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

290 LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. [chap. xxv.
But the desire for railway extension principally pervaded the
manufacturing districts, especially after the successful opening of
the Liverpool and Manchester line. The commercial classes of
the larger towns soon became eager for a pa>ticipation in the
good which they had so recently derided. Railway projects
were set on foot in great numbers, and Manchester became a
centre from which main lines and branches were started in all
directions. The interest, however, which attaches to these lat^r
schemes is of a much less absorbing kind than that which be-
longs to the earlier history of the English railway, and the steps
by which George Stephenson secured its eventual establishment.
We naturally sympathize more with the early struggles of a
great principle, its trials and its difficulties, than with its after
stages of success ;
and, however gratified and astonished we may
be at its permanent results, the secret charm of the interest is
gone, and the excitement has ceased, when its ultimate triumph
has become a matter of certainty.
The commercial results of the Liverpool and Manchester line
were so satisfactory, and indeed so greatly exceeded the expec-
tations of its projectors, that many of the abandoned projects of
the speculative year 1825 were forthwith revived. An abundant
crop of engineers sprang up, ready to execute railways of any
extent. Now that the Liverpool and Manchester line had been
made, and the practicability of working it by locomotive power
had been proved, it was as easy for engineers to make railways
and to work them, as it was for navigators to find America after
Columbus had made the first voyage. George Stephenson had
shown the way, and engineers forthwith crowded after him full
of great projects. Mr. Francis Giles himself took the field as
a locomotive railway engineer, attaching himself to the New-
castle and Carlisle, and London and Southampton projects. Mr.
Brunei appeared, in like manner, as the engineer of the line pro-
jected between London and Bristol ; and Mr. Braithwaite, the
builder of the "Novelty" engine, as the engineer of a line from
London to Colchester.
The first Knes, however, which were actually constructed, sub-
sequent to the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Rail-
way, were in connection, with it, and principally in the county of