[53] The first clause in any railway act empowering the employment of locomotive engines for the working of passenger traffic.
[54] This incident, communicated to the author by the late Edward Pease, has since been made the subject of a fine picture by Mr. A. Rankley, A.R.A., exhibited at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1861.
[55] Stephenson's recommendation of wrought-iron instead of cast-iron rails was the cause of a rupture between Mr. Losh and himself. Stephenson thought his duty was to give his employers the best advice; Losh thought his business was to push the patent cast-iron rails wherever he could. Stephenson regarded this view as sordid; and the two finally separated after a quarrel, in high dudgeon with each other.
[56] The rapid progress of the coal and merchandise traffic of the Stockton and Darlington line, of which Middlesbro' is the principal sea-port, may be inferred from the following brief statement of facts: The original estimate assumed that 165,488 tons of coal would be carried annually, and produce an income of £11,904. The revenue from other sources was taken at £4104. In 1827, the first year in which the coal and merchandise traffic was fully worked, the revenue from coal was £14,455; from lime, merchandise, and sundries, £3285; and from passengers (which had not been taken into account), £563. In 1860, when the original line of 25 miles had become extended to 125 miles, and the original capital of £150,000 had swelled to £3,800,000, the quantity of coal carried had increased to 3,045,596 tons in the year, besides 1,484,409 tons of ironstone and other minerals, producing a revenue of £280,375; while 1,484,409 tons of merchandise had been carried in the same year, producing £63,478, and 687,728 passengers, producing £45,398.
[57] The coaches were not allowed to be run upon the line without considerable opposition. We find Edward Pease writing to Joseph Sandars, of Liverpool, on the 18th of June, 1827: "Our railway coach proprietors have individually received notices of a process in the Exchequer for various fines, to the amount of £150, in penalties of £20 each, for neglecting to have the plates, with the numbers of their licenses, on the coach doors, agreeably to the provision of the Act 95 George IV. In looking into the nature of this proceeding and its consequences, it is clear, if the court shall confirm it by conviction, that we are undone as to the conveyance of passengers." Mr. Pease incidentally mentions the names of the several coach proprietors at the time—"Pickersgill and Co., Richard Scott, and Martha Hewson." The proceeding was eventually defeated, it being decided that the penalties only applied to coaches traveling on common or turnpike roads.
[58] "Many years ago I met in a public library with a bulky volume, consisting of the prospectuses of various projects bound up together, and labeled, 'Some of the Bubbles of 1825.' Among the projects thus described was one that has since been productive of the greatest and most rapid advance in the social condition of mankind effected since the first dawn of civilization: it was the plan of the company for constructing a railway between Liverpool and Manchester."—W. B. Hodge, in "Journal of the Institute of Actuaries," No. 40, July, 1860.
[59] "Wood on Railroads," ed. 1825, p. 290.
[60] George's Northumberland "burr" was so strong that it rendered him almost unintelligible to persons who were unfamiliar with it; and he had even thoughts of going to school again, for the purpose, if possible, of getting rid of it. In the year 1823, when Stephenson was forty-two years of age, we find his friend Thomas Richardson, of Lombard Street, writing to Samuel Thoroughgood, a schoolmaster at Peckham, as follows: "Dear Friend,—My friend George Stephenson, a man of first-rate abilities as an engineer, but of little or no education, wants to consult thee or some other person to see if he can not improve himself—he has so much Northumberland dialect, etc. He will be at my house on sixth day next, about five o'clock, if thou could make it convenient to see him. Thy assured friend, Thos. Richardson."
[61] Hugh Steele and Elijah Galloway afterward proceeded with the survey at one part of the line, and Messrs. Oliver and Blackett at another. The former couple seem to have made some grievous blunder in the levels on Chat Moss, and the circumstance weighed so heavily on Steele's mind that, shortly after hearing of the rejection of the bill, he committed suicide in Stephenson's office at Newcastle. Mr. Gooch informs us that this unhappy affair served to impress upon the minds of Stephenson's other pupils the necessity of insuring greater accuracy and attention in future, and that the lesson, though sad, was not lost upon them.
[62] When the Liverpool directors went to inspect the works in progress on the Moss, they were run along the temporary rails in the little three-feet gauge wagons used for forming the road. They were being thus impelled one day at considerable speed when the wagon suddenly ran off the road, and Mr. Moss, one of the directors, was thrown out in a soft place, from which, however, he was speedily extricated, not without leaving a deep mark. George used afterward laughingly to refer to the circumstance as "the meeting of the Mosses."