190 



ME. BANDARS' PERSEVERANCE. 



CHAP. X. 



scribers. I cannot help it. I fear now that you will 

 only have the fame of being connected with the com- 

 mencement of the undertaking." ] 



It will be observed that Mr. Sandars had held to his 

 original purpose with great determination and perse- 

 verance, and he gradually succeeded in enlisting on 

 his side an increasing number of influential merchants 

 and manufacturers both at Liverpool and Manchester. 

 Early in 1824 he published a pamphlet, in which he 

 strongly urged the great losses and interruptions to the 

 trade of the district by the delays in the forwarding of 

 merchandise ; and in the same year he had a Public De- 

 claration drawn up, and signed by upwards of 150 of the 

 principal merchants of Liverpool, setting forth that they 

 considered " the present establishments for the transport 

 of goods quite inadequate, and that a new line of con- 

 veyance has become absolutely necessary to conduct the 

 increasing trade of the country with speed, certainty, 

 and economy." 



A public meeting was then held to consider the best 

 plan to be adopted, and resolutions were passed in favour 

 of a railroad. A committee was appointed to take the 

 necessary measures ; but, as if reluctant to enter upon 

 their arduous struggle with the " vested interests," they 

 first waited on Mr. Bradshaw, the Duke of Bridge- 

 water's canal agent, in the hope of persuading him to 

 increase the means of conveyance, as well as to reduce 

 the charges ; but they were met by an unqualified 

 refusal. They suggested the expediency of a railway, 



1 In 1858 Mr. Robert Stephenson 

 sent the author a large bundle of 

 letters, which had been forwarded to 

 him by Mr. Sandars, "descriptive of 

 the birth and progress of the Liver- 

 pool and Manchester Railway." In 

 the letter accompanying them Mr. 

 Stephenson said, " there is a bundle 

 of James's, which characterise the 

 man very clearly as a ready, dash- 



ing writer, but no thinker at all on 

 the practical part of the subject he 

 had taken up. It was the same with 

 everything he touched. He never 

 succeeded in anything, and yet pos- 

 sessed a great deal of taking talent. 

 His fluency of conversation I never 

 heard equalled, and so you would 

 judge from his letters." 



