WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. LIVES OF BRITISH ENGINEERS; with an account of their principal works; comprising also a History of Inland Communication in Britain, from the earliest period to the death of Telford. Sixth Thousand. Portraits and 200 Woodcuts. 2 vols. 8vo. 42s. II. SELF-HELP; with Illustrations of Character and Conduct. Fifty-fifth Thousand. Post 8vo. 6s. III. THE STORY OF THE LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. Fifteenth Thousand. Woodcuts. Post 8vo. 6s. IV. WORKMEN'S EARNINGS, SAVINGS, AND STRIKES : Reprinted from the Quarterly Review.' Fcap. 8vo. 1s. 6d. PREFACE. THE following volume contains a revised edition of the Life of George Stephenson, with which is incorporated a Life of his son Robert, late President of the Institute of Civil Engineers. While complete in itself, this book also forms the continuation of the biographical history of British engineering the earlier portions of which are comprised in the two volumes of Lives of the Engineers' already published,-and brings the subject down to the establishment of the railway system, in the course of which British engineers have displayed their highest skill and achieved their greatest triumphs. Since the original appearance of the work some six years ago under the title of 'The Life of George Stephenson,' much additional information relative to the early history of railways and of the men principally concerned in establishing them, has been communicated to the author by the friends and pupils of the two Stephensons, as well as by the late Robert Stephenson himself, of which the author has availed himself in the present edition. Although it is unusual to embody two biographies in one narrative, it will probably be admitted that in the case of the Stephensons such a combination is peculiarly appropriate, the life and achievements of the son having been in a great measure the complement of the life and achievements of the father. The care with which the elder Stephenson, while occupying the position of an obscure workman, devoted himself to his son's education, and the zeal with which the latter repaid the affectionate self-denial of his father, are among the most effective illustrations of the personal character of both. As regards their professional history also, it will be found that the relations which existed between them, more particularly with reference to the improvement of the locomotive and the construction of the first passenger railways, were of so intimate a kind, that it is impossible to dissociate the history of the one engineer from that of the other. These views were early formed by the author as to the proper treatment of the subject of George Stephenson's Life, and were carried out in the preparation of the original work, with the concurrence of Robert Stephenson, who supplied the requisite particulars relating to himself. Such portions of these were accordingly embodied in the narrative as could with propriety be published during the lifetime of the latter, and the remaining portions are now added, with the object of rendering the record of the son's life, as well as the early history of the railway system, more complete. It may not be out of place to explain briefly the circumstances in which the book originated and was written, and the sources from which the facts it contains were derived, as a guarantee to the reader that every possible pains have been taken to secure due authenticity and accuracy of information. The subject of a biography of George Stephenson was brought under the author's notice shortly after the death |