CHAP. XI. THE PARLIAMENTARY CONTEST. 201 



CHAPTER XL 



PARLIAMENTARY CONTEST ON THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER 



BILL. 



THE Liverpool and Manchester Bill went into Committee | 

 of the House of Commons on the 21st of March, 1825. j 

 There was an extraordinary array of legal talent on the 

 occasion, but especially on the side of the opponents to 

 the measure. Their wealth and influence enabled them 

 to retain the ablest counsel at the bar ; Mr. (afterwards 

 Baron) Alderson, Mr. Stephenson, Mr. (afterwards Baron) 

 Parke, Mr. Eose, Mr. Macdonnell, Mr. Harrison, Mr. Erie, 

 and Mr. Cullen, made common cause with each other in 

 their opposition to the bill ; the case for which was con- 

 ducted by Mr. Adam, Mr. Serjeant Spankie, Mr. William 

 Brougham, and Mr. Joy. 



Evidence was taken at great length as to the difficulties 

 and delays in forwarding raw goods of all kinds from 

 Liverpool to Manchester, as also in the conveyance of 

 manufactured articles from Manchester to Liverpool. 

 The evidence adduced in support of the bill on these 

 grounds was overwhelming. The utter inadequacy of 

 the existing modes of conveyance to carry on satisfactorily 

 the large and rapidly-growing trade between the two 

 towns was fully proved. But then came the gist of the 

 promoters' case the evidence to prove the practicability 

 of a railroad to be worked by locomotive power. Mr. 

 Adam, in his opening speech, referred to the cases of 

 the Hetton and the Killingworth railroads, where heavy 

 goods were safely and economically transported by means 

 of locomotive engines. " None of the tremendous con- 

 sequences," he observed, " have ensued from the use of 

 steam in land carriage that have been stated. The 



