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

CHAP. XXXVI.] HIS GENEROSITY. 445
which Mr. Stephenson's son has repaid the obligations which
both were under to the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical
Institute, when working together as humble experimenters in
their cottage at Killingworth. The Institute was, until quite
recently, struggling under a debt of 6,200?., which seriously im-
paired its usefulness as an educational agency. Mr. Eobert
Stephenson offered to pay one half of the entire sum, provided
the local supporters of the Institute would raise the remainder;
and conditional also on the annual subscription being reduced
from two guineas to one, in order that the usefulness of the in-
stitution might be extended. The generous offer was accepted,
and the debt extinguished.
Probably no military chiefs were, ever more beloved by their
soldiers than were both father and son by the army of men who,
under their guidance, worked at labours of profit, made labours
of love by their earnest will and purpose. True leaders of men
and lords of industry, they were always ready to recognize and
encourage talent in those who worked for and with them. It
was pleasant at the openings of the Stephenson lines, to hear
the chief engineers attributing the successful completion of the
works to their able assistants ; whilst the assistants, on the other
hand, ascribed the entire glory to their chiefs.
A fine trait in Mr. Stephenson's character was his generosity
which would not permit an attack to be made upon the absent
or the weak. He would never sanction any injustice of act or
opinion towards those associated with himself. On one occasion,
during the progress of the Liverpool and Manchester works,
while he had a strong party to contend with at the Board, the
conduct of one of his assistants was called in question, as he
thought unjustly, and a censure was threatened. Bather than
submit to this injustice to his assistant, Mr. Stephenson tendered
his resignation ; but it was not accepted, and the censure was
not voted. The same chivalrous protection was on many occa-
sions extended by him to the weaker against the stronger.
Even if he were himself displeased with any one engaged about
him, any attack from another quarter would rouse him in defence,
not in the spirit of opposition, but from a kind and generous im-
pulse to succour those in difficulty.