ith an awning, will face the noisiest and
most vociferous of boilers. But granting that the committee is right in
coming to this conclusion as far as regards the danger arising to horses,
the other objection we alluded to was a poser, from which we shall be glad
to see how they extricate themselves--we mean the injury done to the
turnpike road. Why, it turns out that a steam-coach does no injury at all;
but, from the necessity it is under to sport the widest and strongest of
wheels, it acts as a sort of roller, and might pass for a deputy Macadam.
Mr Macneil, who has had great experience in road surveying, says that,
even in 1831, he had stated that, from the examination he had made as to
the wear of iron in the shoes of horses, compared with the wear on the
tire of the wheels of carriages, the injury done to the turnpike roads
would be much less by steam-carriages than that done by mail and stage
coaches drawn by horses. Since then, "I have had practical experience on
this point, and have carefully examined the roads in different parts of
the country where steam-carriages have been running, and I have every
reason to believe the opinion I then gave was correct; indeed, I have not
the least doubt in my mind, that if steam-carriages ran generally on the
turnpike roads of the kingdom, _one-half of the annual expense of the
repairs of these roads would be saved_."

It is supposed that the tolls throughout England are let for more than a
million and a half a-year! A saving of one half in this enormous amount
would fructify in the pockets (now remarkably in need of some process of
the kind) of the public, to the entire satisfaction of Rebecca and all her
daughters. And yet with this evidence, of perhaps the best practical
authority on the subject, before their eyes, let us see what the wiseacres
of certain rural districts did to encourage economy and inland transit. By
means of a tremendous instrument of tyranny called a local act, (for which
the Grand Sultan would be very glad to exchange his firman,) the road
trustees of various neighbourhoods have laid an embargo on all steam
carriages, by enacting _intolerable_ payments. Thus on the Liverpool and
Prescot road, a steam-carriage would be charged L.2, 8s.; while a loaded
stage-coach would pay only four shillings! On the Bathgate road the same
carriage would be charged L.1, 7s. 1d.; while a coach drawn by four horses
would pay five shillings. On the Ashburnham and Totness road