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

CHAP. XX.] A NEW SURVEY UNDEETAKEN. 227
CHAPTER XX.
THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY BILL CARRIED,
AND MR. STEPHENSON APPOINTED ENGINEER.
The result of this first application to Parliament was so far
discouraging. Mr. Stephenson had been so terribly abused by
the leading counsel for the opposition in the course of the pro-
ceedings before the Committee,^stigmatized by them as an igno-
ramus, a fool, and a maniac,—that even his friends seem for a
time to have lost faith in him and in the locomotive system,
whose efficiency he continued to uphold- Things never looked
blacker for the success of the railway system than at the close
of this great parliamentary struggle. And yet it was on the
very eve of its triumph. The absolute necessity for a new line
of communication between Liverpool and Manchester had been
proved beyond all doubt ; and the Committee of Directors ap-
pointed to watch the measure in Parliament were so determined
to press on the project of a railway, even though it should have
to be worked merely by horse power, that the bill had scarcely
been defeated, ere they met, in London, to consider their next
step.
They called their parliamentary friends together to consult as
to their future proceedings. Among those who attended the
meeting of gentlemen with this object, in the Royal Hotel, St.
James's Street, on the- 4th of June, were Mr. Huskisson, Mr.
Spring Rice, and General Gascoyne. Mr. Huskisson urged the
promoters to renew their application to Parliament. They had
secured the first step by the passing of their preamble; the
measure was of great public importance ; and whatever tempo-
rary opposition it might meet with, he conceived that Parliament
must ultimately give its sanction to the undertaking. Similar