328 INCIDENT IN COMMITTEE. CHAP. XVI. 



the directors. They determined, however, to obtain the 

 Act, although conscious at the time that they would 

 have to go for a second and improved line in the follow- 

 ing year. The second Bill passed the Commons in 1837 

 without difficulty, and was expected in like manner to 

 receive the sanction of the Lords' Committee. Quite 

 unexpectedly, however, Lord Wharncliffe, who was in- 

 terested in the Manchester and Sheffield line, which 

 passed through his colliery property in the south of 

 Yorkshire, and conceived that the new Manchester and 

 Leeds line might have some damaging effect upon it, 

 appeared as an opponent of the Bill. He was himself a 

 member of the Committee, and adopted the unusual 

 course of rising to his feet, and making a set speech 

 against the Bill while Mr. Stephenson was under exa- 

 mination. After pointing out that the Bill applied for 

 and obtained in the preceding session was one that the 

 promoters had no intention of carrying out, that they 

 had secured it only for the purpose of obtaining posses- 

 sion of the ground and reducing the number of the 

 opponents to their present application, and that in fact 

 they had been practising a deception upon the House, 

 his Lordship turned full upon the witness, and, address- 

 ing him, said, " I ask you, sir, do you call that conduct 

 honest ?" Mr. Stephenson, his voice trembling with emo- 

 tion, replied, " Yes, my Lord, I do call it honest. And 

 I will ask your Lordship, whom I served for many years 

 as your enginewright at the Killingworth collieries, did 

 you ever know me to do anything that was not strictly 

 honourable ? You know what the collieries were when 

 I went there, and you know what they were when I 

 left them. Did you ever hear that I was found wanting 

 when honest services were wanted, or when duty called 

 me ? Let your Lordship but fairly consider the circum- 

 stances of the case, and I feel persuaded you will admit 

 that my conduct has been equally honest throughout in 

 this matter," He then briefly but clearly stated the 



