CHAP. XX.] CHARACTERISTICS OF ROBERT STEPHENSON. 493 called in as an umpire to mediate between conflicting parties, more particularly between contractors and engineers. On one occasion Brunel complained to him that he could not get on with his contractors, who were never satisfied, and were always quarreling with him. "You hold them too tightly to the letter of your agreement," said Stephenson; "treat them fairly and liberally." "But they try to take advantage of me at all points," rejoined Brunel. "Perhaps you suspect them too much?" said Stephenson. "I suspect all men to be rogues," said the other, "till I find them to be honest." "For my part," said Stephenson, "I take all men to be honest till I find them to be rogues." "Ah! then, I fear we shall never agree," concluded Brunel. Robert almost worshiped his father's memory, and was ever ready to attribute to him the chief merit of his own achievements as an engineer. "It was his thorough training," we once heard him say, "his example, and his character, which made me the man I am." On a more public occasion he said, "It is my great pride to remember that, whatever may have been done, and however extensive may have been my own connection with railway development, all I know and all I have done is primarily due to the parent whose memory I cherish and revere."* To Mr. Lough, the sculptor, he said he had never had but two loves -one for his father, the other for his wife. Like his father, he was eminently practical, and yet always open to the influence and guidance of correct theory. His main consideration in laying out his lines of railway was what would best answer the intended purpose, or, to use his own words, to secure the maximum of result with the minimum of means. He was pre-eminently a safe man, because cautious, tentative, and experimental; following closely the lines of conduct trodden by his father, and often quoting his maxims. In society Robert Stephenson was simple, unobtrusive, and modest, but charming and even fascinating in an eminent degree. Sir John Lawrence has said of him that he was, of all others, the man he most delighted to meet in England-he was so manly yet gentle, and withal so great. While admired and beloved by men of such calibre, he was equally a favorite with women and children. He put himself upon the level of all, and charmed them. *Address as President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, January, 1856. 494 POLITICS OF THE TWO STEPHENSONS. [PART II. no less by his inexpressible kindliness of manner than by his simple yet impressive conversation. His great wealth enabled him to perform many generous acts in a right noble and yet modest manner, not letting his right hand know what his left hand did. Of the numerous kindly acts of his which have been made public, we may mention the graceful manner in which he repaid the obligations which both himself and his father owed to the Newcastle, Literary and Philosophical Institute when working together as fellow experimenters many years before in their humble cottage at Killingworth. The Institute was struggling under a debt of £6200, which impaired its usefulness as an educational agency. Mr. Stephenson offered to pay one half the 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 institution might be extended. His generous offer was accepted and the debt extinguished. Both father and son were offered knighthood, and both declined it. During the summer of 1847, George Stephenson was invited to offer himself as a candidate for the representation of South Shields in Parliament. But his politics were at best of a very undefined sort. Indeed, his life had been so much occupied with subjects of a practical character that he had scarcely troubled himself to form any decided opinion on the party political topics of the day, and to stand the cross-fire of the electors on the hustings might possibly have proved an even more distressing ordeal than the cross-questioning of the barristers in the Committees of the House of Commons. "Politics," he used to say, "are all matters of theory-there is no stability in them; they shift about like the sands of the sea; and I should feel quite out of my element among them." He had, accordingly, the good sense respectfully to decline the honor of contesting the representation of South Shields. We have, however, been informed by Sir Joseph Paxton that, although George Stephenson held no strong opinions on political questions generally, there was one question on which he entertained a decided conviction, and that was the question of Free Trade. The words used by him on one occasion to Sir Joseph CHAP. XX.] ADVANTAGES OF RAILWAYS. 495 were very strong. "England," said he, "is, and must be, a shopkeeper; and our docks and harbors are only so many wholesale shops, the doors of which should always be kept wide open." It is curious that his son should have taken precisely the opposite view of this question, and acted throughout with the most rigid party among the Protectionists, supporting the Navigation Laws and opposing Free Trade, even to the extent of going into the lobby with Colonel Sibthorp, Mr. Spooner, and the fifty-three "cannon-balls," on the 26th of November, 1852. Robert Stephenson to the last spoke in strong terms as to the "betrayal of the Protectionist party" by their chosen leader, and he went so far as to say that he "could never forgive Peel.” But Robert Stephenson will be judged in after times by his achievements as an engineer rather than by his acts as a politician; and, happily, these last were far outweighed in value by the immense practical services which he rendered to trade, commerce, and civilization, through the facilities which the railways constructed by him afforded for free intercommunication between men in all parts of the world. Speaking in the midst of his friends at Newcastle in 1850, he observed: "It seems to me but as yesterday that I was engaged as an assistant in laying out the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Since then, the Liverpool and Manchester, and a hundred other great works have sprung into existence. As I look back upon these stupendous undertakings, accomplished in so short a time, it seems as though we had realized in our generation the fabled powers of the magician's wand. Hills have been cut down and valleys filled up; and when these simple expedients have not sufficed, high and magnificent viaducts have been raised, and, if mountains stood in the way, tunnels of unexampled magnitude have pierced them through, bearing their triumphant attestation to the indomitable energy of the nation, and the unrivaled skill of our artisans." As respects the immense advantages of railways to mankind there can not be two opinions. They exhibit, probably, the grandest organization of capital and labor that the world has yet seen. Although they have unhappily occasioned great loss to many, the loss has been that of individuals, while, as a national system, the gain has already been enormous. As tending to multiply and spread abroad the conveniences of life, opening up new 496 ADVANTAGES OF RAILWAYS. [PART II. fields of industry, bringing nations nearer to each other, and thus promoting the great ends of civilization, the founding of the railway system by George Stephenson and his son must be regarded as one of the most important events, if not the very greatest, in the first half of this nineteenth century. INDEX. ACCIDENT, G. Stephenson's stage-coach, 389. Adam, Mr., counsel for Liverpool and Man- Adhesion of wheel and rail, 82, 152, 156, 165. Alton Grange, G. Stephenson's house at, 344. Anderson, Dr., his early advocacy of railroads, 73. Arnold, Dr., on railways, 390. Atmospheric railways, 402, 403, 426-428. Bald, Robert, mining engineer, 198, 212. Benton Colliery and village, 138, 140, 151. Berkeley, Mr., on railways, 341. Berwick, Royal Border Bridge at, 430. Cardiff and Merthyr Railroad, 73. Carrying stock of railways, Pref., ix., 334. "Charlotte Dundas," the first practical steam- Chat Moss, surveying on, 252, 264; railway Chester and Birkenhead Railway, 402; and Chesterfield, town of, 395, 471. Clanny, Dr., his safety-lamp, 179, 196. Coach, first railway, 240. Coal, working of, 100, 101; supply of, to Lon- Coal Railways, G. Stephenson on, 393. Bird-nesting, G. Stephenson's love of, 106, 109, Coffin, Sir Isaac, on railways, 280. 3S0, 491. Black Callerton Colliery, 109, 116, 117. Blenkinsop, Mr., Leeds, his locomotive, 155 Blisworth Cutting, 355. Boiler, the multitubular, its invention, 316-318. Boulton, Matthew, his tubular boiler, 316-318. 324. Brake, G. Stephenson's self-acting, 334, 398. Bruce, Mr., R. Stephenson's schoolmaster, 141. Bull Bridge, near Ambergate, 373. Bull, Edward, his Cornish engine, 76; Wil- liam, partner of Trevithick, 76, 88. Burrell, G. Stephenson's partner, 207. Collieries, G. Stephenson's, at Snibston, 344; Colombia, R. Stephenson's residence in, 301- Companies, joint-stock railway, 339, 404. Cooper, Sir A., R. Stephenson's interview with, 350. Cornish engineers, early, 75, 76. Croydon and Merstham Railroad, 74, 216. Cugnot, N., his road locomotive, 60. 372. Darlington, railway projected at, 218. Derby, Earl of, and Liverpool and Manchester Dewley Burn Colliery, 107–111. Direct lines, rage for, 408. Dixon, John, assists in survey of Stockton and |