speakable advantages as mechanics compared with the workmen of his early days. They had books; but he remembered the time" when a good library of books would have been worth worlds to him."

A new stimulus was given to the Mechanics' Institutes of Derbyshire in 1841, by the adoption of visits to each other by railway. The civilising and educating influences of this great machine were thus carried on under Mr. Stephenson's own auspices, and almost at his very door. The Mechanics' Institution of Belper paid a visit, three hundred strong, to that of Chesterfield; and in a few weeks the latter returned the visit with interest. On both occasions Mr. Stephenson was the hero of the day. One after another the speakers acknowledged, that to him, the most distinguished mechanic living, they had been indebted for the improved means of transit, which enabled them thus to hold intercourse with each other. Mr. Stephenson was, of course, a speaker on both occasions, and threw out many shrewd remarks and suggestions for the consideration of his friends, the young mechanics present. After describing the great difficulties which he had to encounter in connection with the locomotive, he said, “but that has been little compared with the difficulty I have had in the management of man. I have found the engineering of railways to be light work, compared with the engineering of men." A favourite subject of his observations at those mechanics' meetings was, the properties of the Crank, and the mistakes which mechanics had so often made with respect to it. At Chesterfield he concluded with a piece of sound practical advice: -"As an encouragement to young mechanics, I may state to them, that I commenced my mechanical career with very scanty means; and by close application and study, I have succeeded in establishing a manufactory which sends machinery to almost every kingdom in Europe. I may add, that nothing conduces, in my opinion,

so much to the success in life of a thinking mechanic as sobriety, coupled with a steady and persevering application to his employment; never, however, in the midst of all his engagements, forgetting to contribute, by every means in his power, to the comfort of his wife and family." At both Belper and Chesterfield, Mr. Stephenson invited the members, at any time when they thought they had found out any new invention, to bring their discovery to him, and he would always be ready to give them his opinion and assistance. This invitation got into the newspapers, and the consequence was, that he was very shortly flooded with letters, soliciting his opinion as to inventions which his correspondents thought they had made. He soon found that he had set himself a formidable task, and had roused the speculative and inventive faculties of the working men of nearly all England. He was, however, ready on all occasions to give his advice; and he frequently subscribed sums of money to enable struggling inventors to bring their schemes to a fair trial, when he considered them to be useful and feasible.

Though Mr. Stephenson had retired from the more active pursuit of his profession, he was, in 1844, appointed engineer to the Whitehaven and Maryport Railway, in conjunction with his friend and former assistant, Mr. John Dixon. The line was actively promoted by Lord Lowther and the members for the county, and Mr. Stephenson consented to - his name being regarded as a tower of strength in that district. This, however, was the only new project with which he was connected in that year.

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He was also, about the same time, elected chairman of the Yarmouth and Norwich Railway, a line in which he took much interest, and had invested a good deal of money. At the meetings of the Company, he confessed that he felt he was more in his place as a railway engineer than as a railway chairman; but as he and his friends held about three-fourths

of the shares in the concern, he felt bound to stand by it until its completion, which was effected in April, 1844. This line, like most others, was greatly fleeced by the landowners of the district, who sought to extort the most exorbitant prices for their land. One instance may be cited. A Mr. Tuck claimed 90007. as compensation for severance, in addition to the very high price allowed for the land itself. After a careful investigation had been made by a jury, they awarded 8501., or less than one-tenth of the amount claimed. One of the witnesses examined on the part of the landowners, was Mr. R. H. Gurney, the banker of Norwich, who exhibited a hatred of railways equalled only by that of Colonel Sibthorpe. On his cross-examination he said, "I have never travelled by rails; I am an enemy to them; I have opposed the Norwich Railway; I have left a sum of money in my will to oppose railroads!" Another witness, a Mr. Driver, admitted that, on a previous occasion, he had estimated the value of certain land required for a railway at from 35,000l. to 40,000l., for which a jury had awarded only 20007. Such was the extortion to which those early railways were subjected, and which, in one way or another, has fallen ultimately upon the public.

Mr. Stephenson had been looking forward with much interest to the completion of the East Coast route to Scotland as far as his native town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He had done much to form that route, both by constructing the lines from Derby to York, and by bringing before the public his plan for carrying the main line northwards to Edinburgh. A bill with this object was again brought before Parliament in 1844. On the 18th of June in that year, the Newcastle and Darlington line-an important link of the great main highway to the north-was completed and publicly opened thus connecting the Thames and the Tyne by a continuous line of railway. On that day, Mr. Stephenson, Mr. Hudson,

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and a distinguished party of railway men, travelled by express train from London to Newcastle in about nine hours. It was a great event, and was worthily celebrated. The population of Newcastle held holiday; and a banquet held in the Assembly Rooms the same evening assumed the form of an ovation to Mr. Stephenson and his son. Thirty years before, George Stephenson, in the capacity of a workman, had been labouring at the construction of his first locomotive in the immediate neighbourhood. By slow and laborious steps, he had worked his way on, dragging the locomotive into notice, and raising himself in public estimation. He had now, at length, established the great railway system, and came back amongst his townsmen to receive their greeting.

The Honourable Mr. Liddell, M.P., whose father, Lord Ravensworth, had helped and encouraged George Stephenson to make his first locomotive at Killingworth, appropriately occupied the chair, and, in introducing Mr. Stephenson to the meeting, alluded to the recent rapid progress of railroads, and especially to the last great event in their history — the opening of an uninterrupted railway communication from the Thames to the Tyne-whereby "he had been enabled to take part in the proceedings of the House of Commons at a late hour in the night, and to arrive at Newcastle in time for an early dinner on the following day. This wonderful achievement was the result of the capital, skill, and enterprise of England; and if he (Mr. Liddell) felt proud of this new triumph of his country, what must be the feelings of that illustrious individual now sitting amongst them, who, though born in humble circumstances, had, by the force of his genius and his industry, so distinguished himself as to hand down the name of Stephenson to everlasting fame! He would not have referred to the position from which Mr. Stephenson had sprung, were it not that he himself, so far from being ashamed of his origin, was in the habit of alluding

to it; and if Mr. Stephenson took a pride in the humility of his birth, surely his countrymen might be proud of the obscurity of his youth, as compared with the prominence of his present position! He was happy to add, that, distinguished as he was by his genius and his deeds, his sterling honesty reflected higher honour upon George Stephenson than even those rare abilities with which he was endowed by the Almighty." Referring to the speech of Prebendary Townsend, Mr. Liddell stated that, "by the construction of a railway from London to Folkestone and Dover, thousands of persons had been enabled to spend their last Whitsuntide holidays at Calais and Boulogne, among their natural enemies; and when such was the case, the two nations would in time be purged of their senseless antipathies, and learn to look upon each other, not as foreigners and foes, but members in common of the great human family. Mr. Stephenson, therefore, might truly be looked upon as the great pacificator of the age. And yet a few years ago, he was but a working engineman at a colliery! But he was a man not only of talent, but of genius. Happily, also, he was a man of industry and of character. He constructed the first successful engine that travelled by its own spontaneous power over an iron railroad; and on such a road, and by such an engine, a communication had now been established between London and Newcastle. The author of this system of travelling had lived long enough for his fame, but not long enough for his country. He had reared to himself a monument more durable than brass or marble, and based it on a foundation whereon it would rest unshaken by the storms of time."

Mr. Stephenson, in replying to Mr. Liddell's complimentary speech, took occasion to deliver that memorable autobiography to which we have already referred; and, at the risk of repetition, we venture to insert it here in a more