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

258 LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. [chap. xxii.
attend him ; and M. Uville, writing to his associates, declared
that Heaven had sent them Don Ricardo Trevethick for the
prosperity of the mines, and that " the Lord Warden had proposed
to erect his statue in massy silver.'' His friends at home
hailed with delight the triumphant success of Trevethick ; and
in describing these transactions, they stated that his emoluments
from the mines, taken at a moderate estimate, amounted to
100,000^. a year!*
Robert Stephenson's surprise may therefore be imagined,'
when he found this potent Don Ricardo in the inn at Cartagena,
reduced almost to his last shilling, and unable to proceed further.
Trevethick had realized the truth of the Spanish proverb, that
a " silver mine brings misery, a gold mine ruin.'' Mr. Stephen-
son lent him 501., and thus helped him on his way back to
England ; but although Trevethick was heard of in England
afterwards, he had no part in the ultimate triumph of the loco-
motive.f
Mr. Robert Stephenson, on his arrival in England, proceeded
to take charge of the locomotive manufactory at Newcastle,
thenceforward devoting himself assiduously to the development
of his father's ideas of the locomotive ; and, by the great addi-
tions made by him to its working powers from time to time, as
will afterwards be seen, he contributed in an eminent degree to
the ultimate success of the railway system.
During the progress of the important discussion at Liverpool,
with reference to the kind of power to be employed in working
the railway, the father and son were in constant communication,
and Robert made frequent visits to Liverpool for the purpose of
assisting his father in the preparation of his reports to the board
on the subject. Mr. Swanwick remembers the vivid interest of
• Geological Transactions of Cornwall, vol. i. p. 222.
t On the 12tli August, 1881, Mr. Trevethick appeared as si witness before
the select committee of the House of Commons on the employment of steam-
oaiTiages on common roads. He said, " he had been abroad a good many years,
and had had nothing to do with steam-carriages until very lately. He had it
now, however, in contemplation to do a great deal on common roads, and, with
that view, had taken out a patent for an entirely new engine, the arrangements
in which were calculated to obviate all the difficulties which had hitherto stood
in the way of travelling on common roads."