170 COMMERCIAL RESULTS. 



the rail. Bringing his step into unison with the speed 

 of the train, the horse learnt to leap nimbly into his 

 place in this waggon, which was usually fitted with a 

 well-filled hay-rack. 



The details of the working were gradually perfected 

 by experience, the projectors of the line being scarcely 

 conscious at first of the importance and significance of 

 the work which they had taken in hand, and little 

 thinking that they were laying the foundations of a 

 system which was yet to revolutionise the internal 

 communications of the world, and confer the greatest 

 blessings on mankind. It is important to note that the 

 commercial results of the enterprise were considered 

 satisfactory from the opening of the railway. Besides 

 conferring a great public benefit upon the inhabitants 

 of the district and throwing open entirely new markets 

 for the almost boundless stores of coal found in the 

 Bishop Auckland district, the profits derived from the 

 traffic created by the railway enabled increasing dividends 

 (to be paid to those who had risked their capital in the 

 (undertaking, and thus held forth an encouragement to 

 >the projectors of railways generally, which was not 

 without an important effect in stimulating the projection 

 of similar enterprises in other districts. These results, 

 as displayed in the annual dividends, must have been 

 eminently encouraging to the astute commercial men of 

 Liverpool and Manchester, who were then engaged in 

 [the prosecution of their railway. Indeed, the com- 

 mercial success of the Stockton and Darlington Company 

 ; may be justly characterised as the turning-point of the 

 I railway system. With that practical illustration daily 

 in sight of the public, it was no longer possible for 

 Parliament to have prevented its eventual extension. 



Before leaving the subject of the Stockton and Dar- 

 lington Kailway, we cannot avoid alluding to one of its 

 most remarkable and direct results the creation of the 

 town of Middlesborough-on-Tees. When the railway 



