CHAP. XIV, THE RAILWAY WORKMEN. 285 



supplied to them by other builders should be constructed 

 after the same model. Mr. Stephenson himself always 

 had the greatest faith in the superiority of his own 

 engines over all others, and did not hesitate strongly to 

 declare it. When it was once proposed to introduce the 

 engines of another maker on the Manchester and Leeds 

 line, he said, " Yery well ; I have no objection : but put 

 them to this fair test. Hang one of - 's engines on 

 to one of mine, back to back. Then let them go at it ; 

 and whichever walks away with the other, tliafs the 

 engine." 



The engineer had also to seek out the proper men to 

 maintain and watch the road, and more especially to 

 work the locomotive engines. Steadiness, sobriety, com- 

 mon sense, and practical experience, were the qualities 

 which he especially valued in those selected by him for 

 that purpose. But where were the men of experience 

 to be found ? Yery few railways were yet at work, and 

 these were almost exclusively confined to the northern 

 coal counties ; hence a considerable proportion of the 

 drivers and firemen employed on the Liverpool line 

 were brought from the neighbourhood of Newcastle. 

 Mr. Stephenson was, however, severely censured in the 

 ' Edinburgh Review ' for the alleged preference shown 

 by him in selecting workmen from his own county. It 

 was there insisted that the local population had the first 

 claim to be employed, and he was blamed for " intro- 

 ducing into the country a numerous body of workmen, 

 in various capacities, strangers to the soil and to the 

 surrounding population ; thus wresting from the hands 

 of those to whom they had naturally belonged, all the 

 benefits which the enterprise and capital of the district 

 had conferred." In the case of the drivers of stage- 

 coaches, it was never regarded as a qualification for the 

 performance of their duties that they should be natives 

 of the parishes through which the coaches ran, but 

 mainly that they should know something of the business 



