The first survey made of the Liverpool and Manchester line having been found very imperfect, it was determined to have a second and more complete one made in the following year. Robert Stephenson, though then a lad of only nineteen, had already obtained some practical knowledge of surveying, having been engaged on the preliminary survey of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the previous year, and he was sent over to Liverpool by his father to give Mr. James such assistance as he could. Robert Stephenson was present with Mr. James on the occasion on which he tried to lay out the line across Chat Moss--a proceeding which was not only difficult, but dangerous. The Moss was very wet at the time, and only its edges could be ventured on. Mr. James was a heavy, thick-set man; and one day, when endeavoring to obtain a stand for his theodolite, he felt himself suddenly sinking. He immediately threw himself down, and rolled over and over until he reached firm ground again, in a sad mess. Other attempts which he subsequently made to advance into the Moss for the same purpose were abandoned for the same reason--the want of a solid stand for the theodolite. As Mr. James proceeded with his survey, he found a host of opponents springing up in all directions, some of whom he conciliated by deviations, but others refused to be conciliated on any terms. Among these last were Lords Derby and Wilton, Mr. Bradshaw, and the Strafford family. The proposed line passed through their lands, and, regarding it as a nuisance, without the slightest compensating advantage to them, they determined to oppose it at every stage. Their agents drove the surveyors off their land; the farmers set men at the gates armed with pitchforks to resist their progress; and the survey proceeded with great difficulty. Mr. James endeavored to avoid Lord Derby's Knowsley estate, but as he had received instructions from Messrs. Ewart and Gladstone to lay out the line so as to enable it to be extended to the docks, he found it difficult to accomplish this object and at the same time avert the hostility of the noble lord. The only large land-owners who gave the scheme their support were Mr. Legh and Mr. Wyrley Birch, who not only subscribed for shares, but attended several public meetings, and spoke in favor of the proposed railroad. Public opinion was, however, beginning to be roused, and the canal companies began at length to feel alarmed.