308 OPPOSITION TO THE BILL. CHAP. XV. 



ways induced the promoters to anticipate a favourable 

 issue to their application, notwithstanding the hostility 

 of the landowners. They also drew a favourable 

 augury from the fact that the Grand Junction Canal 

 Company, although still opposing the measure as strenu- 

 ously as ever, so far as the influence of its proprietors 

 collectively and individually extended, and watching all 

 the proceedings of the bill with a jealous eye, did not 

 openly appear in the ranks of its opponents, and, what 

 was of still greater significance, did not open their 

 purse-strings to supply funds for the opposition. 



When the bill went before the Committee of the Com- 

 mons, a formidable array of evidence was produced. 

 All the railway experience of the day was brought to 

 bear in support of the measure, and all that interested 

 opposition could do was set in motion against it. The 

 necessity for an improved mode of communication 

 between London and Birmingham was clearly demon- 

 strated ; and the engineering evidence was regarded as 

 quite satisfactory. So strong an impression was made 

 upon the Committee, that the result was no longer doubt- 

 ful so far as the Commons were concerned ; but it was 

 considered very desirable that the case should be fully 

 brought out in evidence for the information of the public, 

 and the whole of the witnesses in support of the bill, 

 about a hundred in number, were examined at great 

 length. The opponents confined themselves principally 

 to cross-examination, without producing direct evidence 

 of their own ; reserving their main opposition for the 

 House of Lords, where they knew that their strength 

 lay. Not a single fact was proved against the utility 

 of the measure, and the bill passed the Committee, and 

 afterwards the third reading in the Commons, by large 

 majorities. 



It was then sent to the House of Lords, and went into 

 Committee, when a similar mass of testimony was again 

 gone through during seven days. An overwhelming 





