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

CHAP. XVIII.] THE OPPOSITION ORGANIZED. 203
They promised to employ steam-vessels both on the Mersey and
on the canals. One of the companies offered to reduce its length
by three miles, at a considerable expenditure. At the same time
they made a show of lowering their rates. But it was all too late
for the project of the railway had now gone so far that the pro-
moters (who might have been conciliated by such overtures at
an earlier period) felt they were fully committed to the scheme,
and that now they could not well draw back. Besides, the rem-
edies offered by the canal companies could only have had the
effect of staving off the difficulty for a brief season,—the absolute
necessity of forming a new line of communication between Liver-
pool and Manchester becoming more urgent from year to year.
Arrangements were therefore made for proceeding with the bill
in the parliamentary session of 1825. On this becoming known,
the canal companies prepared to resist the measure tooth and
nail. The public were appealed to on the subject ; pamphlets
were written and newspapers were hired to revile the railway.
It was declared that its formation would prevent cows grazing
and hens laying. The poisoned air from the locomotives would
kill birds as they flew over them, and render the preservation of
pheasants and foxes no longer possible. Householders adjoining
the projected line were told that their houses would be burnt up
by the fire thrown from the engine-chimneys, while the air around
would be polluted by clouds of smoke. There would no longer
be any use for horses; and if railways extended, the species
would become extinguished, and oats and hay unsalable com-
modities. Travelling by road would be rendered highly dan-
gerous, and country inns would be ruined. Boilers would burst
and blow passengers to atoms. But there was always this con-
solation to wind up with—that the weight of the locomotive
would completely prevent its moving, and that railways, even if
made, could never be worked by steam-power
Nevertheless, the canal companies of Leeds, Liverpool, and
Birmingham, called upon every navigation company in the kingdom
to oppose railways wherever they were projected, but more
especially the projected Liverpool and Manchester line, the battle
with which they evidently regarded as their Armageddon. A
Birmingham newspaper invited opposition to the measure, and a
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