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

CHAP, xvm.] ARTICLE IN THE "QUARTERLY." 207
George Stephenson's idea was indeed at that time regarded
as but the dream of a chimerical projector. It stood before the
public friendless, struggling hard to gain a footing, but scarcely
daring to lift itself into notice for fear of ridicule. The civil
engineers generally rejected the notion of a Locomotive Railway
; and when no leading man of the day could be found to
stand forward in support of the Killingworth mechanic, its
chances of success must have been pronounced small. But,
like all great truths, the time was surely to come when it was to
prevail.
When such was the hostility of the civil engineers, no wonder
the reviewers were puzzled. The Quarterly,* in an able article
in support of the projected Liverpool and Manchester Railway,
—while admitting its absolute necessity, and insisting that there
was no choice left but a railroad, on which the journey between
Liverpool and Manchester, whether performed by horses or
engines, would always be accomplished " within- the day,"
nevertheless scouted the idea of travelling at a greater speed
than eight or nine miles an hour. " We are not the advocates,"
said the reviewer, "for visionary projects that interfere with
useful establishments; we scout the idea of a general raxlToaA as
altogether impracticable, or as one, at least, which will be ren-
dered nugatory in lines, where the traffic is so small that the receipts
would scarcely pay for the consumption of coals. . . . The
gross exaggerations of the powers of the locomotive engine, or,
to speak in plain English, the steam-carriage, may delude for a
time, but must end in the mortification of those concerned."
Adverting to a project for forming a railway to Woolwich, by
which passengers were to be drawn by locomotive engines,
moving with twice the velocity and with greater safety than
ordinary coaches, the reviewer proceeded :— " What can be more
plans for speedy oommunioation, were treated as chimerical; and he recol-
lected a conversation he had had with Mr. George Stephenson, which, although
perhaps that gentleman had forgotten it, he (Mr. Biddulph) had not. Mr. Stephenson
on that occasion ohserved, ' Whatever may be said of horses or dogs
racing, what comparison could there be between that and seeing an engine
flying across. the country with more than a hundred people in its train, at a far
greater speed than either the fleetest horses or dogs could run? '
* Quarterly Review, for March, 1825.
"