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

CHAP. XXVII.] MANCHESTER AND LEEDS LINE. 329
Chester apd Sheffield Ihie, which passed through his collieryproperty
in the South of Yorkshire, and conceived that the new
Manchester and Leeds line might have some damaging effijct,
appeared as a strenuous opponent of the bill. He was himself a
member of the Committee, and adopted the unusual course of
rising to his feet, and making a set speech against the bill while
Mr. Stephenson was under examination. After pointing out
that the bill applied for and obtained in the preceding session
was one that the promoters had no intention of carrying out,
that they had secured it only for the purpose of obtaining pos-
session of the ground and reducing the number of the opponents
to their present application, and that in fact they had been prac-
tising a deception upon the House, his lordship turned full upon
the witness, and addressing him, said,— "I ask you, sir, do you
call that conduct honest? " Mr. Stephenson, his voice trembling
with emotion, replied,—" Yes, my lord, I do call it honest. And
I will ask your lordship, whom I served for many years as your
enginewright at the Killingworth collieries, when did you ever
know me to do any thing that was not honest and honourable ?
You know what the colheries were when I went there, and you
know what they were when I left them. Did you ever hear that
I was found wanting when honest services wei'e wanted, or when
duty called me i Let your lordship but fairly consider the cir-
cumstances of the case, and I feel persuaded you will admit that
my conduct has been equally honest throughout in this matter."
He then briefly but clearly stated the history of the application
to Parliament for the act, which was so satisfactory to the Com-
mittee that they passed the preamble of the bill without further
objection. Lord Wharncliffe requested that the Committee would
permit his observations, together with Mr. Stephenson's reply, to
be erased from the record of the evidence, which, as an acknowl-
edgment of his error, was permitted : Lord Kenyon and several
other members of the Committee afterwards came up to Mr.
Stephenson, shook him by the hand, and congratulated him on
the manly way in which he had vindicated himself in the course
of the inquiry.
In conducting this project to a successful issue, Mr. Stephen-
son had much opposition and many strong prejudices to encounter.