of
the experiments; but the nation, which is an aggregate of individuals,
gains, and so does the world at large.

It was one of the characteristics of Brunel to believe in the success of
the schemes for which he was professionally engaged as engineer; and he
proved this by investing his savings largely in the Great Western
Railway, in the South Devon atmospheric line, and in the Great Eastern
steamship, with what results are well known. Robert Stephenson, on the
contrary, with characteristic caution, towards the latter years of his
life avoided holding unguaranteed railway shares; and though he might
execute magnificent structures, such as the Victoria Bridge across the
St. Lawrence, he was careful not to embark any portion of his own fortune
in the ordinary capital of these concerns. In 1845, he shrewdly foresaw
the inevitable crash that was about to follow the mania of that year; and
while shares were still at a premium he took the opportunity of selling
out all that he had. He urged his father to do the same thing, but
George's reply was characteristic. "No," said he; "I took my shares for
an investment, and not to speculate with, and I am not going to sell them
now because folks have gone mad about railways." The consequence was,
that he continued to hold the 60,000 pounds which he had invested in the
shares of various railways until his death, when they were at once sold
out by his son, though at a great depreciation on their original cost.

One of the hardest battles fought between the Stephensons and Brunel was
for the railway between Newcastle and Berwick, forming part of the great
East Coast route to Scotland. As early as 1836, George Stephenson had
surveyed two lines to connect Edinburgh with Newcastle: one by Berwick
and Dunbar along the coast, and the other, more inland, by Carter Fell,
up the vale of the Gala, to the northern capital; but both projects lay
dormant for several years longer, until the completion of the Midland and
other main lines as far north as Newcastle, had the effect of again
reviving the subject of the extension of the route as far as Edinburgh.

On the 18th of June, 1844, the Newcastle and Darlington line--an
important link of the great main highway to the north--was completed and
publicly opened, thus connecting the Thames and the Tyne by a continuous
line of railway. On that day the Stephensons, with a distinguished party
of railway men, travelled by express train from London