the two cities; and, secondly, by those who owned the
coaches and the inns. Though proposed in 1821, the opposition was so
great that it was laid over for several years. In 1824 a committee
of interested parties went to Darlington and Killingworth to see
Stephenson's road and locomotives. The Darlington line was not yet
in operation, but the old locomotives were at work at Killingworth.
The committee decided that they must have a double track for cars,
whatever might be the motive power.

Accordingly Stephenson was invited to make surveys and estimates, as
he was said to be a man of great energy and the only man in England
with the necessary experience.

The surveys were made in 1825 with the greatest difficulty, on
account of the opposition of landowners. The surveyors were ordered
off the grounds, threatened with arrest and violence. Stephenson
testified before a Parliamentary Committee that the duke's manager
threatened to have him thrown into the mill-pond if he trespassed.
Stephenson kept on as good terms as he could with the hostiles, and
surveyed their grounds by stealth.

The chief points of difficulty were a tunnel at Liverpool, and a
vast and treacherous morass known as "Chat Moss."

Early in 1825, before the Darlington road was opened, Parliament was
considering the railway bill and Stephenson was called before the
committee as a most important witness. All the opposition was out in
force and every means was used to ridicule the undertaking and
defeat the bill.

The spectacle presented by plain, blunt, unlettered George
Stephenson before the lawyers and members of the House of Commons
was strange and interesting, and no wonder it has become historical.

In the cross-examination, every effort was made to confuse and
discredit the witness, but he bore himself remarkably well. He had
built or superintended half a dozen short railways, and had
constructed sixteen locomotives, and he could speak on the details
of his plans with certainty and confidence. Two things embarrassed
him; the consciousness of awkwardness of manner and speech among men
some of whom were inclined to sneer at his northern dialect and lack
of polish; secondly, the necessity of restraining himself in stating
what his locomotives could do. He fully believed they could draw
long trains at the speed of twenty miles, but he was told by the
friends of the bill that if he made that claim before the committee,
he would be called a madman, an