104 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Apbh,, 



to come. This, liowevcr, was little tlioii;;ht of. Most of the bills 

 for mines, jrasworks. waterworks, hiuI docks were thrown out, — and 

 it may I'e said all tlie railway hills. 



Uiidertakiiiifs abroad were not hindered by iiets of parliament. 

 Tlie Pasco-l'eruvian .Mining Company, or the Coliiml>ian Pearl 

 Fishery C'lmipaiiy, could be started witliout acts of jiarliament; 

 while the Liverjiool and Manchester Railway could only go on by 

 an act of parliament, to get whicli needed a great outlay of 

 money and time, and a .struggle against all tliat landowners, inn- 

 keepers, and (^anal-holders could do with their friends in the Lords 

 and in tlie lower house. It was no wonder therefore if American 

 mines and loans were most souglit after. 



■What was the stock of wealth utterly lo.st in these undertak- 

 ings cannot be reckoned u]); for we have no good measure for it. 

 It Mas made up in several ways. There was what was spent at 

 liuiiio among ))eople here, and tliat must be taken otf from the 

 wliide loss. Then goods were sent abroad, which, so far as tlie 

 raw material was not of lionie make, would be a loss; hut would 

 not, so far as the work goes, nor so far as the raw material wliich 

 was of home growtli. Thus on cotton goods sent out, the utter 

 loss could only arise on the cotton which was of home growtli, hut 

 on English woollens there would not be an utter loss of the capital 

 of the country. There must, however, have been a great deal of 

 g(dd sent out, and therefore lost, and there was a loss of the gains 

 of the traders of former years. 



The loss in capital was therefore a small one, and did not weaken 

 us, as indeed the end shows; but the loss when rightly measured 

 will be found to be a very great one; but then in another way 

 altogether from what it is commonly said to be. Our loss was not 

 by sending capital abroad and getting nothing back; by lendini^- 

 money to the Peruvians and Buenos Ayreans, and not being paid; 

 not by working silver mines in Mexico, gold mines in the Brazil, 

 and laying out ten pounds to get one pound's worth of gold: hut 

 our loss was of a kind which never can he made up, as the time 

 for doing so will never come over again. 



Our loss is this. It is a loss of all the railways, docks, havens, 

 bridges, canals, gasworks, and waterworks which might have been 

 made; which would have set us ten years a-head of all the nations 

 in the old world and the new, and would have given to our fathers 

 and ourselves some of the fruits now our children only will see. 

 By giving a help to the building of steam-ships it would have 

 spread our trade abroad, and we should have made those settle- 

 ments which we are now only beginning. Then, too, how much 

 hanus on this, how much the healthy gi'owth of mechanical skill is 

 hindered from want of a field for its exercise. George Stephenson 

 was as ready for the locomotive race in 1823 as in 1829; the screw- 

 projieller might as well have been tried then as some years later; 

 and the steam-shij) driven its way across the broad Atlantic. 



Shareholders were as willing to go into undertakings here as 

 abroad; indeed, the greater number of undertakings were meant 

 to he worked at home, but then they were knocked on the head by 

 the House of Commons. ISIore useful undertakings were ship- 

 wrecked tliere than useless (uies were shipwrecked on the American 

 shore; but then if a man wished to do .something he was driven 

 into some undertaking abroad, from there being no chance for him 

 at home, 'i'herefore, the blame lies wliolly on our law-makers, 

 who lost the best time for making u]i forthwith the losses the com- 

 monwealth had undergone during the war; and by hindering the 

 bealtliy growth of trade, threw the greatest hindrance in the way 

 of the sutfering people of England. 



The people rushed into the share undertakings of 1824 and 

 1S2J with all the more madness, as the the thing was new to them. 

 Since the canal works of fifty years ago, never had there been so 

 many new undertakings brought forward. For twenty years, 

 A\'illiam Pitt and his followers had yearly come forward with some 

 new loan or lottery, in which all the savings of the thrifty were 

 huallowed up, while most were so squeezed with taxes that they 

 iDuhl not in any way save. James and Dodd might weave their 

 webs fruitlessly in the war time, for M'illiam Pitt held out to those 

 who had UKuiey six or seven in the hundred forthwith, under tlie 

 name of omnium, scrij), consols, navy fives, long annuities, shiu't 

 annuities, lottery tickets, and so forth. Therefore, the Ixddest 

 g('tters-u|i of new undertakings had the ground cut from under 

 tlieni. There were, it is true, new undertakings, as we have said, 

 brought forward from time to time; but in the whole they vvere small, 

 'I'he canals were done and at work, and few shares came into the 

 market. There were, however, as already said, docks, harbours, 

 gas and waterworks, and bridges, and these were still going on. 

 The copper and tin mines of Cornwall had been wrouglit throughout 

 the war, but then they were not advertised in the newspapers, and 

 tlieir shares had a nuirket of their own. It is therefore fair to 



say, that so many share undertakings as were thenceforth set up 

 was something new for the peo]>le. 



The gambling houses set up by the government under the shape 

 of lottery-offices were about to be closed; one pound notes were 

 under the ban, and gold had conie hack again after being lost sight 

 of for twenty years. The Stock Exchange drew therefore every 

 one to it. 



Neither must it be lost sight of that the people had no longer 

 the war to beset their thoughts. They had not to think when 

 jieace would come, to wait for the news of the next fight, to grieve 

 over the last friend slain, or to grumble about the newest tax 

 threatened. The time of the government was no longer taken up 

 with such cares. Tiie thoughts of all were on peace, and wliat 

 jieace brought before tliem, of the means of ujiholding peace. 

 Tiiey were now as earnest to keep up the peace as before to keep 

 up the war. Hence, too, a greater freedom of mind, a greater 

 wish for learning, a greater readiness to welcome the works of 

 the great masters of knowledge. What was the steam-carriage of 

 Trevithick when Napoleon thundered at the gates of kings, and 

 warned the lords of earth to hide their heads and flee.^ — what was 

 the safety-lamp of Davy whilst ^Vellington and Napoleon fouglit 

 for the lordship of the world.'' Brunei miglit he listened to when 

 offering a new block machinery. Sir Samuel Brown for his chain 

 cables, or Sir Josepii Iluddart for his rope patent; but then these 

 were helpmates of the war, and their more peaceful works met 

 with less welcome. Tlie minds of men of learning and skill had 

 been much given to inventions useful iu war time, and now they 

 were free from sucli calls. 



^Vhat ought to have been done, as already shown, was to set the 

 people at work at home; but this was lost sight of, and besides the 

 loss before reckoned up, further harm was done. In the war time, 

 there was, it is true, a great outlay for poor-rates, hut that was 

 mostly spent on women and children. An idle man had a hard 

 time of it; for he was laid hold of in one way or another, and sent 

 off to he a soldier or a sailor. Thus all were doing some kind of 

 work, or what was called work; but after the war, the thousands 

 iijion thousands of soldiers and sailors were no longer wanted, and 

 they were therefore left idle, and many able-bodied men came 

 upon the poor-rates, — a thing most hurtful to them, by giving tiiein 

 pauperised habits. On the other hand, nothing has done more for 

 stopping this evil than tlie great railway woiks which have of late 

 years been carried on; and we may hope in time that paujierism 

 will be utterly rooted out, and every man be set to some useful 

 work. 



This may seem to have very little to do with George Stephen- 

 son, hut it has very much; for the great good there is iu looking 

 at the life of such a man is to think thoroughly over the circum- 

 stances wliich thus come before us. By so doing, we are enabled 

 to see what errors have happened, and how far the deeds of any 

 one man are able to cure them or soften them. It was certainly 

 one end of Stephenson's labours, that he did very much mitigate 

 the evils that have been here shown, while he was very much kept 

 back by them. How much more indeed might be not have done, 

 if at an earlier time he could have begun liis full career, while he 

 had all his health and strength? — and how much, too, is it to be 

 wished that other men should not be kept hack by the like 

 stumbling-blocks ! 



It is mere speculation as to whether Stephenson was moved in 

 his labours by any earnest wish to give employnient to the working 

 classes, but there is nothing more likely tiiaii that he had that 

 feeling, for it was that which stirred him to the finding out of his 

 safety-lamp; and James and Gray most strongly dwelt in their 

 writings on the good which would How from railways, as a means 

 of setting the people to work. Gray indeed brings forward the 

 want of employment as one of the greatest reasons for adopting 

 his plan of a general iron-way.' 



The madness which set in for share undertakings reached its 

 height in 1825; and to show in what way it worked itself out, the 

 following from the Juhn Bull- newspaper may be of use. 



Canals ilD.UUll.UOO 



Ducks lU.jUU.UUU 



AsKUranL'oC'iiiiiiaiiirs 4J,UUU,(iU0 



WalL-rwuilis a.JOU.UL'U 



Bruiges 2,UU0,0UU 



Gas cuiupanics .... 11,OUU,(I;jO 



Kuads 5lll),OU0 



Kailways 21,J01I,UUU 



Mines.' ia,UOU,000 



Miscellaneous .... 4U,0(IU,(JI)0 



This makes altog ether ItilifiOOfiOOl., and does not take in the 



I •• ObseivuLiuiis," p. J, 7, an:: 41'. =* rcb. l^i, Id2o. 



