Yes, it did.
Having decided upon steam-power, the next thing was to secure the right sort of man to carry on the work. Stephenson was that man. His energy and ability were indispensable. Before trying to get a charter from Parliament, the route needed to be surveyed again, and a careful estimate of expenses made.
The Stockton road done, Stephenson was free to engage in this new enterprise; his success in that proving his principles true on a larger scale.
The canal owners now took alarm. They saw there was a dangerous rival, and they came forward in the most civil and conciliatory manner, professing a wish to oblige, and offering to put steam-power on their canals. It was too late. Their day had gone by.
You know the violent opposition made to a former survey. How would it be again? Did three years scatter the ignorance out of which it grew? Ah, no. There was little if any improvement. The surveyors were watched and dogged by night and by day. Boys hooted at them, and gangs of turbulent men threatened them with violence. Mr. Stephenson barely escaped duckings, and his unfortunate instruments capture and destruction. Indeed, he had to take with him a body-guard to defend them. Much of the surveying had to be done by stealth, when people were at dinner, or with a dark lantern at night.
When dukes and lords headed the hostility, you cannot wonder that their dependants carried it on. One gentleman declared that he would rather meet a highwayman or see a burglar on his premises than an engineer; and of the two he thought the former the more respectable! Widows complained of damaged corn-fields, and gardeners of their violated strawberry-beds; and though Stephenson well knew that in many cases not a whit of damage had been done, he paid them for fancied injuries in the hope of stopping their tongues.
SURVEYING AT NIGHT.
A survey made under such circumstances must needs have been imperfect; but it was as good as could be made. And no time was lost in taking measures to get a Bill before Parliament.
A storm of opposition against railways suddenly arose, and spread over every corner of the kingdom. Newspapers and pamphlets swarmed with articles crying them down. Canal and turnpike owners spared no pains to crush them. The most extraordinary stories were set afloat concerning their dangers. Boilers would burst, and passengers be blown to atoms; houses along the way would be burned; the air would become black with smoke and poisoned by cinders; and property on the road would be stripped of its value.