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

438 LIFE OF GE0E6E STEPHENSON- [chap. xxxv.
" The directors," they say, " on the present occasion look back
with peculiar interest to their first connection with Mr.
Stephenson, in the construction of the Liverpool and Man-
chester Railway ; to a period now twenty years past, when he
floated their new line over Chat Moss, and cut his way through
the rock-cutting at Olive Mount. Tracing the progress of rail-
ways from the first beginning to the present time, they find Mr.
Stephenson foremost in urging forward the grea,t railway movement
; earning and maintaining his title to be considered, before
any other man, the author of that universal system of locomotion
which has effected such mighty results—commercial, social, and
political—throughout the civilized world. Two years ago, the
directors entrusted to Mr. Gibson, of Eome, the duty and the
privilege of producing a statue that might do honour to their
friend, then living amongst them. They did not anticipate that
on the completion of this work of art the great original would be
no more,—that they should be constrained to accept the marble
effigy of the engineer in lieu of the living presence of the
man." * The statue here referred to was placed in St. George's
Hall, Liverpool. A full-length statue of the deceased, by Bailey,
was also erected a few years later, in the noble vestibule of the
London and Northwestern Station, in Euston Square. A
subscription for the purpose was set on foot by the Society of
Mechanical Engineers, of which he had been the founder and
president. A few advertisements were inserted in the news-
papers, inviting subscriptions ; and it is a notable fact that the
voluntary offerings shortly received included an average of two
shillings each from 3,150 working men, who embraced this op-
portunity of doing honour to their distinguished fellow workman.
The portrait prefixed to this volume gives a good indication of
George Stephenson's shrewd, kind, honest, manly face. His
fair, clear countenance was ruddy, and seemingly glowed with
health. The forehead was large and high, projecting over the
eyes ; and there was that massive breadth across the lower part,
which is usually observed in men of eminent constructive skill.
The mouth was firmly marked ; and shrewdness and humour
* Minutes of the Liverpool Board of the London and Northwestern Railway
Company, 6th Sept., 1848.