A powerful fellow, a noted bruiser, was hired by the surveyors to carry the instrument, with a view to its protection against all assailants; but one day an equally powerful fellow, a St. Helen’s collier, cock of the walk in his neighbourhood, made up to the theodolite bearer to wrest it from him by sheer force. A battle took place, the collier was soundly pummelled, but the natives poured in volleys of stones upon the surveyors and their instruments, and the theodolite was smashed to pieces. An outline-survey having at length been made, notices were published of an intended application to Parliament. In the mean time Mr. James proceeded to Killingworth to see Stephenson’s locomotives at work. Stephenson was not at home at the time, but James saw his engines, and was very much struck by their power and efficiency. He saw at a glance the magnificent uses to which the locomotive might be applied. “Here,” said he, “is an engine that will, before long, effect a complete revolution in society.” Returning to Moreton-in-the-Marsh, he wrote to Mr. Losh (Stephenson’s partner in the patent) expressing his admiration of the Killingworth engine. “It is,” said he, “the greatest wonder of the age, and the forerunner, as I firmly believe, of the most important changes in the internal communications of the kingdom.” Shortly after, Mr. James, accompanied by his two sons, made a second journey to Killingworth, where he met both Losh and Stephenson. The visitors were at once taken to where the locomotive was working, and invited to mount it. The uncouth and extraordinary appearance of the machine, as it came snorting along, was somewhat alarming to the youths, who expressed their fears lest it should burst; and they were with some difficulty induced to mount. The engine went through its usual performances, dragging a heavy load of coal-waggons at about six miles an hour, with apparent ease, at which Mr. James expressed his extreme satisfaction, and declared to Mr. Losh his opinion that Stephenson “was the greatest practical genius of the age,” and that, “if he developed the full powers of that engine (the locomotive), his fame in the world would rank equal with that of Watt.” Mr. James informed Stephenson and Losh of his survey of the proposed tramroad between Liverpool and Manchester, and did not hesitate to state that he would thenceforward advocate the construction of a locomotive railroad instead of the tramroad which had originally been proposed.