Edward William Watkin, Esq., M.P. For Stockport, 1864. Engraving from a photograph by John and Charles Watkins. Mr. Watkin is a Liberal, and an independent supporter of the Government of Lord Palmerston...[He] is largely connected with the manufacturing and commercial industry of Lancashire. He has for several years past had much to do with the extension of public works in that county and the north of England. He is chairman of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway; a director of the Great Western Railway; and president of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada...He was one of the originators, and the most active promoter, of the movement which led to the provision of public parks and places of recreation for the working people of that city, who, up to the year 1846, had no open space which they could call their own in which to breathe the fresh air and take healthful exercise...Of late years he has lent his aid to an important movement, which has made much progress, without perhaps yet exciting marked attention in this country, for the establishment of overland telegraphic and postal communication, and the means of transit across British North America, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.