ng of his isolation
at the time, he subsequently observed, at a public meeting of railway men
in Manchester: "He remembered the time when he had very few supporters in
bringing out the railway system--when he sought England over for an
engineer to support him in his evidence before Parliament, and could find
only one man, James Walker, but was afraid to call that gentleman,
because he knew nothing about railways. He had then no one to tell his
tale to but Mr. Sandars, of Liverpool, who did listen to him, and kept
his spirits up; and his schemes had at length been carried out only by
dint of sheer perseverance."

George Stephenson's idea was at that time regarded as but the dream of a
chimerical projector. It stood before the public friendless, struggling
hard to gain a footing, scarcely daring to lift itself into notice for
fear of ridicule. The civil engineers generally rejected the notion of a
Locomotive Railway; and when no leading man of the day could be found to
stand forward in support of the Killingworth mechanic, its chances of
success must indeed have been pronounced but small.

When such was the hostility of the civil engineers, no wonder the
reviewers were puzzled. The 'Quarterly,' in an able article in support
of the projected Liverpool and Manchester Railway,--while admitting its
absolute necessity, and insisting that there was no choice left but a
railroad, on which the journey between Liverpool and Manchester, whether
performed by horses or engines, would always be accomplished "within the
day,"--nevertheless scouted the idea of travelling at a greater speed
than eight or nine miles an hour. Adverting to a project for forming a
railway to Woolwich, by which passengers were to be drawn by locomotive
engines, moving with twice the velocity of ordinary coaches, the reviewer
observed:--"What can be more palpably absurd and ridiculous than the
prospect held out of locomotives travelling _twice as fast_ as
stagecoaches! We would as soon expect the people of Woolwich to suffer
themselves to be fired off upon one of Congreve's ricochet rockets, as
trust themselves to the mercy of such a machine going at such a rate. We
will back old Father Thames against the Woolwich Railway for any sum. We
trust that Parliament will, in all railways it may sanction, limit the
speed to _eight or nine miles an hour_, which we entirely agree with Mr.
Sylvester is as great as can be ventured on with safety."

At length the