Page:The Grand junction railway companion to Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham; (IA grandjunctionrai00free).pdf/21

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Preliminary Account.
9

The opening of this national undertaking was unattended by any display. This did not arise from apathy on the part of the public, as the thousands that waited at many of the stations for the arrival of the first trains which passed along the line fully testified; but out of respect to the memory of the late Mr. Huskisson, who met with the fatal accident which caused his death at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Line. The chairman, John Moss, Esq., and deputy chairman, Charles Lawrence, Esq., having been present at that melancholy event, requested, on this account, that a public opening should be dispensed with; and we are happy in finding that this sensitive propriety of feeling-this respect for the memory of the deceased, was responded to in the breasts of their brother directors.

On the 3d of July the directors, the secretary, and some of their friends, rode along the whole line, to inspect the works, and returned on the 4th; having discharged their duty to the public, and paid a marked tribute of respect to the great man whose name will ever be so lamentably associated with the history of railroads in this country.

We have thus traced this great work from its earliest projection unto its completion. In