and, was lost; on which the bill was
withdrawn.

Thus ended this memorable contest, which had extended over two
months--carried on throughout with great pertinacity and skill,
especially on the part of the opposition, who left no stone unturned to
defeat the measure. The want of a third line of communication between
Liverpool and Manchester had been clearly proved; but the engineering
evidence in support of the proposed railway having been thrown almost
entirely upon Stephenson, who fought this, the most important part of the
battle, single-handed, was not brought out so clearly as it would have
been, had he secured more efficient engineering assistance--which he was
not able to do, as the principal engineers of that day were against the
locomotive railway. The obstacles thrown in the way of the survey by the
landowners and canal companies, by which the plans were rendered
exceedingly imperfect, also tended in a great measure to defeat the bill.

The rejection of the bill was probably the most severe trial George
Stephenson underwent in the whole course of his life. The circumstances
connected with the defeat of the measure, the errors in the levels, his
rigid cross-examination, followed by the fact of his being superseded by
another engineer, all told fearfully upon him, and for some time he was
as much weighed down as if a personal calamity of the most serious kind
had befallen him.

Stephenson had been so terribly abused by the leading counsel for the
opposition in the course of the proceedings before the
Committee--stigmatised by them as an ignoramus, a fool, and a
maniac--that even his friends seem for a time to have lost faith in him
and in the locomotive system, whose efficiency he nevertheless continued
to uphold. Things never looked blacker for the success of the railway
system than at the close of this great parliamentary struggle. And yet
it was on the very eve of its triumph.

The Committee of Directors appointed to watch the measure in Parliament
were so determined to press on the project of a railway, even though it
should have to be worked merely by horse-power, that the bill had
scarcely been thrown out ere they met in London to consider their next
step. They called their parliamentary friends together to consult as to
future proceedings; and the result was that they went back to Liverpool
determined to renew their application to Parliament in the ensuing
session.

It was not considered desir