202 STEPHENSON IN THE WITNESS-BOX. CHAP. XI. 



horses have not started, nor the cows ceased to give their 

 milk, nor have ladies miscarried at the sight of these 

 things going forward at the rate of four miles and a half 

 an hour." Notwithstanding the petition of two ladies 

 alleging the great danger to be apprehended from the 

 bursting of the locomotive boilers, he urged the safety 

 of the high-pressure engine when the boilers were con- 

 structed of wrought-iron ; and as to the rate at which 

 they could travel, he expressed his full conviction that 

 such engines " could supply force to drive a carriage at 

 the rate of five or six miles an hour." 



The taking of the evidence as to the impediments 

 thrown in the way of trade and commerce by the existing 

 system extended over a month, and it was the 21st of 

 April before the Committee went into the engineering 

 evidence, which was the vital part of the question. 



On the 25th, George Stephenson was called into the 

 witness-box. It was his first appearance before a Com- 

 mittee of the House of Commons, and he well knew 

 what he had to expect. He was aware that the whole 

 force of the opposition was to be directed against him ; 

 and if they could break down his evidence, the canal 

 monopoly might yet be upheld for a time. Many years 

 afterwards, when looking back at his position on this 

 trying occasion, he said : " When I went to Liverpool 

 to plan a line from thence to Manchester, I pledged 

 myself to the directors to attain a speed of ten miles an 

 hour. I said I had no doubt the locomotive might be 

 made to go much faster, but that we had better be mo- 

 derate at the beginning. The directors said I was quite 

 right; for that if, when they went to Parliament, I 

 talked of going at a greater rate than ten miles an hour, 

 I should put a cross upon the concern. It was not an 

 easy task for me to keep the engine down to ten miles 

 an hour, but it must be done, and I did my best. I had 

 to place myself in that most unpleasant of all positions 

 the witness-box of a Parliamentary Committee. I was 



