CHAP. XVII. THE RAILWAY MANIA. 375 



lawyers, parliamentary agents, engineers, surveyors, 

 and traffic-takers, who were alike ready to take up any 

 railway scheme however desperate, and to prove any 

 amount of traffic even where none existed. The traffic 

 in the credulity of their dupes was, however, the great 

 fact that mainly concerned them, and of the profitable 

 character of which there could be no doubt. 



Parliament, whose previous conduct in connection 

 with railway legislation was so open to reprehension, 

 interposed no check attempted no remedy. On the 

 contrary, it helped to intensify the evils arising from 

 this unseemly state of things. Many of its members 

 were themselves involved in the mania, and as much 

 interested in its continuance as the vulgar herd of 

 money-grubbers. The railway prospectuses now issued 

 unlike the original Liverpool and Manchester, and 

 London and Birmingham schemes were headed by 

 peers, baronets, landed proprietors, and strings of M.P's. 

 Thus, it was found in 1845 that no fewer than 157 

 members of Parliament were on the lists of new com- 

 panies as subscribers for sums ranging from 291,000/. 

 downwards ! The projectors of new lines even came to 

 boast of their parliamentary strength, and of the number 

 of votes which they could command in " the House." 

 At all events, it is matter of fact, that many utterly 

 ruinous branches and extensions projected during the 

 mania, calculated only to benefit the inhabitants of a 

 few miserable boroughs accidentally omitted from Sche- 

 dule A, were authorised in the memorable sessions of 

 1844 and 1845. 



Mr. Stephenson was anxiously entreated to lend hisl 

 name to prospectuses during the railway mania ; but he I 

 invariably refused. He held aloof from the headlong! 

 folly of the hour ; and endeavoured to check it, but in 

 vain. Had he been less scrupulous, and given his coun- 

 tenance to the numerous projects about which he was 

 consulted, he might, without any trouble, have thus 



