CHAP. XIV. KG AD LOCOMOTION. 28U 



carriages were made at the time by Sir Charles Dance, 

 Mr. Hancock, Mr. Gurney, Sir James Anderson, and 

 other distinguished gentlemen of influence. Journalists 

 extolled their utility, compared with " the much-boasted 

 application on railroads." 1 But notwithstanding all this, 

 and the House of Commons' Report in its favour, Mr. 

 Stephensoii's first verdict, pronounced upon the road 

 locomotive many years before, when he was only an 

 engine- wright at Killingworth, was fully borne out by 

 the result ; and it became day by day clearer that the 

 attempt to introduce the engine into general use upon 

 turnpike roads could only prove a delusion and a snare. 



Although the legislature took no initiative step in 

 the direction of railway extension, the public spirit and 

 enterprise of the country did not fail it at this juncture. 

 The English people, though they may be defective in 

 their capacity for organization, are strong in individual- 

 ism ; and not improbably their admirable qualities in 

 the latter respect detract from their efficiency in the 

 former. Thus, in all times, their greatest national enter- 

 prises have not been planned by officialism and carried 

 out upon any regular system, but have sprung, like 

 their constitution, their laws, and their entire industrial 

 arrangements, from the force of circumstances and the 

 individual energies of the people. Hence railway exten 

 sion, like so many other great English enterprises, 

 now left to be carried out by the genius of Engli 

 engineers, backed by the energy of the English public. 



The mode of action was characteristic and national. 

 The execution of the new lines was undertaken entirely 

 by joint-stock associations of proprietors, after the 

 manner of the Stockton and Darlington, and Liverpool 

 and Manchester companies. These associations are con- 



Letter of Mr. John Herapath in | riages, see ' The Economy of Steam- 

 Mcchanics' Magazine,' vol. xv. p. I power on Common Roads,' by C. F. 



123. For full information as to the 



T. Young, C.E. London, 1861. 



various trials made with steam-car- 



VOL. III. U 



