184,8.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



331 



31st of August *-as held over till the 11th of Octoher, when John 

 George Lambton, the late Earl of Durham, took the chair. iMr. 

 Brandling then moved that the meeting should be again put off, 

 tliat inquiry might be made, whether " the merit of the invention 

 of the Safety Lamp was due to Sir Humphrey Davy, or George 

 Stephenson." Mr. Arthur Mowbray likewise stood up for tliis, 

 but it was set aside by a great number of h.ands. A purse of one 

 hundred guineas was however given to Stephenson. 



Stephenson's friends were very wroth at being thus beaten, and 

 Stephenson himself thouglit that the meeting had dealt very un- 

 fairly with him in awarding the meed to Davy. " ^Vhether or 

 not," says Stephenson, in a letter afterwards printed, " Mr. 

 Brandling is justiiied in the opinion he has expressed [that Ste- 

 phenson was the inventor], it appears to me may be easily decided ; 

 and I shall only add, that if it can be proved that 1 took advan- 

 tage, in the formation of the safety lamp, of any suggestions, 

 e.xcept the printed opinions of scientiiic men, I deserve to lose 

 tlie confidence of my honourable employers, and the good opinion 

 of my fellow-men, which 1 feel an honest pride in, and which even in 

 my humble situation in life is of more value in my estimation than 

 any reward that generous, but indiscriminating affluence can 

 bestow." 



Davy's friends thought they did not do enough in upholding 

 him, but they must further pull down Stephenson ; and instead of 

 choosing the likely path, that botli might have gone on without 

 knowing each other, they openly said that Stephenson had taken 

 or stolen the thought from Davy. ' ' Here was the sting — and hence 

 the manly and earnest speech of Stephenson, given above, which 

 fully shows what his feelings were — his love of standing well with 

 his 'fellow-men — his earnestness to be worthy of the trust bestowed 

 upon him. From the time he first set foot in the great world, to 

 the day of his death, these were his strong feelings ; and as has 

 been before shown, they give the key to his life, and lay open to 

 us the springs of his well-doing. 



He was quite right in thinking that the good-will of his neigh- 

 bours, and the trust of his fellow-men, were worth more than any 

 money whicli could be bestowed ; for they were to liini as the land 

 which yields a yearly harvest, while the latter is but a crop 

 which is once gathered in, and there is no more of it. The harvest 

 may fall short sometimes, but there is the land to give a better 

 cro]) in other years, and to give a good income for whatever is 

 laid out upon it : so is it with a good name — it is a lasting mine 

 of wealth to the owner, the yield of which is the greater the 

 longer it is wrought. 



The friends of Davy were none the less angry that a common 

 workman was set up against one of his great name, as if it were 

 likely that one of Davy's standing should be beholdened for any- 

 thing to a lowly pitman. They were maddened at the tliought of 

 one of the greatest men of his day being so set down. How little 

 did they think or dream that the drudge they then looked down 

 upon was to shine upon the world as one no less great than Davy — 

 as one of the brightest lights of his day — as one of whom even they 

 now feel proud. Such is the worth of a name, such is it to weigh 

 with an untrue beam, and to set down wrong weights. The great 

 man of to-day soon sinks into the dust, — the lowly of yesterday is 

 the mighty of the morro%v ; but let each be weighed by his deeds, 

 and not by his name ; by his own works, and not by the witness of 

 his friends. 



The writings which were put forth in Stephenson's name are by 

 one hand ; but though they breathe his thoughts, it does not seem 

 likely that they are his. In that last given, the earnestness of 

 thought is his, but it is not his speech. There is too much Latin 

 — there are too many of the chosen words of the schoolman, and 

 too much of his craft, to let us believe tliat they come from a free- 

 spoken Englishman. In talking, Stephenson always liad the 

 homely speech of an Englishman, as indeed it now too often hap- 

 pens that among common men our mother tongue is best spoken. 

 ■W'itli them, the well of English is bright and strong ; w-hereas 

 bookmen, instead of speaking better English for their greater 

 knowledge, only learn Latin and Greek to bring them into English, 

 as if our English were a worse speech, and the others better ; or, 

 as if a word were the better understood by being swaddled in out- 

 landish clothes. Stephenson most often had the pen of another, 

 else we might have had from his hand something worthy of our 

 best writers ; for it has been often seen, that those have 

 written the freest who have risen as he did, from among those 

 who know no other tongue but their own. The cot is a better 

 scliool for speech than the college — there is a greater freshness in 

 its sayings : a strength and earnestness and heartiness which 



1' Tyne Mercury, Nov. 25, 1817.— Newcastle Courant, Nov. 20, 1817. 



come home to our bosoms ; something which breathes sweetly of 

 our childhood, and takes us back beyond our school years. 

 Whetlier in the Bible, in Shakspeare, our best-loved books and 

 writers, those sayings always delight us most wliich are most 

 homely ; and yet, more care is given to eke out a book with big 

 words, borrowed from every land but our own, than to write such 

 things as every one may readily understand. 



If Davy's friends spared notliing for him, Stephenson's were as 

 steadfast; tlie war went on, and tlie Newcastle papers were full of 

 writings, for and against. The Rev. John Hodgson, Mr. Buddie, 

 Mr. Brandling, and tlie full number of " Friends to Justice," 

 strove together; but neither side would give in, or own that it was 

 in aught wrong : they were too busy in saddling things on each 

 other to take off one bit from themselves. If Davy had the meet- 

 ing of coalowners on his side, Stephenson was not to be left barren, 

 and therefore his friends made up their minds that he should 

 have a meeting of bis own, and that plate should be given to him 

 as a set-off against what had been done for Sir Humphrey Davy. 



It should, however, be said that, having been beaten in getting an 

 inquiry from the meeting of coalowners, they had a meeting of tlieir 

 own, to look into what Stephenson had done, and which ended in the 

 Report, which has been already named. Stephenson, Nicholas 

 Wood, and the others who had a hand in the business, were called 

 together, and gave witness as to what they had seen or done. 

 This was wi-ittcn down and printed at the end of the Report, and 

 it showed the faith the meeting had in the goodness and rightful- 

 ness of the side they had taken up. The members were, the Earl 

 of Strathmore, C. J. Brandling, Esq., C. W. Bigg, Esq., Matthew 

 Bell, Esq., R. W. Grev, Esq., Arthur Mowbrav, Esq., James Losh, 

 Esq.,'s T. H. Bigg, Esq., Dr. Headlam,'^ C. N. Wawn, Esq., 

 Antliony Clapham, Esq., and G. Charnley, Esq. Richard Lam- 

 bert, Esq., was the Treasurer, and Robert William Brandling, 

 Esq., the Secretary. 



On the 1st of November, 1817, the further step was taken, and 

 a meeting was held in the Assembly-rooms, Newcastle ; at which 

 C. J. Brandling, Esq. took the chair, " for the purpose of remu- 

 nerating JNIr. George Stephenson, for the valuable service he had 

 rendered to mankind by the invention of his Safety Lamp." The 

 first resolution held forth, " that Mr. George Stephenson, having 

 discovered the fact that explosion of hydrogen gas would not pass 

 through tubes and apertures of small dimensions, and having been 

 the first to apply that principle in the consti'uction of a Safety 

 Lamp, was entitled to a public reward." A committee, headed by 

 the Earl of Strathmore, was named to carry this out. 



Davy's friends were anew stirred up, and they sent to the news- 

 papers a writing, signed by Sir Joseph Banks, President of the 

 Royal Society, VVilliam Thomas Brande, Charles Hatchett, H. W. 

 ^V'ollaston, and Thomas Young, setting forth their conviction, 

 " that Mr. Stephenson was not the author of the discovery of the 

 fact in question, and was not the first to apply that principle in 

 the construction of the Safety Lamp." 



The other committee printed their report in ansvver, setting 

 forth the whole truth, and ended by saying, " After a careful 

 inquiry into the merits of the case, conducted, as they trusted, in 

 a spirit of fairness and moderation, they could perceive no satis- 

 factory reason for changing their opinion." The dead set made by 

 the men of learning who stood bytheir friend, Davy, did not frighten 

 the others, and did not put a stop to their work. Their minds were 

 made up, and the subscriptions set afoot by them went on steadily. 

 Lord Ravensworth (then Sir Thomas Henry Liddell, Bart.) and 

 partners, gave one hundred guineas ; C. J. Brandling, and partners, 

 gave the like,-" Matthew Bell,-' and partners, gave fifty guineas ; 

 and John Brandling, and partners, gave the like. Thus, a goodly 

 purse was filled ; and the great gifts of the Liddells, and the other 

 coalowners, are a very good earnest of how Stephenson was looked 

 upon in his own neighbourhood, and the path which lay open 

 before him. It was not hard to tell what he would do with his 

 inborn skill. 



In January, 1818, a dinner was given to George Stephenson, at 



1 8 Then partner wilh Stephenson in the patent for the rails and chairs. 



19 Afterwards a director of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway. 



20 Robert William Brandling, Esq., is the son of the late Char'es Brandling, Esq. 

 flr.P., and connected wiih most of the leading coalowners [Railway Post-Office 

 Directory, 1S48], being brot!>er-iu-law of Rowland Burdon, Esq., uncle of Matthew 

 Bell, Esq., DI.P., and cousin of R. W. Grey, Esq.. 111. P. He was therefore well able to 

 help Geori^e Stephenson, to whom he was a great friend. He is a barrister by profession, 

 but has taken a great share in all undertakings in his neighbourhood; among other 

 things, in the Brandling Junction Railway, and in the Safely Lamp. 



21 The Bells were likewise great friends of Stephenson. Matthew Bell, Esq., of 

 Woolsington, is the one named above. The son, born in 1793, is now M.P. for South 

 Northumberland, and has been a director of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway since 

 1829. [Railway PoBt-Office Directory, lb4S.] In ISlti, he had been High Sherifl' of 

 Northumberland. 



43* 



