GEORGE STEPHENSON. 



Dr. Smiles remarks, must have had the effect of saving about 

 ;!^4o,ooo per annum to the inhabitants. His correspondence 

 had now increased so much that he was obliged to engage a 

 private secretary. In the year 1835, during his busy season, 

 he dictated no fewer than thirty-seven letters daily. At 

 another time, he dictated letters and reports for twelve hours at 

 a time, until his secretary was like to drop from his chair with 

 fatigue, and was obliged to ask for a suspension from labour. 

 These years ending 1837 are said by his biographer to have been 

 the busiest of his life ; amongst other duties, he was engaged 

 in the survey as principal engineer of the North Midland Rail- 

 way from Derby to Leeds, the York and North Midland from 

 Normanton to York, the Manchester and Leeds, the Birming- 

 ham and Derby, and the Sheffield and Rotherham Railways. In 

 1 84 1 he said that there was hardly a railway in England whicli 

 he had not had to do with. In the survey of a proposed line 

 in Scotland between Edinburgh and Newcastle, by the vale of 

 the Gala (now occupied by the Waverley route), and by Carter 

 Fell on the Cheviots, as against a coast route by way of Berwick- 

 on-Tweed, his report was strongly in favour of the latter. The 

 reasons were apparent — the railway would follow that low coast- 

 line, possessing levels of a favourable nature, and being near 

 the coast the snow would not lie so long on the line. The 

 rush for railway Acts, as Dr. Smiles tells us, was now extra- 

 ordinary. In the year 1836, thirty-four Bills passed the Legis- 

 lature, authorising the making of 994 miles of new railway, the 

 cost being estimated at ;2^i 7,595,000. During 1837 no less 

 than 118 notices of new railway Bills were given in. Of these 

 i;eventy-nine were introduced to Parliament, forty-two Acts 

 were obtained, fourteen companies were incorporated and 

 luthorised to construct 464 miles of railway at a cost of 



