eat triumphs of engineering in the fifteen years before the battle
of Waterloo were mainly achieved in facilitating locomotion, and are
specially associated with the name of Telford. It was he who, following
in the footsteps of Brindley and Smeaton, constructed the Ellesmere and
Caledonian Canals; he far eclipsed the fame of General Wade by opening
out roads and bridges in the highlands, and first adopted sound
principles of road-making both in England and Wales, afterwards to be
applied with marvellous success by Macadam. It is some proof of the
impulse given to land-travelling by such improvements that 1,355 public
stage-coaches were assessed in 1812, and that a rate of speed little
short of ten miles an hour was attained by the lighter vehicles. But
Telford's labours were not confined to roads or bridges; they extended
also to harbours and to canals, which continued to be the great arteries
of heavy traffic until the development of railways. The new power
destined to supersede both coaches and barges was first recognised
practically when Bell's little steam vessel the _Comet_ was navigated
down the Clyde in 1812, to be followed not many years later by a
steamship capable of crossing the Atlantic Ocean. In a few years steam
packets were numerous, but it was not till well into the reign of
Victoria that steam navigation was used in the royal navy.

[Pageheading: _RAILWAYS._]

The most conspicuous improvement in the social and economic condition of
the country between 1815 and 1837 is undoubtedly the invention of the
steam locomotive engine. A few steam locomotives had been invented
before the former date, but they had met with little success and were as
yet more costly than horse traction. It was only in or about the year
1815 that George Stephenson, enginewright in Killingworth colliery,
succeeded in inventing a locomotive engine which was cheaper than
horse-power. The value of railways was by this time better understood.
Short railways worked by horses were common in the neighbourhood of
collieries, and a few existed elsewhere. In 1821 Edward Pease obtained
parliamentary powers to construct a railway between Stockton and
Darlington. A visit to Killingworth persuaded him to make use of
steam-power. In 1823 an act authorising the use of steam on the proposed
railway was carried, and in 1825 the railway was opened. In 1826 an act
was passed for the construction of a railway between Liverpool and
Manchester. Stephenson