The Press.
London, England, 1857-07-04 00:00:00

yittraturt.

The Life of George Stephenson, Railway
Engineer. By Samuel Smiles. London :
Murray.
WE have much pleasure in bearing witness to
the ability with which Mr. Smiles has accom-
plished this somewhat difficult task. It was
difficult to compose a life of Stephenson
neither. on the ono hand, overlaid with
scientific technicalities, nor weakened, on the
other, by the attempt to popularise a grave
subject. This middle course the author of the
work before us has been lucky enough to hit
upon, and to maintain without deviation. A
lady might read it without yawning, and a pro-
fessor without sneering. The various ingre-
dients such as the hero's boyhood and
private and domestic life, his professional
struggles, and the progress of engineering
generally—are mingled in duo proportion, and
relieve the mind by their judicious alterna-
tions. As a careful and clever biographer Mr.
Smiles will, we predict, be placed in a high
class. _ _

George Stephenson was born on the 7th of
June, 1781, at the village of Wylam in
Northumberland, his father being an ordinary
labourer, in the capacity of colliery fireman, at
wages of 12s. a week. There was, indeed, a
tradition that the family had once possessed
property in Scotland, but the story lacks
authenticity. Young George was one of. a
numerous family, and was set to work as soon
as be was capable of earning a penny or two-
pence a day. Anything like education was
entirely out of the question. Yet even at this
period the boy's intellectual activity was
nearly as conspicuous as his physical. His
leisure time was divided between modelling
clay engines and hunting for blackbirds'
nests in the thick thorn hedges of the district.
He was also a great rabbit•fancier, and
"prided himself on his superior breed." Nor
in higher sports was his energy less remark.
able. In boxing, jumping, and lifting weights
he had few superiors ; and as he grew up he
afforded convincing practical proofs of his pre-
eminence. At sixteen or seventeen he became
conscious of his deficiency in book-learning,
and applied himself to the study of arithmetic
with a perseverance that nothing could daunt,
and which was proof against all the entice-
ments of idleness and pleasure. Thus early
was evinced that appreciation of sound know-
ledge, and that buoyant hardihood of spirit,
which conducted him to his valuable dis-
coveries, and sustained him in the face of the
bitter opposition they encountered. We might
quote many instances of his personal ccurage
and nerve—how he thrashed the Champion of
Black Callerton in his youth, or how he de-
scended into the Littleborough Tunnel in his
old age—but we prefer the following:--

One day, in the year 1814, a workman hurried into Mr.
Stephenson's cottage with the startling information that
the deepest main of the colliery was on fire! He imme•
diately hastened to the pitquouth, about a hundred yards
off, whither the women and children of the colliery were
fast running, with wildness and terror depicted in every
face. In an energetic voice Stephenson ordered the
engineman to lower him down the shaft in the corve.
There was danger, it might be death, before him—but he
must go. As those about the pit mouth saw him descend
rapidly out of sight, and heard from the gloomy depths of
the shaft the mingled cries of despair and agony rising
from the workpeople below, they gazed on the heroic man
with breatbless amazement.
He was soon at the bottom, and in the midst of his
workmen, who were paralysed at the danger which
threatened the lives of all in the pit. Leaping from the
corve on its touching the ground, he called out, " Stand
back ! Are there six men among you who have courage
enough to fellow me? If so, come, and we will put the
fire out."

The Killingworth men always had the most perfect con•
fidence in George Stephenson, and instantly they volun•
Jeered to follow him. Silence succeeded to the frantic
tumult of the previous minute, and the men set to work.
In every mine, bricks, mortar, and tools enough are at
hand, and by Stephenson's directions materials were
forthwith carried to the required spot, where, in a very
short time, a wall was raised at the entrance to the main,
he himself taking the most active part in the work. Thus
the atmospheric air was excluded, the fire was cxtin•
guished, the people were saved from death, and the mine
NAP preserved.

Stephenson's first great invention was tho
safety-lamp ; and though some of the stars of
).tip

the. iciehfific world sought to iob him of the I out