CHAP. XXXV.] OPENING OF TRENT VALLEY RAILWAY. 487

way. The formal opening took place on the 26th of June, 1847, the line having thus been constructed in less than two years.

What a change had come over the spirit of the landed gentry since the time when George Stephenson had first projected a railway through that district! Then they were up in arms against him, characterising him as a devastator and spoiler of their estates; now he was hailed as one of the greatest benefactors of the age. Sir Robert Peel, the chief political personage in England, welcomed him as a guest and a friend, and spoke of him as the chief of our practical philosophers. A dozen members of parliament, seven baronets, with all the landed magnates of the district, assembled to celebrate the opening of the railway. The clergy were there to bless the enterprise, and to bid all hail to railway progress, as "enabling them to carry on with greater facility those operations in connection with religion which were calculated to be so beneficial to the country." The army, speaking through the mouth of General A'Court, acknowledged the vast importance of railways, as tending to improve the military defences of the country. And representatives from eight corporations were there to acknowledge the great benefits which railways had conferred upon the merchants, tradesmen, and working classes of their respective towns and cities. Amongst those present who could not fail to contrast the now triumphant success of railways with the dismal forebodings uttered twenty years before, was Mr. William Yates Peel, one of the earliest supporters of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

Sir Robert Peel made a capital speech on the occasion, pointing out that, at a remote period in the history of British high roads 2000 years ago, Julius Agricola, who united in

Speech of Archdeacon Hodson at the opening of the Trent Valley Railway.

his person both engineer and contractor,- being the Stephenson and Brassey of his day, - had formed a direct line of communication between London and Chester, though with unfavourable gradients. As to the immense advantages of railways, there could be no manner of doubt; they were, in his judgment, "destined to effect a greater social revolution than any invention since the art of printing was discovered;" tending, as they did, to promote the moral and social welfare, and to advance the political security of the kingdom, to establish new bonds of connection between England and Ireland, and to develope the industrial energies and resources of both countries. Sir Robert, in the course of his speech, invited "the lions of the broad and narrow gauge" to forget the memory of all former grievances for that day, even if, unfortunately, they were doomed to be revived again on the

morrow.

Mr. Stephenson, however, was so strongly convinced of the great mistakes which had been committed of late years -mistakes which had, in no small measure, been encouraged by Sir Robert Peel himself, greatly to the damage of railway property, that he would not omit the opportunity, as he said, of "giving him a rub" on the occasion, and speaking out his mind freely on the subject of direct lines, steep gra dients, and the atmospheric "humbug," all of which had at one time been patronised by Sir Robert, when Premier. In the course of his reply, he said, " When I look back to the time when I first projected a locomotive railway in this neighbourhood, I cannot but feel astonished at the opinions which then prevailed. We were told, even by celebrated engineers, that it would be impossible ever to establish railways. Judge, then, how proud must now be the feelings of one who, foreseeing the results of railways, has risen from the lower ranks on their success! I may venture to make a reference to what the right honourable baronet said relative

CHAP. XXXV.] SPEECH AT TRENT VALLEY OPENING.

489

to Julius Agricola and a direct line. If Julius Agricola laid down the most direct lines, it must be recollected that he had no heavy goods' trains to provide for, and gradients were of no consequence. The line that general took was probably very good for his troops, where the hills would serve to establish his watches; but such lines would be in no way applicable at the present day, where the road is covered with long goods' trains propelled by the locomotive. What we require now is a road with such gradients that locomotives shall be able to carry the heaviest loads at the least expense. The right honourable baronet will excuse me if I say that to have a line that is direct is not the main thing. Had he studied the laws of practical mechanics as I have done, he would, doubtless, have regarded good gradients as one of the most important considerations in a railway. I will also venture to say a word as to the broad gauge. I am afraid that this is another misconception, almost as great as the atmospheric railway; only they have had the advantage of my engines to drag them through. The Great Western commenced operations by endeavouring to have everything different from us,— a different gauge and different engines. They put the boiler on one carriage and the engine on another, and they used ten-feet wheels, which were to go at a hundred miles an hour. But what became of those engines? They required porters to help them out of the station; and then they would not work. Luckily, however, we had sent them one engine from Newcastle, called the 'North Star,' to carry on the traffic; and though, like a horse, an engines requires rest, yet it was continually being called out to bring in the trains, thereby doing double duty in conducting the traffic for which the original broad-gauge engines were found incapable."

Nothing had occurred to weaken his confidence in the locomotive; it had gone on increasing in power and efficiency,

perfected by the labours of a succession of eminent engineers, chief amongst whom was his son; and he regarded it as more than ever the king of machines. Doubtless, he had a strong bias in favour of his own engine,-his mind having, like all others, become almost exclusively impressed with the idea which it had exclusively pursued. Nevertheless, continued experience only served to confirm the soundness of his opinion as to the superiority of the locomotive. That his views on the subject of gauge and gradients were equally sound is now, we believe, generally admitted by railway managers and engineers.

Shortly after the triumphant celebration of the success of the railway system at Tamworth, Mr. Stephenson was invited to be present at an interesting assemblage of railway men in Manchester, at which a testimonial was presented to Mr. J. P. Westhead, the former chairman of the Manchester and Birmingham Railway. The original Liverpool and Manchester line had swelled into gigantic proportions. It formed the original nucleus of the vast system now known as the London and North Western Railway. First one line, and then another, of which Mr. Stephenson had been engineer, became amalgamated with it, until the main line extended from London to Lancaster, stretching out its great arms to Leeds in one direction and Holyhead in the other, and exercising an influence over other northern lines as far as Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen. On the occasion to which we refer, Mr. Stephenson, the father of railways, was not forgotten. It was mainly his ingenuity, energy, and perseverance that had called forth the commercial enterprise which issued in this magnificent system of internal communication; and the railway men who assembled to do honour to Mr. Westhead, did not fail to recognise the great practical genius through whose labours it had been established. He was" the rock from which they had been hewn," observed

CHAP. XXXV.]

INTERVIEW WITH EMERSON.

491

Mr. Westhead, the father of railway enterprise, — and the forerunner of all that had been done to extend the locomotive system throughout England and throughout the world.

This was the last railway meeting that Mr. Stephenson attended, and the last occasion on which he appeared in public, with the exception of a soirée of the Leeds Mechanics' Institute, in December, 1847. The words which he then addressed to the young men at Leeds were highly characteristic. Though crowned with honours, the architect of the railway system, and the constructor of some of the greatest works of his time, "he stood before them," he said, "but as a humble mechanic. He had risen from a lower standing than the meanest person there; and all that he had been enabled to accomplish in the course of his life had been done through perseverance. He said this for the purpose of encouraging youthful mechanics to do as he had done-to persevere." The words were simple, but forcible and pregnant with life and instruction for all men.

In the spring of 1848 Mr. Stephenson was invited to Whittington House, near Chesterfield, the residence of his friend and former pupil, Mr. Swanwick, to meet the distinguished American, Emerson. It was interesting to see those two remarkable men, so different in most respects, and whose lines of thought and action lay in such widely different directions, yet so quick to recognise each other's merits. Mr. Stephenson was not, of course, acquainted with Mr. Emerson as an author; and the contemplative American might not be supposed to be particularly interested beforehand in the English engineer, whom he knew by reputation only as a giant in the material world. But there was in both an equal aspiration after excellence, each in his own sphere,the æsthetic and abstract tendencies of the one complementing the keen and accurate perceptions of the material