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

230 LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. [chap. xx.
aware of the smoke and the noise, the hiss and the whirl, which
locomotive engines, passing at the rate of ten or twelve miles an
hour, would occasion ? Neither the cattle ploughing in the fields
or grazing in the mfeadows could behold them without dismay.
. . . Iron would be raised in price 100 per cent., or, more
probably, exhausted altogether! It would be the greatest
nuisance, the most complete disturbance of quiet and comfort in
all parts of the kingdom, that the ingenuity of man could in-
vent !
"
Mr. Huskisson and other speakers, though unable to reply to
such arguments as these, strongly supported the bill ; and it
passed the third reading by a majority of eighty-eight to forty-
one.
The bill passed the House of Lords almost unanimously, the
only opponents being the Earl of Derby and his relative the
Earl of Wilton. " The evidence on both sides," says Mr. Booth
." was similar in effect to that offered in the House of Commons.
On the subject of the locomotive engine, however—a machine
which had been represented to the House of Commons in so
^^ormidable a light—evidence was brought forward by the oppo-
nents of the bill ; but so poor a case was made, and so little ob-
jectionable did the engine appear to be, even from the testimony
of the opponents, that the Lords did not think it necessary to
have any evidence on the other side, although it was tendered
by the counsel for the bill." * The cost of obtaining the Act
amounted to the enormous sum pf 27,000?.
At the first meeting of the directors of the Company at
Liverpool, the selection of a principal engineer was taken into
consideration. The magnitude of the proposed works, and the
vast consequences involved in the experiment, were deeply im-
pressed upon their minds ; and they i-esolved to secure the
services of a resident engineer of proved experience and ability.
Their attention was naturally directed to Mr. Stephenson as the
best man to carry out the undertaking ; at the same time they
desired to have the benefit of the Messrs. Eennie's professional
assistance in superintending the works. Mr. George Eennie
had an interview with the directors on the subject, and proposed
* Mr. Booth's Account, &o. p. 33.