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

284 LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. [chap. xxiv.
The charge brought against Mr. Stephenson, as engineer of
the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, of employing men under
him to carry out his instructions, whom he knew, in preference
to persons belonging to the parishes through which the line
passed, whom he did not know, was of a piece with many other
charges gravely advanced against him at the time. Even the
drivers of stage-coaches were^ot then selected by the proprietors
because they belonged to the respective parishes through which
the coaches ran, but because they knew something of stage-
coach driving. But in the case of the Liverpool and Manchester
Railway, it was insisted that the local ' population had the first
claim to be employed ; * and the engineer was strongly censured
"for introducing into the country a numerous body of workmen
in various capacities, strangers to the soil and to the surrounding
population, thus wresting from the hands of those to whom they
had naturally belonged, all the benefits which the enterprise and
capital of the district in this case conferred." But the charge
was grossly exaggerated, and, for the most part, unfounded. As
respected the working of the engines, it was natural and proper
that Mr. Stephenson, who was responsible for their efficiency,
should employ men to work them who knew something about
their construction and mode of action. And as the only locomo-
tive railways previously at work in England were those in the
neighbourhood of Newcastle, he of course sought there for en-
gine drivers, stokers, and other workmen of practical experience
on railways, to work the Liverpool and Manchester line. But
it was from the first one of Mr. Stephenson's greatest difficulties
to find able workmen enough to make his engines as well as to
construct his roads. It was a saying of his that " he could en-
gineer matter very well, and make it bend to his purpose, but his
greatest difficulty was in engineering men." Of the 600 persons
employed in the working of the Liverpool line, not more than
sixty had been recommended by him in his capacity of engineer,
and of these a considerable proportion were personally unknown
to him. Some of them, indeed, had been brought up under his
own eye, and were men whose character and qualifications he
could vouch for. But these were not enough for his purpose
* Edinburgh Review for October, 1832, p. 130.
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