CHAPTER XXV.

EXTENSION OF THE RAILWAY

SYSTEM.THE LONDON AND

BIRMINGHAM LINE.

WHEN Mr. Stephenson had completed the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and brought the locomotive engine, by means of which it was to be worked, into a state of practical efficiency, he may be said to have accomplished the great work of his life. By persevering study and observation,-by treasuring up carefully the results of experience, neglecting no fact or suggestion howsoever insignificant it might at first sight appear,holding fast to his purpose, with a conviction that was never shaken, and a determination that was never baffled, he had established with but small assistance or encouragement, and in the face of every kind of difficulty and opposition, the superiority of the Locomotive system of railways. And it is perhaps not saying too much to aver, that in accomplishing this, Mr. Stephenson did more to advance the civilization of the world than any single individual of his age. Excepting only the discovery of Printing, no other invention will bear a comparison with that of Railway Locomotion, as affecting the destinies of mankind. In former times, the builder of a bridge, and the maker of a road, which brought towns and villages into communication with each other, were regarded as public benefactors. But how much greater a benefactor of his species was the man who invented the Locomotive Railway system, which unites nation with nation, and is now rapidly drawing the ends of the earth together! It may be humiliating to our schools of science and learning to confess, that the men who brought the locomotive to perfectionGeorge Stephenson above all-were comparatively unlettered and uneducated, possessing none of the advantages of scholastic or

scientific culture. The educated men, and even the scientific engineers, were wholly opposed to the locomotive system, declaring it to be absurd and impracticable. The general public, where not actively hostile, were indifferent. With the performances of the "Rocket," however, all doubts upon the subject were in a great measuse set at rest. What had been ridiculed as an impossibility, was now recognized as a fact. The "Rocket" showed that a new power had been born into the world, full of activity and strength, with boundless capability of work. It was the simple but admirable contrivance of the steam-blast, and its combination with the multitubular boiler with its large heating surface, that at once gave the high-pressure locomotive its vigorous life, and secured the triumph of the railway system. As has been well observed, this wonderful ability to increase and multiply its powers of performance with the emergency that demands them, has made this giant engine the noblest creation of human wit, the very lion among machines.

The practicability of Railway Locomotion being now proved, its extension was merely a question of time, money, and labour. A fine opportunity presented itself for the wise and judicious action of government in the matter. The improvement of the internal communications of a country seems to fall peculiarly within its province. The government was indeed at this very time directing its attention to the improvement of the old turnpike roads, and voting large sums of money to Mr. Macadam, for his so-called "discovery."

But here was a new system of internal communication invented, which was destined entirely to supersede the old macadamized roads. What was the action of the legislature in regard to it? They took no part except to retard and obstruct it; until at length their sluggish resistance was overborne, and the railway system was established, by the perseverance of private individuals. The opposition raised by the governing classes to the progress of railway bills in Parliament, would have damped the energy of any people less resolute than the English. But the leading men of industry throughout the kingdom had grasped a great idea, and would not let it go. They had the sagacity to perceive the value of railways, though the government had not;

and when the legislature failed to enter, at this juncture, upon the grand enterprise of planning and executing railways upon a national system, there was a sufficient amount of active public spirit in the country to undertake the work on private risk, and to carry it into practical effect in the face of every opposition.

The mode of action was characteristic and national. The execution of the new lines was undertaken entirely by joint-stock associations of proprietors, after the manner of the Stockton and Darlington, and Liverpool and Manchester Companies. These associations are conformable to our national habits, and fit well into our system of laws. They combine the power of vast resources with individual watchfulness and motives of self-interest; and by their means gigantic enterprises, which elsewhere would be impossible to any but kings and emperors with great national resources at command, were carried out by associations of private persons. And the results of this combination of means and of enterprise have been truly marvellous. Within the life of the present generation, the private citizens of England engaged in railway enterprises, have, in the face of government obstructions, and without taking a penny out of the public purse, executed a system of railways, involving works of the most gigantic kind, which, in their total mass, their cost, and their eminent public utility, far exceed the most famous national constructions of any age or country.

Mr. Stephenson was of course actively engaged in the construction of the numerous railways now projected by the jointstock companies. During the formation of the Manchester and Liverpool line, he had been consulted respecting many projects of a similar kind. One of these was a short railway, between Canterbury and Whitstable, about six miles in length. He was too much occupied with the works at Liverpool to give this scheme much of his personal attention. But he sent his assistant, Mr. John Dixon, to survey the line; and afterwards Mr. Locke to superintend the execution of the principal works. The act was obtained in 1826, and the line was opened for traffic in 1830. It was partly worked by fixed-engine power, and partly by Stephenson's locomotives, similar to the engines used upon the Stockton and Darlington Railway.

But the desire for railway extension principally pervaded the manufacturing districts, especially after the successful opening of the Liverpool and Manchester line. The commercial classes of the larger towns soon became eager for a participation in the good which they had so recently derided. Railway projects were set on foot in great numbers, and Manchester became a centre from which main lines and branches were started in all directions. The interest, however, which attaches to these later schemes is of a much less absorbing kind than that which belongs to the earlier history of the English railway, and the steps by which George Stephenson secured its eventual establishment. We naturally sympathize more with the early struggles of a great principle, its trials and its difficulties, than with its after stages of success; and, however gratified and astonished we may be at its permanent results, the secret charm of the interest is gone, and the excitement has ceased, when its ultimate triumph has become a matter of certainty.

extent.

The commercial results of the Liverpool and Manchester line were so satisfactory, and indeed so greatly exceeded the expectations of its projectors, that many of the abandoned projects of the speculative year 1825 were forthwith revived. An abundant crop of engineers sprang up, ready to execute railways of any Now that the Liverpool and Manchester line had been made, and the practicability of working it by locomotive power had been proved, it was as easy for engineers to make railways and to work them, as it was for navigators to find America after Columbus had made the first voyage. George Stephenson had shown the way, and engineers forthwith crowded after him full of great projects. Mr. Francis Giles himself took the field as a locomotive railway engineer, attaching himself to the Newcastle and Carlisle, and London and Southampton projects. Mr. Brunel appeared, in like manner, as the engineer of the line projected between London and Bristol; and Mr. Braithwaite, the builder of the "Novelty" engine, as the engineer of a line from London to Colchester.

The first lines, however, which were actually constructed, subsequent to the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, were in connection with it, and principally in the county of

Lancaster. Thus a branch was formed from Bolton to Leigh, and another from Leigh to Kenyon, where it formed a junction with the main line between Liverpool and Manchester. Branches to Wigan on the north, and to Runcorn Gap and Warrington on the south of the same line, were also formed. A continuation of the latter, as far south as Birmingham, was shortly after projected under the name of the Grand Junction Railway. The scheme of a line from Birmingham to London was also brought forward anew, and it was thus contemplated to bring the populous districts of Lancashire and the northwestern counties into direct railway communication with the metropolis. At the same time an important cross country railway was projected from Manchester to Leeds, traversing the populous manufacturing districts of East Lancashire and West Yorkshire, and bringing the chief towns of the two great northern counties into direct communication with each other. Of the principal lines projected in these districts, Mr. George Stephenson was appointed engineer; in some cases, in conjunction with his son. He was the engineer of the Grand Junction, of the Manchester and Leeds, and other new lines, so that his hands were full of work.

The number of railway schemes which were thus projected by companies of private individuals, principally resident in the manufacturing districts, created considerable alarm in the minds of the country gentlemen, who were found everywhere up in arms against these "new-fangled roads." The farmers were thrown into a state of consternation at the idea of "fire horses" running through their quiet fields and frightening their sheep and cattle while grazing. In remote country places the most extraordinary stories were propagated and believed respecting railway locomotives. On one occasion, Mr. Stephenson and some directors of the line projected from Chester to Birmingham, on coming into the neighbourhood of Nantwich to obtain the consent of some landowners, were told that the canal proprietors had been before them, and had told the farmers and landowners that if a bird flew over the district when the locomotive passed, it would drop down dead!

The inhabitants of even some of the large towns were thrown into a state of consternation by the proposal to provide them