Its port was Liverpool. The natural means of
communication between the two cities was quite inadequate to the
changed conditions. In 1821 surveys were made for a tramway, and
before the Stockton road was completed Stephenson had been
selected as chief engineer of the new and more ambitious
enterprise. Yet his assertion that trains could be moved between
the two cities at twenty miles an hour raised serious doubts in
many minds as to his sanity. A writer in the "Quarterly Review"
thought that even though a few foolhardy persons might trust
themselves to a vehicle moving at such speed--twice that of the
swiftest stagecoaches--Parliament for the general welfare should
limit the speed of all railways to eight or nine miles an hour,
as the greatest that could be ventured on with safety.
It was while the grant of a charter to this Liverpool and
Manchester Railway was being discussed in a committee of the
House of Commons that the shrewd North Country engineer first
faced the trained Parliamentary lawyers. He had been cautioned to
keep his figures for speed within the most moderate limits so as
not to prejudice the company's case, but his belief in his own
invention mastered his restraint, though as he afterward said, he
did his best "to keep the engine down to ten miles an hour.
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