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

CHAP. XXV.] NEW LINES PROJECTED. 289
and when the legislature failed to enter, at this juncture, upon
the grand enterprise of planning and executing railways upon
a national system, there was a sufficient amount of active public
spirit in the country to undertake the work on private risk, and
to carry it into practical effect in the face of every opposition.
The mode of action was characteristic and national. The
execution of the new lines was undertaken entirely by joint-stock
associations of proprietors, after the manner of the Stockton and
Darlington, and Liverpool and Manchester Companies. These
associations are conformable to our national habits, and fit well
into our system of laws. They combine the power of vast re-
sources with individual watchfulness and motives of self-interest
and by their means gigantic enterprises, which elsewhere would
be impossible to any but kings and emperors with great national
resources at command, were carried out by associations of private
persons. And the results of this combination of means and of
enterprise have been truly marvellous. Within the life of the
present generation, the private citizens of England engaged in
railway enterprises, have, in the face of government obstruc-
tions, and without taking a penny out of the public purse, exe-
cuted a system of railways, involving works of the most gigantic
kind, which, in their total mass, their cost, and their eminent
public utility, far exceed the most famous national constructions
of any age or country.
Mr. Stephenson was of course actively engaged in the con-
struction of the numerous railways now projected by the joint-
stock companies. During the formation of the Manchester and
Liverpool line, he had been consulted respecting many projects
of a similar kind. One of these was a short railway, between
Canterbury and Whitstable, about six miles in length. He was
too much occupied with the works at Liverpool to give this
scheme much of bis personal attention. But he sent his assistant,
Mr. John Dixon, to survey the line ; and afterwards Mr.
Locke to superintend the execution of the principal works. The
act was obtained in 1826, and the line was opened for traffic in
1830. It was partly worked by fixed-engine power, and partly
by Stephenson's locomotives, similar to the engines used upon
the Stockton and Darlington Bailway.
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