-mosses, cover the entire area; one year's growth rising over
another,--the older growths not entirely decaying, but remaining
partially preserved by the antiseptic properties peculiar to peat.  Hence
the remarkable fact that, although a semifluid mass, the surface of Chat
Moss rises above the level of the surrounding country.  Like a turtle's
back, it declines from the summit in every direction, having from thirty
to forty feet gradual slope to the solid land on all sides.  From the
remains of trees, chiefly alder and birch, which have been dug out of it,
and which must have previously flourished upon the surface of soil now
deeply submerged, it is probable that the sand and clay base on which the
bog rests is saucer-shaped, and so retains the entire mass in position.
In rainy weather, such is its capacity for water that it sensibly swells,
and rises in those parts where the moss is the deepest.  This occurs
through the capillary attraction of the fibres of the submerged moss,
which is from 20 to 30 feet in depth, whilst the growing plants
effectually check evaporation from the surface.  This peculiar character
of the Moss has presented an insuperable difficulty in the way of
reclaiming it by any system of extensive drainage--such as by sinking
shafts, and pumping up the water by steam power, as has been proposed.
Supposing a shaft of 30 feet deep to be sunk, it has been calculated that
this would only be effectual for draining a circle of about 100 yards,
the water running down an incline of about 5 to 1; for it was found in
the course of draining the bog, that a ditch 3 feet deep only served to
drain a space of less than 5 yards on each side, and two ditches of this
depth, 10 yards apart, left a portion of the Moss between them scarcely
affected by the drains.

The three resident engineers selected by Mr. Stephenson to superintend
the construction of the line, were Joseph Locke, William Allcard, and
John Dixon.  The last was appointed to that portion which lay across the
Moss, neither of the other two envying his lot.  On Mr. Dixon's arrival,
about July, 1826, Mr. Locke proceeded to show him over the length he was
to take charge of, and to instal him in office.  When they reached Chat
Moss, Mr. Dixon found that the line had already been staked out and the
levels taken in detail by the aid of planks laid upon the bog.  The
cutting of the drains along each side of the proposed road had also been
commenced; but the soft pulpy stuff had up to this time flowed into the
drains and filled them up as fast as they were cut.  Proceeding across
the Moss, on the first day's inspection, the new resident, when about
halfway over, slipped off the plank on which he walked, and sank to his
knees in the bog.  Struggling only sent him the deeper, and he might have
disappeared altogether, but for the workmen, who hastened to his
assistance upon planks, and rescued him from his perilous position.  Much
disheartened, he desired to return, and even thought of giving up the
job; but Mr. Locke assured him that the worst part was now past; so the
new resident plucked up heart again, and both floundered on until they
reached the further edge of the Moss, wet and plastered over with
bog-sludge.  Mr. Dixon's companions endeavoured to comfort him by the
assurance that he might avoid similar perils, by walking upon "pattens,"
or boards fastened to the soles of his feet, as they had done when taking
the levels, and as the workmen did when engaged in making drains in the
softest parts of the Moss.  The resident engineer was sorely puzzled in
the outset by the problem of constructing a road for heavy locomotives,
with trains of passengers and goods, upon a bog which he had found
incapable of supporting his own weight!

Mr. Stephenson's idea was, that such a road might be made to _float_ upon
the bog, simply by means of a sufficient extension of the bearing
surface.  As a ship, or a raft, capable of sustaining heavy loads floated
in water, so in his opinion, might a light road be floated upon a bog,
which was of considerably greater consistency than water.  Long before
the railway was thought of, Mr. Roscoe had adopted the remarkable
expedient of fitting his plough-horses with flat wooden soles or pattens,
to enable them to walk upon the Moss land which he had brought into
cultivation.  These pattens were fitted on by means of a screw apparatus,
which met in front of the foot and was easily fastened.  The mode by
which these pattens served to sustain the horse is capable of easy
explanation, and it will be observed that the _rationale_ likewise
explains the floating of a railway train.  The foot of an ordinary
farm-horse presents a base of about five inches diameter, but if this
base be enlarged to seven inches--the circles being to each other as the
squares of the diameters--it will be found that, by this slight
enlargement of the base, a circle of nearly double the area has been
secured; and consequently the pressure of the foot upon every unit of
ground upon which the horse stands has been reduced one half.  In fact,
this contrivance has an effect tantamount to setting the horse upon eight
feet instead of four.

Apply the same reasoning to the ponderous locomotive, and it will be
found, that even such a machine may be made to stand upon a bog, by means
of a similar extension of the bearing surface.  Suppose the engine to be
20 feet long and 5 feet wide, thus covering a surface of 100 square feet,
and, provided the bearing has been extended by means of cross sleepers
supported on a matting of heath and branches of trees covered with a few
inches of gravel, the pressure of an engine of 20 tons will be only equal
to about 3 pounds per inch over the whole surface on which it stands.
Such was George Stephenson's idea in contriving his floating
road--something like an elongated raft across the Moss; and we shall see
that he steadily kept it in view in carrying the work into execution.

The first thing done was to form a footpath of ling or heather along the
proposed road, on which a man might walk without risk of sinking.  A
single line of temporary railway was then laid down, formed of ordinary
cross-bars about 3 feet long and an inch square, with holes punched
through them at the ends and nailed down to temporary sleepers.  Along
this way ran the waggons in which were conveyed the materials requisite
to form the permanent road.  These waggons carried about a ton each, and
they were propelled by boys running behind them along the narrow iron
rails.  The boys became so expert that they would run the 4 miles across
at the rate of 7 or 8 miles an hour without missing a step; if they had
done so, they would have sunk in many places up to their middle.  A
comparatively slight extension of the bearing surface being found
sufficient to enable the bog to bear this temporary line, the
circumstance was a source of increased confidence and hope to our
engineer in proceeding with the formation of the permanent roadway
alongside.

The digging of drains had been proceeding for some time along each side
of the intended line; but they filled up almost as soon as dug, the sides
flowing in, and the bottom rising up.  It was only in some of the drier
parts of the bog that a depth of three or four feet could be reached.
The surface-ground between the drains, containing the intertwined roots
of heather and long grass, was left untouched, and upon this was spread
branches of trees and hedge-cuttings.  In the softest places, rude gates
or hurdles, some 8 or 9 feet long by 4 feet wide, interwoven with
heather, were laid in double thicknesses, their ends overlapping each
other; and upon this floating bed was spread a thin layer of gravel, on
which the sleepers, chairs, and rails were laid in the usual manner.
Such was the mode in which the road was formed upon the Moss.

It was found, however, after the permanent way had been thus laid, that
there was a tendency to sinking at those parts where the bog was softest.
In ordinary cases, where a bank subsides, the sleepers are packed up with
ballast or gravel; but in this case the ballast was dug away and removed
in order to lighten the road, and the sleepers were packed instead with
cakes of dry turf or bundles of heath.  By these expedients the subsided
parts were again floated up to the level, and an approach was made
towards a satisfactory road.  But the most formidable difficulties were
encountered at the centre and towards the edges of the Moss; and it
required no small degree of ingenuity and perseverance on the part of the
engineer successfully to overcome them.

The Moss, as already observed, was highest in the centre, and it there
presented a sort of hunchback with a rising and falling gradient.  At
that point it was found necessary to cut deeper drains in order to
consolidate the ground between them on which the road was to be formed.
But, as at other places, the deeper the cutting the more rapid was the
flow of fluid bog into the drain, the bottom rising up almost as fast as
it was removed.  To meet this emergency, numbers of empty tar-barrels
were brought from Liverpool; and as soon as a few yards of drain were
dug, the barrels were laid down end to end, firmly fixed to each other by
strong slabs laid over the joints, and nailed.  They were then covered
over with clay, and thus formed an underground sewer of wood instead of
bricks.  This expedient was found to answer the purpose intended, and the
road across the centre of the Moss having been so prepared, it was then
laid with the permanent materials.

The greatest difficulty was, however, experienced in forming an
embankment upon the edge of the bog at the Manchester end.  Moss as dry
as it could be cut, was brought up in small waggons, by men and boys, and
emptied so as to form an embankment; but the bank had scarcely been
raised three or four feet in height, when the stuff broke through the
heathery surface of the bog and sank out of sight.  More moss was brought
up and emptied with no better result; and for weeks the filling was
continued without any visible embankment having been made.  It was the
duty of the resident engineer to proceed to Liverpool every fortnight to
obtain the wages for the workmen employed under him; and on these
occasions he was required to colour up, on a section drawn to a working
scale suspended against the wall of the directors' room, the amount of
excavation and embankment from time to time executed.  But on many of
these occasions, Mr. Dixon had no progress whatever to show for the money
expended on the Chat Moss embankment.  Sometimes, indeed, the visible
work done was _less_ than it had appeared a fortnight or a month before!

The directors now became seriously alarmed, and feared that the evil
prognostications of the eminent engineers were about to be fulfilled.
The resident engineer was even called upon to supply an estimate of the
cost of forming an embankment of solid stuff throughout, as also of the
cost of piling the roadway, and in effect constructing a four mile
viaduct of timber across the Moss, from twenty to thirty feet high from
the foundation.  The expense appalled the directors, and the question
arose, whether the work was to be proceeded with or _abandoned_!

Mr. Stephenson afterwards described the alarming position of affairs at a
public dinner at Birmingham (23rd December, 1837), on the occasion of a
piece of plate being presented to his son, upon the completion of the
London and Birmingham Railway.  He related the anecdote, he said, for the
purpose of impressing upon the minds of those who heard him the necessity
of perseverance.

"After working for weeks and weeks," said he, "in filling in materials to
form the road, there did not yet appear to be the least sign of our being
able to raise the solid embankment one single inch; in short we went on
filling in without the slightest apparent effect.  Even my assistants
began to feel uneasy, and to doubt of the success of the scheme.  The
directors, too, spoke of it as a hopeless task: and at length they became
seriously alarmed, so much so, indeed, that a board meeting was held on
Chat Moss to decide whether I should proceed any further.  They had
previously taken the opinion of other engineers, who reported
unfavourably.  There was no help for it, however, but to go on.  An
immense outlay had been incurred; and great loss would have been
occasioned had the scheme been then abandoned, and the line taken by
another route.  So the directors were _compelled_ to allow me to go on
with my plans, of the ultimate success of which I myself never for one
moment doubted."

During the progress of this part of the works, the Worsley and Trafford
men, who lived near the Moss, and plumed themselves upon their practical
knowledge of bog-work, declared the completion of the road to be utterly
impracticable.  "If you knew as much about Chat Moss as we do," they
said, "you would never have entered on so rash an undertaking; and depend
upon it, all you have done and are doing will prove abortive.  You must
give up the idea of a floating railway, and either fill the Moss hard
from the bottom, or deviate so as to avoid it altogether."  Such were the
conclusions of science and experience.

In the midst of all these alarms and prophecies of failure, Stephenson
never lost heart, but held to his purpose.  His motto was "Persevere!"
"You must go on filling in," he said; "there is no other help for it.
The stuff emptied in is doing its work out of sight, and if you will but
have patience, it will soon begin to show."  And so the filling in went
on; several hundreds of men and boys were employed to skin the Moss all
round for many thousand yards, by means of sharp spades, called by the
turf cutters "tommy-spades;" and the dried cakes of turf were afterwards
used to form the embankment, until at length as the stuff sank and rested
upon the bottom, the bank gradually rose above the surface, and slowly
advanced onwards, declining in height and consequently in weight, until
it became joined to the floating road already laid upon the Moss.  In the
course of forming the embankment, the pressure of the bog turf tipped out
of the waggons caused a copious stream of bog-water to flow from the end
of it, in colour resembling Barclay's double stout; and when completed,
the bank looked like a long ridge of tightly pressed tobacco-leaf.  The
compression of the turf may be imagined from the fact that 670,000 cubic
yards of raw moss formed only 277,000 cubic yards of embankment at the
completion of the work.

At the western, or Liverpool end of the Chat Moss, there was a like
embankment; but, as the ground there was solid, little difficulty was
experienced in forming it, beyond the loss of substance caused by the
oozing out of the water held by the moss-earth.

At another part of the Liverpool and Manchester line, Parr Moss was
crossed by an embankment about 1.5 mile in extent.  In the immediate
neighbourhood was found a large excess of cutting, which it would have
been necessary to "put out in spoil-banks" (according to the technical
phrase); but the surplus clay, stone, and shale, were tipped, waggon
after waggon, into Parr Moss, until a solid but concealed embankment,
from fifteen to twenty-five feet high, was formed, although to the eye it
appears to be laid upon the level of the adjoining surface, as at Chat
Moss.

The road across Chat Moss was finished by the 1st January, 1830, when the
first experimental train of passengers passed over it, drawn by the
"Rocket;" and it turned out that, instead of being the most expensive
part of the line, it was about the cheapest.  The total cost of forming
the line over the Moss was 28,000 pounds, whereas Mr. Giles's estimate
was 270,000 pounds!  It also proved to be one of the best portions of the
railway.  Being a floating road, it was smooth and easy to run upon, just
as Dr. Arnott's water-bed is soft and easy to lie upon--the pressure
being equal at all points.  There was, and still is, a sort of
springiness in the road over the Moss, such as is felt in passing along a
suspended bridge; and those who looked along the line as a train passed
over it, said they could observe a waviness, such as precedes and follows
a skater upon ice.

During the progress of these works the most ridiculous rumours were set
afloat.  The drivers of the stage-coaches who feared for their calling,
brought the alarming intelligence into Manchester from time to time, that
"Chat Moss was blown up!"  "Hundreds of men and horses had sunk; and the
works were completely abandoned!"  The engineer himself was declared to
have been swallowed up in the Serbonian bog; and "railways were at an end
for ever!"

In the construction of the railway, Mr. Stephenson's capacity for
organising and directing the labours of a large number of workmen of all
kinds eminently displayed itself.  A vast quantity of ballast-waggons had
to be constructed, and implements and materials collected, before the
army of necessary labourers could be efficiently employed at the various
points of the line.  There were not at that time, as there are now, large
contractors possessed of railway plant, capable of executing earth-works
on a large scale.  The first railway engineer had not only to contrive
the plant, but to organise and direct the labour.  The labourers
themselves had to be trained to their work; and it was on the Liverpool
and Manchester line that Mr. Stephenson organised the staff of that
mighty band of railway navvies, whose handiworks will be the wonder and
admiration of succeeding generations.  Looking at their gigantic traces,
the men of some future age may be found to declare of the engineer and of
his workmen, that "there were giants in those days."

Although the works of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway are of a much
less formidable character than those of many lines that have since been
constructed, they were then regarded as of the most stupendous
description.  In deed, the like of them had not before been executed in
England.  It had been our engineer's original intention carry the railway
from the north end of Liverpool, round the red-sandstone ridge on which
the upper part of the town is built, and also round the higher rise of
the coal formation at Rainhill, by following the natural levels.  But the
opposition of the landowners having forced the line more to the south, it
was rendered necessary to cut through the hills, and go over the high
grounds instead of round them.  The first consequence of this alteration
in the plans was the necessity for constructing a tunnel under the town
of Liverpool 1.5 mile in length; the second, a long and deep cutting
through the red-sandstone rock at Olive Mount; and the third and most
serious of all, was the necessity for surmounting the Whiston and Sutton
hills by inclined planes of 1 in 96.  The line was also, by the same
forced deviation, prevented passing through the Lancashire coal-field,
and the engineer was compelled to carry it across the Sankey valley, at a
point where the waters of the brook had dug out an excessively deep
channel through the marl-beds of the district.

The principal difficulty was experienced in pushing on the works
connected with the formation of the tunnel under Liverpool, 2200 yards in
length.  The blasting and hewing of the rock were vigorously carried on
night and day; and the engineer's practical experience in the collieries
here proved of great use to him.  Many obstacles had to be encountered
and overcome in the formation of the tunnel, the rock varying in hardness
and texture at different parts.  In some places the miners were deluged
by water, which surged from the soft blue shale found at the lowest level
of the tunnel.  In other places, beds of wet sand were cut through; and
there careful propping and pinning were necessary to prevent the roof
from tumbling in, until the masonry to support it could be erected.  On
one occasion, while the engineer was absent from Liverpool, a mass of
loose moss-earth and sand fell from the roof, which had been
insufficiently propped.  The miners withdrew from the work; and on
Stephenson's return, he found them in a refractory state, refusing to
re-enter the tunnel.  He induced them, however, by his example, to return
to their labours; and when the roof had been secured, the work went on
again as before.  When there was danger, he was always ready to share it
with the men; and gathering confidence from his fearlessness, they
proceeded vigorously with the undertaking, boring and mining their way
towards the light.