s, any new mode of transit between the two towns
which offered a reasonable prospect of relief was certain to receive a
cordial welcome. The scheme of a tramroad was, however, so new and
comparatively untried, that it is not surprising that the parties
interested should have hesitated before committing themselves to it. Mr.
Sandars, a Liverpool merchant, was amongst the first to broach the
subject. He had suffered in his business, in common with many others,
from the insufficiency of the existing modes of communication, and was
ready to give consideration to any plan presenting elements of practical
efficiency which proposed a remedy for the generally admitted grievance.
Having caused inquiry to be made as to the success which had attended the
haulage of heavy coal-trains by locomotive power on the northern
railways, he was led to the opinion that the same means might be equally
efficient in conducting the increasing traffic in merchandise between
Liverpool and Manchester. He ventilated the subject amongst his friends,
and about the beginning of 1821 a committee was formed for the purpose of
bringing the scheme of a railroad before the public.

The novel project having become noised abroad, attracted the attention of
the friends of railways in other quarters. Tramroads were by no means
new expedients for the transit of heavy articles. The Croydon and
Wandsworth Railway, laid down by William Jessop as early as the year
1801, had been regularly used for the conveyance of lime and stone in
waggons hauled by mules or donkeys from Merstham to London. The sight of
this humble railroad in 1813 led Sir Richard Phillips in his 'Morning
Walk to Kew' to anticipate the great advantages which would be derived by
the nation from the general adoption of Blenkinsop's engine for the
conveyance of mails and passengers at ten or even fifteen miles an hour.
In the same year we find Mr. Lovell Edgworth, who had for fifty years
been advocating the superiority of tram or rail roads over common roads,
writing to James Watt (7th August, 1813): "I have always thought that
steam would become the universal lord, and that we should in time scorn
post-horses; an iron railroad would be a cheaper thing than a road upon
the common construction."

Thomas Gray, of Nottingham, was another speculator on the same subject.
Though he was no mechanic nor inventor, he had an enthusiastic belief in
the powers of the railroad system. Being a native of Lee