survey was completed, the plans were deposited, the
requisite preliminary arrangements were made, and the promoters of the
scheme applied to Parliament for the necessary powers to construct the
railway. The Bill went into Committee of the Commons on the 21st of
March, 1825. There was an extraordinary array of legal talent on the
occasion, but especially on the side of the opponents to the measure;
their counsel including Mr. (afterwards Baron) Alderson, Mr. (afterwards
Baron) Parke, Mr. Harrison, and Mr. Erle. The counsel for the bill were
Mr. Adam, Mr. Serjeant Spankie, Mr. William Brougham, and Mr. Joy.

Evidence was taken at great length as to the difficulties and delays in
forwarding raw material of all kinds from Liverpool to Manchester, as
also in the conveyance of manufactured goods from Manchester to
Liverpool. The evidence adduced in support of the bill on these grounds
was overwhelming. The utter inadequacy of the existing modes of
conveyance to carry on satisfactorily the large and rapidly-growing trade
between the two towns was fully proved. But then came the gist of the
promoter's case--the evidence to prove the practicability of a railroad
to be worked by locomotive power. Mr. Adam, in his opening speech,
referred to the cases of the Hetton and the Killingworth railroads, where
heavy goods were safely and economically transported by means of
locomotive engines. "None of the tremendous consequences," he observed,
"have ensued from the use of steam in land carriage that have been
stated. The horses have not started, nor the cows ceased to give their
milk, nor have ladies miscarried at the sight of these things going
forward at the rate of four miles and a half an hour." Notwithstanding
the petition of two ladies alleging the great danger to be apprehended
from the bursting of the locomotive boilers, he urged the safety of the
high-pressure engine when the boilers were constructed of wrought-iron;
and as to the rate at which they could travel, he expressed his full
conviction that such engines "could supply force to drive a carriage at
the rate of five or six miles an hour."

The taking of the evidence as to the impediments thrown in the way of
trade and commerce by the existing system extended over a month, and it
was the 21st of April before the Committee went into the engineering
evidence, which was the vital part of the question.

On the 25th George Stephenson was called into the witness-box.