CHAP. XII. ORGANIZATION OF THE LABOUE. >-j 



lie upon the pressure being equal at all points. There 

 was, and still is, a sort of springiness in the road over 

 the Moss, such as is felt when passing along a suspended 

 bridge ; and those who looked along the line as a train 

 passed over it, said they could observe a waviness, such 

 as precedes and follows a skater upon ice. 



During the progress of these works the most ridiculous 

 rumours were set afloat. The drivers of the stage-coaches 

 who feared for their calling, brought the alarming intel- 

 ligence into Manchester from time to time, that " Chat 

 Moss was blown up ! " " Hundreds of men and horses 

 had sunk in the bog ; and the works were completely 

 abandoned ! " The engineer himself was declared to 

 have been swallowed up in the Serbonian bog ; and 

 " railways were at an end for ever ! " 



In the construction of the railway, Mr. Stephenson's 

 capacity for organising and directing the labours of a 

 large number of workmen of all kinds eminently dis- 

 played itself. A vast quantity of ballast-waggons had 

 to be constructed for the purposes of the work, and im- 

 plements and materials had to be collected, before the 

 mass of labour to be employed could be efficiently set in 

 motion at the various points of the line. There were 

 not at that time, as there are now, large contractors 

 possessed of railway plant, capable of executing earth- 

 works on a large scale. The first railway engineer had 

 not only to contrive the plant, but to organise the 

 labour, and direct it in person. The very labourers 

 themselves had to be trained to their work by him ; 

 and it was on the Liverpool and Manchester line that 

 Mr. Stephenson organised the staff of that formidable 

 band of railway navvies, whose handiworks will be the 

 wonder and admiration of succeeding generations. Look- 

 ing at their gigantic traces, the men of some future age 

 may be found to declare, of the engineer and of his 

 workmen, that " there were giants in those days." 



Although the works of the Liverpool and Manchester 



