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

222 LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. [chap. xix.
road ; and that, when going against a strong wind, the progress
of a locomotive was retarded "very much." Mr. George
Leather, C. E., the engineer of the Croydon and "Wandsworth
Railway, on which he said the wagons went at from two and a
half to three miles an hour, also gave his evidence against the
practicability of Mr. Stephenson's plan. He considered his
estimate a " very wild " one. He had no confidence in locomo-
tive power. The Weardale Railway, of which he was engineer,
had given up the use of locomotive engines. He supposed that,
when used, they travelled at three and a half to four miles an
hour, because they were considered to be then more effective
than at a higher speed.*
When these distinguished engineers had given their evidence,
Mr. Alderson summed up in a speech which extended over two
days. He declared Mr. Stephenson's plan to be " the most ab-
surd scheme that ever entered into the head of man to conceive.
My learned friends," said he, " almost endeavoured to stop my
examination ; they wished me to put in the plan, but I had rather
have the exhibition of Mr. Stephenson in th'at box. I say he
never had a plan—I believe he never had one—I do not believe
he is capable of making one. His is a mind perpetually fluctuat-
ing between opposite difficulties : he neither knows whether he
is to make bridges over roads or rivers, of one size or of another
or to make embankments, or cuttings, or inclined planes, or in
what way the thing is to be carried into effect. Whenever a
difficulty is pressed, as in the case of a tunnel, he gets out of it
at one end, and when you try to catch him at that, he gets out at
the other." Mr. Alderson proceeded to declaim against the gross
ignorance of this so-called engineer, who proposed to make " im-
possible ditches by the side of an impossible railway " through
Chat Moss, and he contrasted with his evidence that given " by
that most respectable gentleman we have called before you, I
mean Mr. Giles, who has executed a vast number of works,"
&c. Then Mr. Giles's evidence as to the impossibility of mak-
ing any railway over the Moss that would stand short of the
bottom, was emphatically dwelt upon ; and Mr. Alderson pro-
ceeded to say,-^" Having now, sir, gone through Chat Moss, and
# Evidence, p. 436.
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