To this it must be added, that in urging these views Mr. Stephenson was strongly influenced by commercial considerations. He had no desire to build up his reputation at the expense of railway shareholders, nor to obtain engineering _éclat_ by making “ducks and drakes” of their money. He was persuaded that, in order to secure the practical success of railways, they must be so laid out as not only to prove of decided public utility, but also to be worked economically and to the advantage of their proprietors. They were not government roads, but private ventures—in fact, commercial speculations. He therefore endeavoured to render them financially profitable; and he repeatedly declared that if he did not believe they could be “made to pay,” he would have nothing to do with them. He was not influenced by the sordid consideration of what he could _make_ out of any company that employed him; indeed, in many cases he voluntarily gave up his claim to remuneration where the promoters of schemes which he thought praiseworthy had suffered serious loss. Thus, when the first application was made to Parliament for the Chester and Birkenhead Railway Bill, the promoters were defeated. They repeated their application, on the understanding that in event of their succeeding, the engineer and surveyor were to be paid their costs in respect of the defeated measure. The Bill was successful, and to several parties their costs were paid. Mr. Stephenson’s amounted to £800, and he very nobly said, “You have had an expensive career in Parliament; you have had a great struggle; you are a young Company; you cannot afford to pay me this amount of money. I will reduce it to £200, and I will not ask you for that £200 until your shares are at £20 premium: for whatever may be the reverses you will go through, I am satisfied I shall live to see the day when your shares will be at £20 premium, and when I can legally and honourably claim that £200.” We may add that the shares did eventually rise to the premium specified, and the engineer was no loser by his generous conduct in the transaction.