“The claim of Gray,” said the Westminster Review, “is, that he found the railway and the locomotive in the condition of mere miners’ tools, dragged them to light, and proclaimed them as the means of universal progress. He published a practical plan, in 1820, which was scoffed at on all hands; but in 1830 was made a fact by George Stephenson, though in 1829 it was almost considered a certain thing that the haulage on the Liverpool and Manchester would either be performed by horse-power or by stationary engines.”
The truth of these assertions has never been called in question. The railway press has generally recognized it. Public subscriptions for the public benefactor were proposed. A petition in his favor was forwarded to the House of Commons. But Thomas Gray was poor, and without influence; and has added another name to those who have benefited and been buffeted by mankind. Neglected by the directors of the great works he had pioneered into existence; neglected by the state, whose profits from railway stamps and railway duties are mainly owing to him; neglected by the great mass of men, who avail themselves of the conveyance which once they derided; the “railway pioneer,” that title which to the last he so dearly loved, died steeped to his lips in poverty, while the speculators reaped large gains.
It is a curious circumstance in financial history, that Lord Francis Egerton, the representative of the great canal projector, received shares which produced a clear profit of more than £100,000, to prevent his opposition in the House of Peers; although it is a most suggestive fact, that, with the increase of railway travelling, canal property has absolutely improved. The following is the price of shares in 1824:—
| OLD BIRMINGHAM CANAL. | ||
| Original Cost. | Value in 1824. | Annual Dividend. |
| £140 | £2,840 | £100 |
| STAFFORD AND WORCESTER. | ||
| £140 | £960 | £40 |
| TRENT AND MERSEY. | ||
| £200 | £4,600 | £150 and bonus. |
FOOTNOTES:
[5] The road to Paddington, now known as the New Road, was hotly contested by the Duke of Bedford, on account of the dust it would create, and the view it would abridge. Walpole wrote, that the Duke was never in town to feel the dust, and was too short-sighted to see the prospect.
[6] The attempt of Mr. Ogle to run locomotives on the public roads must have cost him many thousands; and nothing but the same popular prejudice which attempted to prove that engines on railroads would send horses mad with fright, prevented this great attempt from becoming general. The reader must remember the grave shaking of heads which met Mr. Ogle’s cherished design, as similar heads have always been shaking at novel propositions.
CHAPTER XIV.
Monetary Excitement.—Approaches to the Stock Exchange.—Gold Company.—Equitable Loan Company.—Frauds in Companies.—Loan to Foreign States.—Poyais Bubble.