But if the opponents were thus bitter in their attack upon the new scheme, they were equally ingenious in their defence of the canal. It was described as never subject to drought; the frost never stopped it; the sun never lowered it; accidents never happened on it. Its friends were also hardy enough to contend, that a saving of nine miles an hour was not sufficient to justify the attempt; and “therefore,” added one who supported this argument, “I do protest against the despotism of the Exchange at Liverpool striding across the land of this country.” The reply to all these objections is in the fact that some thousands of miles are now open to the public. The Manchester and Liverpool Railway succeeded; but no reward was conferred upon Thomas Gray. Other railways followed, and were successful; but no notice was taken of Thomas Gray. The great railway mania came; but Thomas Gray was nothing in the eyes of excited speculators, greedy of gain. An endeavour was made by some of the friends of Gray to win for him the public sympathy; and the poor, old, broken-hearted man, when he respectfully begged for a situation on one of those railways which he had so greatly forwarded, was refused. “The claim of Gray,” said the _Westminster Review_, “is, that he found the railway and the locomotive in the condition of mere miners’ tools, dragged them to light, and proclaimed them as the means of universal progress. He published a practical plan, in 1820, which was scoffed at on all hands; but in 1830 was made a fact by George Stephenson, though in 1829 it was almost considered a certain thing that the haulage on the Liverpool and Manchester would either be performed by horse-power or by stationary engines.” The truth of these assertions has never been called in question. The railway press has generally recognized it. Public subscriptions for the public benefactor were proposed. A petition in his favor was forwarded to the House of Commons. But Thomas Gray was poor, and without influence; and has added another name to those who have benefited and been buffeted by mankind. Neglected by the directors of the great works he had pioneered into existence; neglected by the state, whose profits from railway stamps and railway duties are mainly owing to him; neglected by the great mass of men, who avail themselves of the conveyance which once they derided; the “railway pioneer,” that title which to the last he so dearly loved, died steeped to his lips in poverty, while the speculators reaped large gains. It is a curious circumstance in financial history, that Lord Francis Egerton, the representative of the great canal projector, received shares which produced a clear profit of more than £100,000, to prevent his opposition in the House of Peers; although it is a most suggestive fact, that, with the increase of railway travelling, canal property has absolutely improved. The following is the price of shares in 1824:— OLD BIRMINGHAM CANAL.