d to
his purpose. Even in this, apparently the darkest hour of the
locomotive, he did not hesitate to declare that locomotive railroads
would, before many years had passed, be "the great highways of the
world."

He urged his views upon the directors in all ways, in season, and, as
some of them thought, out of season. He pointed out the greater
convenience of locomotive power for the purposes of a public highway,
likening it to a series of short unconnected chains, any one of which
could be removed and another substituted without interruption to the
traffic; whereas the fixed-engine system might be regarded in the light
of a continuous chain extending between the two termini, the failure of
any link of which would derange the whole. But the fixed engine party
was very strong at the board, and, led by Mr. Cropper, they urged the
propriety of forthwith adopting the report of Messrs. Walker and
Rastrick. Mr. Sandars and Mr. William Rathbone, on the other hand,
desired that a fair trial should be given to the locomotive; and they
with reason objected to the expenditure of the large capital necessary
to construct the proposed engine-houses, with their fixed engines,
ropes, and machinery, until they had tested the powers of the locomotive
as recommended by their own engineer. George Stephenson continued to
urge upon them that the locomotive was yet capable of great
improvements, if proper inducements were held out to inventors and
machinists to make them; and he pledged himself that, if time were
given him, he would construct an engine that should satisfy their
requirements, and prove itself capable of working heavy loads along the
railway with speed, regularity, and safety. At length, influenced by his
persistent earnestness not less than by his arguments, the directors, at
the suggestion of Mr. Harrison, determined to offer a prize of L500 for
the best locomotive engine, which, on a certain day, should be produced
on the railway, and perform certain specified conditions in the most
satisfactory manner.[7]

The requirements of the directors as to speed were not excessive. All
that they asked for was that ten miles an hour should be maintained.
Perhaps they had in mind the animadversions of the _Quarterly Review_ on
the absurdity of travelling at a greater velocity, and also the remarks
published by Mr. Nicholas Wood, whom they selected to be one of the
judges of the competition, in conjunction, with Mr. Rastrick, of
Stourb