onour to
secure Mr. Stephenson's presence at any public meetings held for the
promotion of popular education. Among the Mechanics' Institutes in his
immediate neighbourhood at Tapton, were those of Belper and Chesterfield;
and at their soirees he was a frequent and a welcome visitor. On these
occasions he loved to tell his auditors of the difficulties which had
early beset him through want of knowledge, and of the means by which he
had overcome them. His grand text was--PERSEVERE; and there was manhood
in the very word.

On more than one occasion, the author had the pleasure of listening to
George Stephenson's homely but forcible addresses at the annual soirees
of the Leeds Mechanics' Institute. He was always an immense favourite
with his audiences there. His personal appearance was greatly in his
favour. A handsome, ruddy, expressive face, lit up by bright dark-blue
eyes, prepared one for his earnest words when he stood up to speak and
the cheers had subsided which invariably hailed his rising. He was not
glib, but he was very impressive. And who, so well as he, could serve as
a guide to the working man in his endeavours after higher knowledge? His
early life had been all struggle--encounter with difficulty--groping in
the dark after greater light, but always earnestly and perseveringly.
His words were therefore all the more weighty, since he spoke from the
fulness of his own experience.

Nor did he remain a mere inactive spectator of the improvements in
railway working which increasing experience from day to day suggested.
He continued to contrive improvements in the locomotive, and to mature
his invention of the carriage-brake. When examined before the Select
Committee on Railways in 1841, his mind seems principally to have been
impressed with the necessity which existed for adopting a system of self
acting brakes; stating that, in his opinion, this was the most important
arrangement that could be provided for increasing the safety of railway
travelling. "I believe," he said, "that if self-acting brakes were put
upon every carriage, scarcely any accident could take place." His plan
consisted in employing the momentum of the running train to throw his
proposed brakes into action, immediately on the moving power of the
engine being checked. He would also have these brakes under the control
of the guard, by means of a connecting line running along the whole
length of the train, by which they should at once