CHAP. XT. MR. ALDERSON'S SPEECH. 211 



resistance to a moving body going under four and a 

 quarter miles an hour was less upon a canal than upon a 

 railroad ; and that, when going against a strong wind, 

 the progress of a locomotive was retarded " very much." 

 Mr. George Leather, C.E., the engineer of the Croydon 

 and Wandsworth Railway, on which he said the waggons 

 went at from two and a half to three miles an hour, also 

 testified against the practicability of Mr. Stephenson's 

 plan. He considered his estimate a "very wild" one. 

 He himself had no confidence in locomotive power. The 

 Weardale Railway, of which he was engineer, had 

 given up the use of locomotive engines. He supposed 

 that, when used, they travelled at three and a half to 

 four miles an hour, because they were considered to be 

 then more effective than at a higher speed. 



When these distinguished engineers had given their 

 evidence, Mr. Alder son summed up in a speech which 

 extended over two days. He declared Mr. Stephenson's 

 plan to be " the most absurd scheme that ever entered 

 into the head of man to conceive. My learned friends," 

 said he, " almost endeavoured to stop my examination ; 

 they wished me to put in the plan, but I had rather 

 have the exhibition of Mr. Stephenson in that box. I 

 say he never had a plan I believe he never had one 

 I do not believe he is capable of making one. His is a 

 mind perpetually fluctuating between opposite difficulties : 

 he neither knows whether he is to make bridges over 

 roads or rivers, of one size or of another ; or to make 

 embankments, or cuttings, or inclined planes, or in what 

 way the thing is to be carried into effect. Whenever a 

 difficulty is pressed, as in the case of a tunnel, he gets 

 out of it at one end, and when you try to catch him at 

 that, he gets out at the other." Mr. Alderson proceeded 

 to declaim against the gross ignorance of this so-called 

 engineer, who proposed to make " impossible ditches by 

 the side of an impossible railway " through Chat Moss ; 

 and he contrasted with his evidence that given "by 



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