1820, issued a manifesto showing the advantages of the railway in the conveyance of coal. They declared that everything had been done to conciliate those who hitherto opposed the railway and to avoid any injury to private property; that, because one horse on the railway could draw as much as ten on the common road, a vast reduction in the price of carriage would take place; that easier access to markets would be of great benefit to the farmers in enabling them to procure coal, as well as lime and manure for their land, while permitting them more conveniently to dispose of their surplus produce; that the commercial, mining and manufacturing interests would secure important benefits from the reduced rate of carriage for their respective products; and that the population at large would partake of beneficent results in the reduced price of fuel. In the matter of revenue it was shown that, from data already presented, there was reasonable expectation of the subscribers receiving fifteen per cent. a year, without anticipating any increased consumption, which was invariably the consequence of a reduced cost of conveyance. A very significant statement of the committee was to the effect that public opinion toward the railway had changed, as shown by the fact that there were very few who objected to the railway crossing their property1. Under these conditions application was again made to Parliament for a Bill in 1820; but on account of the circumstances due to the death of the King it was determined to defer proceedings until the session of 1820-21. For this second Bill, as for the first, they had to make a great fight, in which they were led by their Quaker promoter, Edward Pease, whose name is indissolubly associated with the Stockton and Darlington railway. "Every member of Parliament that could be influenced, directly or indirectly, was pressed into the service of the promoters. Every peer that was known to have any doubt or hesitation was seized upon and interviewed until he became a convert, while those who looked upon the measure with favour were confirmed in the faith. Nay, more, the promoters and their friends even carried their influence as far as the hustings, and spared neither trouble nor expense in endeavouring to secure especially in the north of England-the return of candidates known to be partial to their cause." This second Bill was passed in April, 18213.

After legislation had been secured, George Stephenson was appointed engineer of the Stockton and Darlington railway. This first Act comprises sixty-seven closely printed pages, embodying the whole of the law relating to railways; it was the earliest and probably the longest 2 Ibid., pp. 35–36.

1 Jeans, op. cit., pp. 34–35.

3 Act 1 & 2 Geo. IV, c. 44.

railway Act that received the sanction of Parliament. No mention was made of the employment of engines, for it was intended to work the line entirely by horse-power; although a general provision was made that the company should "appoint their roads and ways convenient for the hauling or drawing of waggons and other carriages passing upon the said railways or tramroads, with men or horses, or otherwise." The adoption of steam-power was, apparently, not seriously considered until the construction of the roadway was far advanced. Then Edward Pease went to Killingworth Colliery to see Stephenson's engine working, and from that time he had implicit faith in the locomotive engine. Through his influence the amended Stockton and Darlington Railway Act of 1823 gave the company authority to erect one stationary steam-engine in a suitable position and to make and use locomotives or movable engines for the conveyance of goods and passengers along the line1. In this there was a wide departure from the first Act, which said nothing about passenger traffic and made no mention of locomotives. According to the statute, the road was to be free to all persons who chose to place their waggons and horses upon it for the hauling of coal and merchandise, provided they paid the tolls fixed by the Act; and the gauge of the railway, four feet eight and one-half inches, was taken from the width of the road waggons.

On the success or failure of Stephenson's locomotive engines on this "Quaker line" very much depended; if failure, a check would be given to railway enterprise; if success, a new era would dawn which would show a complete revolution in the means of communication. The first engine used on this railway was built by Stephenson; and in comparison with later results its performance was very modest. The best it could do was to travel at the rate of four to six miles per hour; and an engine and tender of fifteen tons could draw on a level nearly forty-eight tons gross load at the rate of five miles per hour2. Stationary engines were used for drawing the waggons up the incline. But even this result was enough to cause many a speculative mind to become enthusiastic over the prospects and to predict the time when high rates of speed would be attained. To them it seemed as if the vision were already within their grasp as a reality and they lost no occasion to communicate to the public, in glowing terms, the picture of the

1 Jeans, op. cit., p. 43; Pease, Diaries of Edward Pease, pp. 85-87. This second Act was 4 Geo. IV, c. 33.

2 Jeans, op. cit., pp. 53-54. On the early life and training of Stephenson, see Autobiography of Sir John Rennie, p. 235 et seq.; also the life of Stephenson in Smiles' Lives of the Engineers, which gives full details.

near future. Concerning railroads and other speculative schemes of that day, Lord Eldon said that Englishmen, who were wont to be sober, had grown mad; and to aid in forming a more reasonable view, Nicholas Wood, who was recognized as an expert in railway affairs, declared: "It is far from my wish to promulgate to the world that the ridiculous expectations, or rather professions, of the enthusiastic speculist will be realized, and that we shall see them travelling at the rate of twelve, sixteen, eighteen, or twenty miles an hour. Nothing could do more harm towards their adoption or general improvement than the promulgation of such nonsense1."

But people did not have to wait long before they found that some of the dreams of the enthusiasts were already accomplished facts. On Sept. 27, 1825, when the railway was opened amid great demonstration of splendour2, it was shown that, on an incline, one engine could draw a whole train, with a weight of at least eighty tons, at the rate of ten to fifteen miles per hour3. The success of the railway was immediate but not startling4; and soon the line was extended back to Witton Park Colliery, about 125 miles from Stockton, so that Darlington was just about half-way along the line. In 1827, the first year in which the coal and merchandise traffic was fully worked, the revenue from coal was £14,455, while the receipts from lime, merchandise and sundries was only £3285. The chief source of revenue was the coal, the tolls on which in 1830 were six or seven times the amount of revenue derived from all other sources combined". Both in the amount of revenue that accrued to the company and the speed at which the traffic was carried, it was evident that this line of road was a paying investment.

The Stockton and Darlington promoters did not at first count upon any revenue worth speaking of from passengers. Between these two places there was only one coach, which went three or four times a week,

1 Jeans, op. cit., p. 66.

* Concerning the opening, see Pease, Diaries of Edward Pease, p. 88; Newcastle Courant, Oct. 1, 1825, which gives an account of that great occasion. Smiles, Lives of the Engineers, П, pt. 2, ch. viii, gives an extremely interesting account of the arrangements for this railway. Tweddell's History of the Stockton and Darlington Railway was well intended, but it does not get far enough to even touch the subject of which it proposed to treat.

Jeans, op. cit., p. 70.

4 The success of the railway is shown in a statement signed by S. P. (probably Samuel Pease, one of the directors of the railway), showing the facts for the railway as on Mar. 23, 1829 (Collection of Prospectuses, etc., pp. 121-4). Note also Remarks upon Pamphlet by Investigator on the Proposed Birmingham and London Railway, p. 4, showing that by 1831 the shares of the company had risen in value from £100 to £200 each.

* Booth, History of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, p. 2.

on the turnpike road; and the amount of passenger travel scarcely paid a reasonable profit to the coach proprietor. Nor was there much likelihood that there would be any increase of passenger traffic on the rail unless greater speed could be developed in order to encourage the desire to travel. The railway made no special provision for this aspect of the business. It was originally intended to allow proprietors of stage coaches or other vehicles to use the line under certain specified conditions for the conveyance of passengers, and on similar terms to allow carriers to make use of the line for the carriage of goods, so that both these phases of enterprise might be carried on independently of the railway company. After the railway had been opened two weeks, the company put on a coach of their own for the conveyance of passengers1; but shortly after, a contract was made with Pickersgill, who leased the railway company's coach and operated it on the railway. Up to 1830 the two or three coach proprietors on the line carried on the passenger and merchandise business; they used horses to draw the coaches along the line, paying the tolls for the use of the line and receiving the amounts paid for these services. They seem to have had their own way, in large measure, as to regulating hours and traffic; and it appears certain that their arrangements must have clashed, for on Jan. 22, 1830, the company began to regulate the times of arrival and departure at each end so as to give them equality of advantages3. The early organization of the passenger and goods traffic on the line shows us, then, several coach proprietors each of whom took out a licence for himself and paid his tax to the state, but gave no account to the railway company except the total number of journeys each coach had made per month, on the basis of which they paid the company for the use of the line. Anyone was at liberty to put his horse and carriage on the railway and draw for himself or others, provided he complied with the company's by-laws. The growth of the passenger traffic was slow, for before 1882 the number of passengers travelling between Stockton and Darlington did not average more than 520 per week, although the number of coaches had increased from two or three in 1830 to seven in 18325. About 1833, the company found that, instead of having so many different interests

1 Jeans, op. cit., p. 81, gives in full their hand-bill concerning the passenger service. This is also given in Layson, Life of George Stephenson, p. 93, advertising the passenger coach between Stockton and Darlington. It gives the times of departure and arrival at each place along the line for each day of the week. It is interesting as the first railway passenger time-table.

2 Jeans, op. cit., pp. 81-82; Booth, History of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, p. 2.

Jeans, op. cit., p. 84.

Details are given in Jeans, op. cit., pp. 85-86.

5 Ibid., pp. 84, 86.

represented on their line, it would be more convenient and advantageous if they should take the whole carrying trade into their own hands and displace horses by steam-power1. The respective interests of the different proprietors were acquired by purchase and arrangements were made for more comfortable and speedy carriage of passengers; and on April 7, 1834, the company announced that they had commenced to run coaches and carriages by locomotives for the conveyance of passengers and goods between Stockton and Middlesborough "six times per day at present fares, thus forming a regular line of communication via Stockton and Darlington with Shildon, Auckland," etc."

We have given somewhat fully the conditions regarding the operation of this railway, to show the way in which the carrying trade was organized on it, for, since this line was an intermediate between the colliery roads and the modern railway designed for both passenger and freight carriage, it is instructive to see the steps through which the orderly process of development has taken place. It will help us to appreciate the circumstances under which the enterprise was carried on if we picture to ourselves what two noted railway engineers observed on this road in 1829; between Stockton and Darlington there were several locomotive engines of different forms and power and horses also were employed upon the same part of the line; while, toward the upper end of it, there were two inclined planes with stationary engines3. When the declivity was such that the waggons would run down without the horse drawing, the animal was detached and took his place in his own carriage behind the train of waggons until his services were again required. With this aggregation of the different kinds of power in

1 Competition among the rival coach proprietors using the single line of roadway led to confusion and collisions among them; their merchandise trains sometimes got so heavily loaded that they had to be helped by the locomotive engine in order that other traffic might not be held up or delayed. This method, of course, was simply carrying out the same conditions that existed in the carrying trade on the canals. Even before the railway was opened, the committee in charge of the work, after careful investigation, had declared that it would "greatly conduce to the interest of the company that they should become the principal carriers on the line." They had been asked by a certain individual for permission to use his locomotive engine on the railway, but the committee thought that it would be improper to grant this application (Jeans, op. cit., p. 63).

2 Jeans, op. cit., pp. 87-89.

3 Walker and Rastrick, Report to the Directors of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, on the Comparative Merits of Loco-motive and Fixed Engines, as a Moving Power, p. 3. On the application of stationary engines on some railroads, see Wood, Practical Treatise on Railroads, pp. 110-23.

• Macturk, History of Railways into Hull, p. 29, quoting from Walker's observations concerning the operation of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.