CHAP. XV. THE BILL PASSED AND WORKS LET. 311 



iii England, the utility of which may almost be pro- 

 nounced unparalleled. Eighty miles of the railway 

 were shortly under construction; the works were letl 

 (within the estimates) to contractors, who were neces-l 

 sarily for the most part new to such work. The business I 

 of railway construction was not then well understood. 

 There were no leviathans among contractors as now, 

 able to undertake the formation of a line of railway 

 hundreds of miles in length ; they were for the most 

 part men of small capital and slender experience. Their 

 tools and machinery were imperfect; they did not 

 understand the economy of time and piece labour ; the 

 workmen, as well as their masters, had still to learn 

 their trade ; and every movement of an engineer was 

 attended with outlays, which were the inevitable result 

 of a new system of things, but which each succeeding 

 day's experience tended to diminish. 



The difficulties encountered by Eobert Stephenson 

 in constructing the line were thus very great ; but the 

 most formidable of them originated in the character of 

 the works themselves. Extensive tunnels had to be 

 driven through unknown strata, and miles of under- 

 ground excavation had to be carried out in order to 

 form a level road from valley to valley under the inter- 

 vening ridges. This kind of work was the newest of 

 all to the contractors of that day. The experience of 

 the Messrs. Stephenson in the collieries of the North, 

 made them, of all living engineers, the best fitted to 

 grapple with such difficulties ; yet even they, with all 

 their practical knowledge, could scarcely have foreseen 

 or anticipated the serious obstacles they were called 

 upon to encounter and overcome in executing the for- 

 midable cuttings, embankments, and tunnels of the 

 London and Birmingham Eailway. It would be an 

 uninteresting, as it would be a fruitless task, to attempt 

 to describe these works in detail ; but a general outline 

 of their extraordinary character and extent may not be 

 out of place. 



