In 1806 he contemplated the formation of a tramway from Birmingham towards Wedgebury and the Staffordshire coal districts. We next find him projecting and partly forming a tramway from the Clutton Colliery, belonging to the Earl of Warwick,—about twelve miles in length,—to Bristol. And about the same time he entered into an arrangement with Mr. Protheroe to construct another tramway from the Forest of Dean to Gloucester. About 1814 he was cutting, at his own expense, a canal between Birmingham and Stratford-onAvon; and some years after, in conjunction with Lord Redesdale, he constructed a railway from Stratford-on-Avon to Moreton-in-the-Marsh, the first railway in that district laid with wrought-iron rails, for the special purpose of being worked by locomotive power.

In the year 1815, we find Mr. James addressing a "Letter to the Prince Regent," in which he showed that he anticipated rapid locomotion by steam and other means. His project was to form a railway between London and Chatham, together with a capacious war-dock at the latter place, the gates of which were to be formed with caissons, after the plan of the docks of the then unknown Russian war-port of Sebastopol. Those caissons were then being manufactured in England; and Mr. James had got his idea of them from Upton, the engineer, with whom he was well acquainted. Nothing however came of this grand Chatham project.

Being a shareholder in the Wandsworth and Merstham Railway, which had thus far proved an abortive project, paying not more than about one per cent. per annum to its proprietors, Mr. James came up to London in 1818, to urge the formation of a line of railway from the neighbourhood of the Waterloo Bridge, to join the Merstham line; but the project was abandoned. He next endeavoured to have the Merstham tramroad converted into a locomotive railway. His

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suggestion, however, met with no favour, and his speculations soon turned in another direction.

We have before us an engraved plan, dated 1820, of a "Central Junction Railway" projected by Mr. James, which was extensively circulated by him amongst influential persons, showing a comprehensive scheme of railways, connecting London with Oxford, and, through his railway at Moreton-in-the-Marsh, with Stratford-on-Avon and Birmingham, a branch line giving accommodation to Cheltenham and Gloucester. But this, too, remained merely a project.

Mr. Edward Pease, of Darlington, was a man of an entirely different stamp. He too, like Mr. James, was connected with coal-mines, and interested in improving the internal communications of his neighbourhood, chiefly with the object of opening out new markets for the vast stores of coal found in the Bishop Auckland valley above Darlington. But though he was not so ambitious as Mr. James in reference to the extension of railways, the prosperity which attended his one great enterprise did more for their eventual success than all Mr. James's efforts. It would appear that, at first, Mr. Pease contemplated only a horse tramroad between Stockton and Darlington; but as he proceeded with the project, and especially after he had become personally acquainted with George Stephenson, he gradually, but cautiously, became a convert to the locomotive system.

The Stockton and Darlington Railway was an undertaking of great importance, although it was afterwards thrown into the shade by the more brilliant project of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which was not commenced for several years after. As the first iron road constructed for the purposes of general traffic, and as the first public highway on which locomotive engines were regularly employed, the Stockton and Darlington project unquestionably exercised

very great influence upon the future history of railway locomotion.

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Of this railway Edward Pease was the projector. thoughtful and sagacious man, ready in resources, possessed of indomitable energy and perseverance, he was eminently qualified to undertake what appeared to many the desperate enterprise of obtaining an Act of Parliament to construct a railway through a rather unpromising district. One who knew him in 1818 said, "he was a man who could see a hundred years ahead." When the writer last saw him, in the autumn of 1854, Mr. Pease was in his eighty-eighth year; yet he still possessed the hopefulness and mental vigour of a man in his prime. Hale and hearty, full of interesting reminiscences of the past, he yet entered with interest into the life of the present, and displayed a warm sympathy for all current projects calculated to render the lives of men happier. Still sound in health, his eye had not lost its brilliancy, nor his cheek its colour; and there was an elasticity in his step which younger men might have envied. His vigorous judgment and genuine native shrewdness, together with that courageous strength and tenacity of purpose which made him, when once convinced, stand by the railway project upon which he had set his heart, when all the world called him schemer and fool, had not yet departed from him; and he could now afford to crack a lively joke at the prejudiced blindness of those who had so long made him the subject of their ridicule. Pointing to a fine prospect from his drawing-room window, extending to the wooded knolls on the further side of the valley, the numerous full-grown trees within sight, gay in all the gorgeous livery of autumn, Mr. Pease observed:-" What changes happen in a single lifetime! Look at those fine old trees; every one of them has been planted by my own hand. When I was a boy I was fond of planting, and my father indulged me in my pastime.

I went about with a spade in my hand, planting trees everywhere as far as you can see: they grew whilst I slept; and now see what a goodly array they make! Aye," continued he, "but RAILWAYS are a far more extraordinary growth even than these. They have grown up not only since I was a boy, but since I became a man. When I started the Stockton and Darlington Railway, some five-and-thirty years since, I was already fifty years old. Nobody could then have dreamt what railways would have grown to, within one man's lifetime."

In projecting a railway from Witton Colliery, a few miles above Darlington, to Stockton, in the year 1817, Edward Pease at first stood almost alone. Long before this railway was projected, as early as the year 1768,-the scheme of a canal had been discussed, and Brindley, the engineer, who had at one period of his life worked in the neighbourhood as a labourer, was consulted. The project, however, proceeded no further, probably from want of support. In 1812, Mr. Rennie, the engineer, was employed to make a survey of a tramroad. But the commercial distress which then prevailed in the county of Durham prevented the project from ripening to maturity. The necessity for finding an outlet and new markets for the Bishop Auckland coals continued, however, to be felt. What was at first contemplated by Mr. Pease, was merely the means of effecting land sales of coal at the stations along the proposed railway. The shipment of coal from the Tees was not taken into account as a source of profit. It was not expected that coals could be led there to advantage, or that more than 10,000 tons could be disposed of at Stockton, and those merely for the purpose of ballasting ships disembarking goods at that port. The conveyance of passengers was not even dreamt of.

In getting up a company for the purpose of surveying and forming a railway, Mr. Pease had great difficulties to contend

with. The people of the neighbourhood spoke of it as a ridiculous undertaking, and predicted that it would be the ruin of all who had to do with it. Even those who were most interested in the opening out of new markets for the vend of their coals, were indifferent, if not actually hostile. The Stockton merchants and ship-owners, whom the formation of a railway was calculated to benefit so greatly, gave the project no support; and not twenty shares were subscribed for in the whole town. Mr. Pease nevertheless persevered with the formation of a company; and he induced many of his friends and relations to subscribe for shares. The Richardsons and Backhouses, members, like himself, of the Society of Friends, influenced by his persuasion, united themselves with him; and so many of the same denomination (having great confidence in these influential Darlington names) followed their example and subscribed for shares, that the railway subsequently obtained the designation, which it still enjoys, of "The Quakers' Line."

The engineer first employed to make a survey of the tramroad, was a Mr. Overton, who had had considerable experience in the formation of similar roads in Wales. The necessary preliminary steps were taken in the year 1818 to apply for an Act to authorise the construction of a tramroad from Witton to Stockton. The measure was, however, strongly opposed by the Duke of Cleveland, because the proposed line passed near to one of his fox covers; and, having considerable parliamentary influence, he succeeded in throwing out the bill by a majority of only thirteen,—above one hundred members voting in support of the measure. nobleman said, when he heard of the division, "Well, if the Quakers in these times, when nobody knows anything about railways, can raise up such a phalanx as they have done on this occasion, I should recommend the county gentlemen to be very wary how they oppose them."

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