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the steam engine in 1765, but it was fully ro years after that before 
working engines began to be made for mines and collieries. 
The first practical steam-boat made by Robt. Fulton was not 
constructed until 1807, and the first locomotive engine by George 
Stephenson till 1814. The Liverpool and Manchester line was 
not inaugurated until 1829, and the London and Birmingham 
until 1838. These were among the first lines opened to carry 
passengers. 
In fact Steam-boats, Railways, Gas, Cheap Postal Arrangements, 
Telegraphs, Photographs, Daily Papers, Cheap and Good Books 
and Illustrations all really belong to quite modern times. 
When to the absence of so many good things we have to add 
that the Government of the country was not an enlightened 
Government ; that taxation was very oppressive, and that abroad 
we were at war with America, with France, Spain and the Nether- 
lands, you will understand that we have very much for which to be 
extremely thankful. 
But to return to William Smith, the orphan boy. His uncle was 
a hard-working farmer who farmed his own land, and had no 
ambition or toleration for anything besides. 
Book-learning he didn’t care about, having done very well 
without it himself. But this nephew of his was not only fond of 
reading when he got the chance, but he also went about the country 
lanes, the fields and roadside-quarries, picking up stones and fossils 
(called “pundibs,” “pound-stones” or “ quoit-stones,”) of which 
he found many in his native place. 
Such idle habits, the farmer thought, could lead to no good. 
But when the boy began to take an intelligent interest in the pro- 
cesses of draining and improving the land, then the old farmer’s 
heart softened sufficiently to give his nephew money to buy a few 
books by which he might be enabled to instruct himself in the 
rudiments of geometry and surveying. Thus without sympathy or 
instruction the youth worked on ; labouring for and with his uncle 
on his farm, and devoting every moment of his leisure to his 
