After walking a distance of about half a mile, the inspecting party arrived at the scene of the "frightful accident," about which so much alarm had been spread in Manchester. All that was visible was a certain unevenness of the ground, which had been forced up by the invert under it giving way; thus the ballast had been loosened, the drain running along the centre of the road had been displaced, and small pools of water stood about. But the whole of the walls and the roof were as perfect there as in any other part of the tunnel. Mr. Stephenson explained the cause of the accident: The blue shale, he said, through which the excavation passed at that point, was considered so hard and firm, as to render it unnecessary to build the invert very strong there. But shale is always a deceptive material. Subjected to the influence of the atmosphere, it gives but a treacherous support. In this case, falling away like quicklime, it had left the lip of the invert alone to support the pressure of the arch above, and hence its springing inwards and upwards. Mr. Stephenson directed the attention of the visitors to the completeness of the arch overhead, where not the slightest fracture or yielding could be detected. Speaking of the work, in the course of the same day, he said, "I will stake my character, my head, if that tunnel ever give way, so as to cause danger to any of the public passing through it. The fracture that has taken place must, doubtless, be a disappointment to the directors, by delaying the opening of the line; but the fact is, that the invert is covered with material, so that we could not find it out till that material was taken away, so as to make the culvert through to carry the water from end to end; but I believe that if the invert were taken away altogether, the tunnel would stand firm. It is a question now with me, whether we ought to put the invert in again, or to strengthen the foot of the side walls. ever, it being a work of such magnitude, it is perhaps safer

How

to take a little more time to it, and make it perfect. With respect to the tunnel, taking it as a whole, I don't think there is such another piece of work in the world. It is the greatest work that has yet been done of this kind, and there has been less repairing than is usual. Indeed, no tunnel of such magnitude have I known with so little re-doing of the work. It is a great work-though one where an engineer might be beaten in his calculations, for he cannot beforehand see into those little fractured parts of the earth he may meet with. This is a dislocated part of a very high country, where the débris has come off at a time and in a place where we could have no chance of examining it, except by excavation. But this is the only weak part we have met with. It runs diagonally across the tunnel. It begins at one end of the fractured part and runs to its other end. It is a part that has chipped off from its neighbours, and not being so firmly fixed as the adjoining rocks on each side, when we took off the bottom it eased a little, and that has been the cause of the upper part throwing a little more pressure upon the invert." As Mr. Stephenson had promised, the invert was put in; the tunnel was made perfectly safe; and the traffic began to be carried over the entire length of the line early in the year 1841, and has continued without interruption ever since.

In

In 1838, Mr. Stephenson was acting as engineer for the Blackwall Railway, in conjunction with Mr. Bidder. their united report of that year we find them recommending stationary engines for the working of that line, as being the more safe and economical, principally on the ground of the sharpness of the curves, the steepness of the gradients, and the shortness of the railway. Subsequent experience, how ever, of the powers of the locomotive, and of its economy in working as compared with fixed engines, induced the eventual abandonment of the latter power in favour of the former. It is worthy of notice that Mr. Stephenson, who

was always ready to adopt improved modes of working railways, employed the electric telegraph at a very early period to regulate the working of that line; indeed, he was one of the first of the railway engineers who recognised its advantages for this purpose.

The North Midland Railway was a favourite line of Mr. Stephenson's for many reasons. Its works were of a formidable character; it passed through a rich mining district, in which it opened up many valuable coal-fields, and it formed part of the great main line of communication between London and Edinburgh, on the completion of which, by the East Coast line through Newcastle, Mr. Stephenson had anxiously set his heart. The North Midland Railway was originally projected by gentlemen interested in the London and Birmingham line. The intention was to carry the latter railway from Rugby to Leeds; but, finding themselves anticipated in part by the projection of the Midland Counties line from Rugby to Derby, they confined themselves to the district between. Derby and Leeds. The projectors appointed Mr. Stephenson to examine the country, and lay out the best line; and after a careful and laborious investigation, in which he was ably assisted by his pupil Mr. Swanwick, he reported the result to a public meeting held at Leeds, in September, 1835; and the result was the approval of the line as laid out by him. A subscription list was at once opened, and Mr. John Marshall, one of the most public-spirited and influential manufacturers of Leeds, having put his name down for 35,000l., the shares were soon taken and the project was fairly launched. The act was obtained in 1836, and the first ground was broken in February, 1837. The execution of the works extended over a period of above three years, and the line was opened throughout in July, 1840.

Although the North Midland Railway was only one of the many great works of the same kind executed at that time, it

was enough of itself to be the achievement of a life. Compare it, for example, with Napoleon's much-vaunted military road over the Simplon, and it will at once be seen how greatly it excels that work, not only in the constructive skill displayed in it, but also in its cost and magnitude, and the amount of labour employed in its formation. The road of the Simplon is 45 miles in length; the North Midland Railway 72 miles. The former has 50 bridges and 5 tunnels, measuring together 1338 feet in length; the latter has 200 bridges and 7 tunnels, measuring together 11,400 feet, or about 24 miles. The former cost about 720,000l. sterling, the latter above 3,000,000l. Napoleon's grand military road was constructed in six years, at the public cost of the two great kingdoms of France and Italy; while Stephenson's much more magnificent railway was formed in about three years, by a company of private merchants and capitalists out of their own funds, and under their own superintendence.* And if the name of the Chevalier Fabbroni has been honoured for the design and construction of the military road across the Simplon, how much higher ought the name of George Stephenson to rank as the engineer and architect of the North Midland, the Manchester and Leeds, the Liverpool and Manchester, and many other equally gigantic works of great public utility!

Mr. Stephenson's strong sagacity, assisted by the experience he had gained in the northern coal districts, early detected the importance of the Midland Railway as opening up new markets for the vend of coal which abounded in the district through which it passed. At a time when everybody else was sceptical as to the possibility of coals being carried from the midland counties, and sold in London at a price to

* The number of men employed on the line, while the works were in full operation, was between 9000 and 10,000, assisted by eighteen stationary and several locomotive engines. The quantity of earthwork on the line amounted to 9,500,000 cubic yards.

compete with sea-borne coals, he declared his firm conviction that the time was fast approaching when the London market would be regularly supplied with north-country coals led by railway. One of the greatest advantages of railways, in his opinion, was that they would bring coal and iron, the staple products of the country, to the doors of all England. "The strength of Britain," he would say, "lies in her coal-beds; and the locomotive is destined, above all other agencies, to bring it forth. The Lord Chancellor now sits upon a bag of wool; but wool has long ceased to be emblematical of the staple commodity of England. He ought rather to sit upon a bag of coals, though it might not prove quite so comfortable a seat. Then think of the Lord Chancellor being addressed as the noble and learned lord on the coal-sack! I am afraid it wouldn't answer, after all."

To one gentleman he said, "We want from the coal-mining, the iron-producing, and manufacturing districts, a great railway for the carriage of these valuable products. We want, if I may so say, a stream of steam running directly through the country, from the North to London, and from other similar districts to London; speed is not so much an object as utility and cheapness." And at a meeting of railway proprietors at York, in 1840, he told them "there was little doubt in his mind that coals would in a very short time be supplied to the London market from that county by means of their line."* He proved his conviction by acting upon it, taking a lease of the Clay Cross Colliery, in anticipation of the demand for railway-led coals. In this, as in some other matters, Mr. Stephenson was rather ahead of his time; and though the Clay Cross Colliery did not prove a very successful venture, and he did not live to see his anticipations as to the supply of the London coal market fully realised, yet he

* Meeting of the York and North Midland Company, 19th July, 1840.