transporting heavy goods with facility at a slow pace having been demonstrated, all that remained was to make it available.

Before the Liverpool and Manchester Company advertised their prize of £500, they sent a deputation to Killingworth to witness the working of the locomotives, with a view to the employment of a similar power on the line then in progress. Although the rails were not laid with that precision now considered so indispensable, the deputation found that the locomotives had been kept at work with much regularity, drawing heavily-laden trains of wagons from the coal-pits to the ships in the Tyne. They reported in favour of locomotive power, and in accordance with their decision the advertisements appeared.

The 8th of October 1829 was fixed for the trial, and on the appointed day three engines were brought forward to compete for the prize: a competition which involved much more than the winning of £500. Stephenson was there with his Rocket, Hackworth with the Sanspareil, and Braithwaite and Ericson with the Novelty. The test assigned was to run a distance of thirty miles at not less than ten miles an hour, backwards and forwards along a two-mile level near Rainhill, with a load three times the weight of the engine. The Novelty, after running twice along the level, was disabled by failure of the boiler-plates, and withdrawn. The Sanspareil traversed eight times at a speed of nearly fifteen miles an hour, when it was stopped by derangement of the machinery. The Rocket was the only one to stand the test and satisfy the conditions. This engine travelled over the stipulated thirty miles in two hours and seven minutes nearly, with a speed at times of twenty-nine miles an hour, and at the slowest nearly twelve; in the latter case exceeding the advertised maximum, in the former tripling it. Here was a result! An achievement so surprising, so unexpected as to be almost incredible. Was it not a delusion?—had it been really accomplished?—and could it be done again?

The prize of £500 was at once awarded to the makers of the Rocket. Their engine was not only remarkable for its speed, but also for the contrivances by which that speed was attained. Most important among them was the introduction of tubes passing from end to end of the boiler-said to have been suggested by Mr Booth, secretary to the company-by means of which so great an additional surface was exposed to the radiant heat of the fire, that steam was generated much more rapidly, and a higher temperature maintained at a smaller expenditure of fuel than usual. The tubular boiler was indeed the grand fact of the experiment. Without tubes steam could never have been produced with the rapidity and heat essential to quick locomotion. In more senses than one the trial of the three locomotives in October 1829 marks an epoch.

By burning coke instead of coal, the stipulated suppression of smoke was effected the quantity consumed by the Rocket during the experiment was half a ton. The coke and water were carried in a tender attached to the engine.

On the 15th of September 1830 the railway was opened. The two great towns, with due regard to the importance of the event, made preparations for it with a spirit and liberality worthy of their wealth and enterprise. Members of the government, and distinguished individuals from various quarters, were invited to be present at the opening. On the memorable

day a train was formed of eight locomotives and twenty-eight carriages, in which were seated the eminent visitors and other persons present on the occasion, to the number of 600. The Northumbrian, one of the most powerful of the engines, took the lead, followed by the train, which, as it rolled proudly onwards, impressed all beholders with a grand idea of the energies of art, and of the power destined soon afterwards to effect the greatest of civil revolutions. At Parkfield, seventeen miles from Manchester, a halt was made to replenish the water-tanks, when the accident occurred by which Mr Huskisson lost his life, and tempered the triumph by a general sentiment of regret. The proceedings, however, though subdued, were carried out in accordance with the arrangements prescribed.

Business began the next day. The Northumbrian drew a train with 130 passengers from Liverpool to Manchester in one hour and fifty minutes; and before the close of the week six trains daily were regularly running on the line. The surprise and excitement already created were further increased when one of the locomotives by itself travelled the thirty-one miles in less than an hour. Of the thirty stage-coaches which had plied between the two towns, all but one went off the road very soon after the opening, and their 500 passengers multiplied at once into 1600.

In December commenced the transport of goods and merchandise, and afforded further cause of astonishment; for a loaded train, weighing eighty tons, was drawn by the Planet engine at from twelve to sixteen miles an hour. In February 1831 the Samson accomplished a greater feat, having conveyed 164 tons from Liverpool to Manchester in two hours and a half, including stoppages-as much work as could have been performed by seventy horses.

There are many now in their manhood who will remember the wonder and excitement created by these results in all parts of the kingdom. The facts could not be disputed. Neither the laws of nature nor science could be brought to accord with the views of those who saw in the new agencies the elements of downfall and decay. Even the company had gone surprisingly astray in their calculations. Believing that the major part of their business and of their revenue would be derived from the transport of heavy goods, they had set down £20,000 a year only as the estimated return from passenger traffic; and scarcely a week had passed before they became aware of the fact, as agreeable as it was unexpected, that passengers brought the greatest return. The whole number conveyed from the time of opening to the end of the year-three months and a half-was more than 71,000.

From all accounts of locomotives it appears that some of the first constructed were intended to run on common roads. According to Du Halde, the history of such carriages begins at an earlier date than is commonly supposed. He relates that, about the year 1700, the Jesuit missionaries in China invented certain mechanical curiosities for the entertainment of the emperor Kanghi. They caused a wagon to be made of light wood, about two feet long, in the middle whereof they placed a brazed vessel full of live coals, and upon them an eolipile, the wind of which issued through a little pipe upon a sort of wheel made like the sail of a windmill. This

little wheel turned another with an axletree, and by that means the wagon was set a-running for two hours together; but for fear there should not be room enough for it to proceed constantly forwards, it was contrived to move circularly in the following manner :-To the axletree of the two hind-wheels was fixed a small beam, and at the end of this beam another axletree passed through the stock of another wheel, somewhat larger than the rest; and accordingly as this wheel was nearer or farther from the wagon it described a greater or lesser circle. The same contrivance was likewise applied to a little ship with four wheels: the eolipile was hidden in the middle of the ship, and the wind issuing out of the two small pipes filled the little sails and made them turn around a long time. The artifice being concealed, there was nothing heard but a noise like wind, or that which water makes about a vessel.'

Some years later Cugnot produced a steam-carriage at Paris, which, after having proved its inefficiency, was laid aside, and is still to be seen in the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers. In 1772, the American, Oliver Evans, began to experiment on steam with a view towards employing it as a substitute for animal power. In the year 1786 he petitioned the legislature of Pennsylvania for the exclusive right to use his improvements in mills and his steam-wagons in that state. The committee to whom the petition was referred heard him very patiently while he described the mill improvements, but his representations concerning steam-wagons made them think him insane:' his petition as regarded the wagons was refused. Evans foresaw that steam would one day be the prime agent of locomotion, and he frequently declared that the time would come when travellers would be conveyed on good turnpike-roads at the rate of fifteen miles an hour, or 300 miles a day, by a contrivance similar to his own. Within the next thirty years numerous attempts were made by inventors in this country to employ steam-power on common roads. The prospect appeared promising; for if once successful, there were excellent highways already prepared on which to conduct a traffic, thereby saving all the outlay required for a perfectly level or independent route. Trevithick's experiments have already been mentioned. Griffith brought out a steam-carriage in 1821, portions of which were the invention of a foreigner. Another by Gordon, in 1822, was contrived to work inside a large iron drum, as a squirrel runs in his revolving cage; with what advantage does not appear. Gurney, reputed as the most persevering of all the experimentalists, next took up the subject, and produced an engine ingeniously constructed, and in which the objection as to noise was to a great extent overcome. Instead of allowing the waste steam to be blown off by puffs, as in the usual way, it was made to enter a chamber, from which, by a special contrivance, it issued with a steady and noiseless current, and created a draught as it passed to the funnel. In 1826 it performed the journey from London to Bath, and in a manner that indicated how much remained to be improved before the sanguine hopes of the inventor could be realised. Other competitors were in the field-Dance, Macerone, Church, and Hancock, among the most prominent: Gurney, persevering, had in 1831 three steam-carriages running for the conveyance of passengers on the road from Cheltenham to Gloucester. Four trips a day were kept up from February to June, at a greater rate of speed than that of the stage-coaches on the

same nine miles of road, and at half their fares. In that time 3000 passengers had been conveyed, with an expenditure of £50 for coke, besides high wages to the engineer and his attendants. The success was such as might have led to a permanent undertaking, had not a formidable opposition been organised. Injurious reports were industriously circulated, and all travellers cautioned against trusting themselves to the dangers of steam; and, for more effectual hinderance, a portion of the road was covered to a depth of eighteen inches with loose stones. In attempting to pass this impediment the working-axle of the engine was broken, which for the time put a stop to steam - communication between Cheltenham and Gloucester. Before any steps could be taken to renew it, a number of turnpike acts had been hurried through parliament, by which excessive tolls—from 40s. to 68s.—were imposed on carriages driven by steam machinery, to be paid at each time of passing. These measures, while they checked the operations of the engineers, proved that legislators could overlook the fact, that roads are more injured by horses' feet than by wheels.

In the same year Hancock started a steam-carriage-The Infant-to run between Stratford and London, which excited much attention from the compactness and efficiency of its arrangements, and led to attempts in other quarters. Sanguine projectors promised lines of steam-omnibuses for all the great thoroughfares of London and the suburban districts, and coaches for Bristol and Birmingham. Meantime Gurney had petitioned parliament: a committee appointed to consider the subject of his memorial reported in favour of the introduction of steam - carriages on turnpikeroads; the increasing enthusiasm, however, for railways at that period diverted inventive enterprise into another direction, besides which the indiscreet zeal of the advocates of the carriages raised feelings unfavourable to success. To talk of travelling twenty-five miles an hour on a turnpike-road, with all its windings, all its regular and accidental traffic, was probably a mistake: half that speed would be the highest compatible with public safety. It is still a question whether highway locomotives might not be employed with profit and convenience between railways and towns lying a short distance off the line.

The history of an invention, like that of an individual, interests us more in its account of early struggles than of ultimate triumph. We dwell with varied emotions on the first attempt, the appearance of the germ, its growth and upspringing. Errors, disappointments, and difficulties often make us tremble for the result; but the error is avoided, the disappointment gives vigour to a new effort, the difficulty becomes an impulse to more strenuous exertion-and success crowns alike the endeavour and the aspiration. After that, though we may be gratified or astonished at the results, we feel that the secret charm of the interest has ceased. The lingering doubt, the quick hope, are no longer there to arouse and animate us in our own career. The race commanded our whole sympathies, and called out our latent energies. The arrival at the winning-post brings a flash of exultation-a brief thrill, which puts an end to the generous hope, the eager joy, of the earlier career.

We come now to that period in the history of railways when attempt

passed into the fulness of enterprise. The success of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway revived some of the projects of the year 1825, and in 1830 two schemes which had been put forth for a railway from London to Birmingham were combined, the object being four lines of rail throughout the whole distance. Had this original intention been carried into effect, there is great reason to believe that the advantages which it offered would have more than compensated for the additional cost involved in such a width of roadway. Ultimately, however, a double line of rails was decided on, and a bill brought before parliament and read a first time in February 1832. Being referred to a committee, it met with a most searching investigation and strenuous opposition, notwithstanding which it passed the Commons, but was thrown out by the Lords. Two noblemen, whose estates lay near Watford, exerted all their powerful influence against it; and the company, for their unsuccessful attempt, were put to an expense of £32,000. They carried their point in the next session at a total cost of £72,868, the bill having passed in May 1833. Mr R. Stephenson was engaged as engineer, and very soon eighty miles of the works were in progress. The original estimated cost of this railway was in round numbers £2,500,000: owing, however, to the unforeseen difficulties, to the rise in the price of iron from £9 to £14 per ton, and the panic in commercial affairs in 1836, the actual cost amounted to £2,000,000 more. The line, 1124 miles in length, was opened for the entire distance in September 1838. In 1839 the total received for passenger traffic was £608,564; in the first six months of 1851 it amounted to £723,862, besides £453,717 for the transport of coal, live-stock, and merchandise-making a sum of £1,177,579 received in half a year. The working expenses for the same period were £415,420. In 1846 the name of the line was changed to 'London and NorthWestern,' under which it now includes a group of railways with extensive ramifications—their united capital being at the time £22,989,310. The company own 188 stations; and, including lines leased, or supplied with locomotive power, they work altogether 8634 miles of rail. According to the published report, the working stock consists of-563 engines; 562 tenders; 1 state-carriage; 555 first-class, mail, and composite carriages; 489 second-class; 345 third-class; 259 horse-boxes; 243 carriage-trucks; 200 guards' brake and parcel-vans; 8052 wagons; 203 sheep-vans; 1155 cribrails; 5150 sheets; 55 parcel-carts and trucks; 24 travelling post-offices and tenders; and 162 horses.

The Grand Junction line connecting Birmingham with Liverpool is a rare if not the only instance of a great railway having been sanctioned by parliament without opposition. The bill was passed in 1833, and the line opened in 1837. The act for the Eastern Counties line was obtained in 1836; a portion was opened in 1840; as far as Colchester, 51 miles, in March 1843; and the line through Cambridge to Brandon in 1845. The act for the London and South-Western passed in 1834-opened May 1840: the South-Eastern in 1836-opened February 1844: the Brighton in 1837 -opened 1841. The short line to Blackwall was opened in 1840: the Great Northern, formerly the London and York, in August 1850; it now comprehends, with its loops and branches, 285 miles. According to the act passed in 1844, the line from Chester to Holyhead was to have been carried across the Menai Bridge; this act was amended in the following year. In