his father, and he had, after leaving school and acting as an under-viewer at a pit, gone up for a session of six months to Edinburgh University, he was of much help to him, and brought science and education to the aid of rough genius. The war was ended also long ago, and money had become more plentiful, gold not being worth twenty-six shillings per guinea. But Stephenson's locomotives were worth every day much more. The Hutton Coal Company, whose coals we see every day advertised as the best of all, resolved to construct a railway of eight miles in length, and Stephenson was empowered to make it. He worked at it with his usual good will, looking to the digging and delving, and the laying down of each sleeper himself. When it was opened it was a day of triumph to him. Five of his engines were at work, and travelled at the great rate, at that time, of four miles per hour; each engine pulling a train of seventeen waggons, and weighing altogether about sixty-four

tons.

The experiments in the north country had sufficiently proved that a new locomotive power was wanted, not only to carry the coal from the pit's mouth to the sea, but also to carry passengers from one town to another. Stage-coaches had been considered wonders. With fast horses, and polite guards, and on fine roads, ten miles an hour had been achieved; but the country was in a state of expansion, and more was wanted. The time, indeed, was coming when, to use Stephenson's own words,

"mail-coaches will be superseded, and the king and all his subjects will travel on railroads, which will become their great highway. The time is coming when it will be cheaper for a poor man to travel on a railway than to walk on foot."

Of course there were hundreds who laughed at this. Prophecy, although based upon a scientific knowledge which foresees the result, generally meets with an ignorant denial or a silly laugh. But as the great French preacher said about *Galileo's discovery, "If the earth moves, it is no use denying it; it will move and carry you round with it." Railways have moved since then-since 1825, only fifty-five years ago, when the *Stockton and Darlington Railway was first opened for traffic, and George Stephenson drove the engine, amidst admiring crowds. The carriages were filled with directors and their friends: and the speed attained was just twelve miles per hour, "in some parts," then a great achievement, and welcomed at Stockton with deep interest and admiration.

The Liverpool and Manchester people were determined not to be behindhand with railways, and Stephenson, whose salary now amounted to £1000 per annum-a mighty advance from the herd-boy with his twopence a day-and whose name was in these matters a tower of strength, was appointed to undertake the work. But there was a hitch. Old interests were at stake, and the scheme was opposed in every possible way.

Stephenson's determination, however, overcame

all; and in spite of law courts, landed gentry, and old prejudice, the railway was constructed under the greatest engineering difficulties, and opened between Manchester and Liverpool on the 15th September, 1830.

At this time he worked enormously. He travelled with a private secretary, and, besides his other work, dictated nearly forty letters per day, entering into all their business details.

He was consulted by great men, disputed with *Buckland on geology, and brought his own practical knowledge to bear against science, and won the day. Called to * Belgium, he showed kings how iron roads might improve their dominions, and at the same time was carrying on an engine factory, improving locomotives, and advancing on his famous model the Rocket." He would work with intense ardour, he would form plans as he laid upon his bed, as he travelled from place to place. He advised, invented, suggested, and to the last showed immense activity.

*

He declared that the great wealth of our country lay in coal, and that our Lord Chancellor should sit, not on a wool-sack, but a coal-sack. He purchased an estate, and drove a shaft, and discovered a mine.

He won great wealth, which is always an easy thing for a great intellect to do, presuming it will stoop low enough. But wealth was not the chief thing to George Stephenson. He had his work to do, and he did it. He might be called "the father of the railway system." *Sir Robert Peel, another

great man, then Prime Minister, offered him a knighthood, but Stephenson, who knew that that honour was given to successful grocers and sugarbakers, wisely refused it. He would be plain "George Stephenson," the worker. He was quite right. If they had made him a duke, he would have been the same. His statue, now in St. George's Hall, Liverpool, is Stephenson, and Stephenson alone, and quite enough. He built the town, drilled navvies as Napoleon drilled soldiers, and was sufficiently rewarded with the fame he earned.

It was about July, 1848, that the constant worker received his summons to work no more. He had fulfilled one holy injunction. Whatever he had found to do, that he had done with his might. He was soon to be summoned to where there was no work to do. He was still inventing, still improving. He died on the 12th August, 1848, in the sixtyseventh year of his age. Like some of his own engines, the machine was worn out in constant use, and George Stephenson slept with his fathers, the nobodies of the hill and dale, the workers who had produced a grand worker, who had played his part amongst the generations of men, and had gone to that place where no more work was to be done.

Great was the work he wrought, but still greater was the workman. Under the hard discipline of poverty and necessity, he grew strong in selfreliance. He never thought of failure, and considered no sacrifice too great to accomplish his object. He was ever ready to encourage youthful mechanics to

persevere as he had done, and to adopt as their motto one which he gave to his son Robert, who was the worthy successor of such a father

"Wealth is not his who gets it, but his who enjoys it."

politician, one who takes interest in the state of the nation, politics.

genius, a person born with great mental gifts.

magnitude, greatness.

energy, power and will.

vow, a sacred promise.

integrity, honesty, uprightness.

confirmed, made sure and certain.

defrayed, discharged, paid off. artisans, hand workers. employées, a French word now often used to signify workpeople, those who are employed.

WILLIAM COBBETT, a writer of the present century, born in 1762, died in 1835. His "counsels and advice" are esteemed wherever the English language is read. He states of himself that he was thrown on the wide world at a very early age,, without money to support, friends to advise, or learning to assist him,-being solely dependent on such work as he could get for his living. He enlisted as a soldier, went to France, where he learned the