GEORGE STEPHENSON. 117 



I could not find words to satisfy the committee or myself, or 

 even to make them understand my meaning. Some said, 

 * He's a foreigner.' * No,' others replied, * he's mad.' But I 

 put up with every rebuff, and went on with my plans, deter- 

 mined not to be put down. Assistance gradually increased ; 

 great improvements were made in the locomotive, until to-day 

 a train which started from London in the morning has brought 

 me in the afternoon to my native soil, and enabled me to meet 

 again many faces with which I am familiar, and which I am 

 exceedingly pleased to see once more." 



When the question of the use of atmospheric railways versus 

 the locomotive came before Parliament in 1845, the locomotive 

 triumphed. '=The king of railway structures," the high-level 

 bridge over the Tyne, was first promulgated by Mr. R. W. 

 Brandling in 1841. The designs for the bridge were Mr. Robert 

 Stephenson's, and the name of George Stephenson appeared in 

 the committee of management In 1835 George Stephenson 

 and his son had been consulted as to the establishment of an 

 efficient railway system throughout Belgium. During a visit to 

 Belgium the king appointed him a Knight of the Order of 

 Leopold. From the opening of the first lines in 1835 until 

 1844, about six and a-half millions sterling had been laid out 

 in railways there. The Belgian lines being executed as an 

 entire system by the State, their railway system is said by Dr. 

 Smiles to have averaged in cost less than one-half that of Eng- 

 land. Stephenson was present at the public opening of the line 

 from Brussels to Ghent, and on the day following had the 

 honour of dining with the king and queen at their own table at 

 Laaken. The engineers of Brussels entertained him to a mag- 

 nificent banquet. A model of the " Rocket " was placed upon 

 the centre table at dinner, under a triumphal arch. The Icing 



