310 THE PROJECT REVIVED. CHAP. XV. 



mined not to look back, and forthwith made arrange- 

 ments for prosecuting the bill in a future session. A 

 [ meeting of the friends of the measure was held in 

 | London, attended by members of both Houses of 

 Parliament, and by leading bankers and merchants ; 

 and a series of resolutions was passed, declaring their 

 conviction of the necessity for the railway, and depre- 

 cating the opposition by which it had been encountered. 

 Lord Wharncliffe, who had acted as the chairman of the 

 Lords' Committee, attributed the failure of the bill en- 

 tirely to the landowners; and Mr. Grlyn subsequently 

 declared that they had tried to smother the bill by the 

 high price which they demanded for their property. It 

 was determined to reintroduce the bill in the following 

 session (1833), and measures were taken to prosecute it 

 vigorously. Strange to say, the bill on this occasion 

 passed both Houses silently and almost without oppo- 

 sition. The mystery was afterwards solved by the 

 appearance of a circular issued by the directors of the 

 company, in which it was stated, that they had opened 

 " negotiations " with the most influential of their oppo- 

 nents ; that " these measures had been successful to a 

 greater extent than they had ventured to anticipate ; 

 and the most active and formidable had been concili- 

 ated." An instructive commentary on the mode by 

 which these noble lords and influential landed pro- 

 prietors had been " conciliated," is found in the simple 

 fact that the estimate for land was nearly trebled, 

 and that the owners were paid about 7 50, GOO/, for 

 what had been originally estimated at 2 5 0,00 O/. The 

 total expenses of carrying the bill through Parliament 

 amounted to the frightful sum of 7 2,86 SI. 



The landowners having thus been " conciliated," the 

 promoters of the measure were at length permitted to 

 proceed with the formation of their great highway, and 

 allowed to benefit the country by carrying out one of 

 the grandest public works that has ever been executed 



