Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1882-05-27 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

TUE HERALD.  SATURDAY, MAY 27, 1882.  THE fact that Stockton is so closely identified with the birth and development of railways is in itself a sufficient guarantee that the handsome volume which has just been published by Mr Mark Archer, of Blaydon.on-Tyne, will be read with no small degree of interest in the town and district. The object of the author is to show that it was William Hedley, an not George Stevenson, who invented the locomotive on its present principle; and the process of proof will be found ca• tremely instructive reading even to those who, perhaps, have hitherto prided themselves on knowing all that could be known in reference to the origin of our mighty railroads. Although no one would desire for one moment to ignore the credit due to George Stephenson for his labours in connection with the establishment of railways, it would be equally unfair to permit the names of those who assisted or preceded him in the useful work to be forgotten. Many of our readers will be familiar with the name of William Holley, of Wylam ; and, although he has new passed away, his three sons naturally desire to perpetuate their father's memory as the constructor of the very first successful locomotive engine, and as the dis. coverer of the important fact—which alone rendered the success of the railway system possible—that when at work the adhesion of the smooth wheels upon the rails was sufficient to produce progressive motion. In claims of this kind there is not nnfrequently a disposition on the part of the general public to assume that the claimant and those immediately connected with him are partial, and therefore not altogether reliable authorities; and it I must be acknowledged that confirmatory evidence from a presumably adverse source is in every respect preferable In the case of William Holley there is not only the evidence afforded by the publications of the day, but also that which has fortunately been incidentally furnished by the biographers of George Stephenson and other engineers of the beginning of the century; and the only conclusion that can he drawn is that had William Heclley's engineering skill and carefully-made experiments not been available at Wylam, George Stephenson would probably have remained unknown as his name is to-day, and the introduction of railways would have been long delayed._ We cannot, therefore, help think. ing that it is repugnant to that sense of fair-play which is inherent in the English breast that the laurels of engineering skiy and patience should be all placed on the head of one man, to the injury of the fame of another who has a just right to share them.  Tim Paris detectives seem pretty con, fident that they will be able to lay theii hands upon the murderers of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr Burke. They are convinced that the perpetrators of the crime took refuge in France, and did not attempt to go to America; and they reasol. that the hue and cry would at once direct enquiries to be made at New York and elsewhere in the States. The English authorities never for a moment thought that in Paris there are thousands of people who would sympathise with the miscreants because they had murdered two Govern! ment servants, one of them belonging to a noble family. At any rate, the reward of £lO,OOO, which sounds all the larger when it is spoken of as 250,000 francs, has put all the police agents, secret and other• wise, of the French capital on the qui rirr, and we hear that promises are being made right and left that this very large sum shall be divided with those who put the I • police on the right scent. There are one I or two English detectives in Paris, but it seems that they are not nearly so sanguine of success as their French colleague%