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

CHAP. XXV.] THE BILL IN COMMITTEE. 297
that their strength lay. Not a single fact was proved against
the great utility of the measure, and the bill passed the Committee,
and afterwards the third reading in the Commons, by
large majorities.
It was then sent to the House of Lords, and went into Com-
mittee, when a similar mass of testimony was again gone through
during seven days. An overwhelming case was made out as
before ; though an attempt was made to break down the evi-
dence of the witnesses on cross-exainination. The feasibility of
the route was doubted, and the greatest conceivable difficulties
were suggested. Their lordships seemed to take quite a pater-
nal interest in the protection of the public against possible loss
by the formation of the line. The Committee required that the
promoters should prove the traffic to be brought upon the rail-
way, and that the profits derived from the working would pay a
dividend of from six to eight per cent, upon the money invested.
A few years after, the policy of Parliament completely changed
in this respect. When the landed interest found railway com-
panies paying from six to ten times the marketable value of the
land taken, they were ready to grant duphcate lines through the
same districts, without proving any traffic whatever
It soon became evident, after the proceedings had been opened
before the Committee, that the fate of the bill had been deter-
mined before a word of the evidence had been heard. At that
time the committees of the Lords were open to all peers ; and
the promoters of the bill found, to their dismay, many of the
peers who were avowed opponents of the measure as land-
owners, sitting as judges to decide its fate. Their principal
object seemed to be, to bring the proceedings to a termination as
quickly as possible. An attempt at negotiation was made in
the course of the proceedings in committee, but failed. One
party offered to the promoters to withdraw their opposition on
payment to them of 10,000Z. This disgraceful proposal was
scouted ; the directors would not bribe high enough ; and the
bill was lost, on the motion of Earl Brownlow,— " That the case
for the promoters of the bill having been concluded, it does not
appear to the Committee that they have made out such a case
as would warrant the forcing of the proposed railway through
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