It was
his first appearance before a Committee of the House of Commons, and he
well knew what he had to expect. He was aware that the whole force of
the opposition was to be directed against him; and if they could break
down his evidence, the canal monopoly might yet be upheld for a time.
Many years afterwards, when looking back at his position on this trying
occasion, he said:--"When I went to Liverpool to plan a line from thence
to Manchester, I pledged myself to the directors to attain a speed of 10
miles an hour. I said I had no doubt the locomotive might be made to go
much faster, but that we had better be moderate at the beginning. The
directors said I was quite right; for that if, when they went to
Parliament, I talked of going at a greater rate than 10 miles an hour, I
should put a cross upon the concern. It was not an easy task for me to
keep the engine down to 10 miles an hour, but it must be done, and I did
my best. I had to place myself in that most unpleasant of all
positions--the witness-box of a Parliamentary Committee. I was not long
in it, before I began to wish for a hole to creep out at! I could not
find words to satisfy either the Committee or myself. I was subjected to
the cross-examination of eight or ten barristers, purposely, as far as
possible, to bewilder me. Some member of the Committee asked if I was a
foreigner, and another hinted that I was mad. But I put up with every
rebuff, and went on with my plans, determined not to be put down."

Mr. Stephenson stood before the Committee to prove what the public
opinion of that day held to be impossible. The self-taught mechanic had
to demonstrate the practicability of accomplishing that which the most
distinguished engineers of the time regarded as impracticable. Clear
though the subject was to himself, and familiar as he was with the powers
of the locomotive, it was no easy task for him to bring home his
convictions, or even to convey his meaning, to the less informed minds of
his hearers. In his strong Northumbrian dialect, he struggled for
utterance, in the face of the sneers, interruptions, and ridicule of the
opponents of the measure, and even of the Committee, some of whom shook
their heads and whispered doubts as to his sanity, when he energetically
avowed that he could make the locomotive go at the rate of 12 miles an
hour! It was so grossly in the teeth of all the experience of honourable
members, that the man "must certainly b