The life of George Stephenson, railway engineer - Lighthouse ...

CHAP. XV.] A TRAMROAD PROJECTED. Ig7
of wharves, boats, and horses. Cotton lay at Liverpool for
weeks together, waiting to be removed ; and it occupied a
longer time to transport the cargoes from Liverpool to Man-
chester than it had done to bring them across the Atlantic from
the United States to England. Carts and wagons were tried
but these proved altogether insufficient. Sometimes manufac-
turing operations had to be suspended altogether ; and during a
frost, when the canals were frozen up, the communication was
entirely stopped. The consequences were often disastrous, alike
to operatives, merchants, and manufacturers. The same diffi-
culty was experienced in the conveyance of manufactured goods
from Manchester to Liverpool for export. Mr. Huskisson, in
the House of Commons, referring to these ruinous delays, truly
observed that " cotton was detained a fortnight at Liverpool;
while the Manchester manufacturers were obliged to suspend
their labours, and goods manufactured at Manchester for foreign
markets could not be transmitted in time, in consequence of the
tardy conveyance."
The Liverpool merchants and the Manchester manufacturers
were therefore prepared to welcome any new mode of transit
which would relieve them of the losses arising from these con-
stant interruptions to their commercial operations. The scheme
of a tramroad was, however, so new to them, that it is not sur-
prising they should have hesitated before committing themselves
fully to it. Mr. Sandars, an influential Liverpool merchant,
was amongst the first to broach the subject of a tramroad or
railway. He himself had suffered in his business, in common
with many other merchants, from the insufficiency of the exist-
ing modes of communication, and was ready to give due consid-
eration to any plan presenting elements of practical efficiency,
which proposed a remedy for the generally admitted grievance.
The first idea was a tramroad, to be worked by horses, though
this gradually gave way to a larger and more efficient plan.
Mr. James met Mr. Sanders frequently to discuss the subject
and about the month of June, 1821, a party, consisting of Mr.
Sandars, Mr. James, Mr. Francis Giles, and "Mr. Padley, (Mr.
James's brother-in-law, a surveyor,) went out and inspected the
ground in the neighbourhood of Liverpool, in order to ascertain
; ;