lways, Canals_, and
_Steamers_. Then, for mind, I will take _Books, Printing, Letters,
Exhibitions_, and _Telegraphs_.

Our age has so advanced, that though Methuselah lived nearly one
thousand years, yet he in his age did not live as long as we do now.
See what science and art have done for us. We now do more in one day
than could be done in a month some very few years ago; and, as far as
travelling about the world is concerned, I can say that I have been from
John-o'-Groat's House to Brighton, thence into Hertfordshire, thence
back to London, from there to Edinburgh, thence to John-o'-Groat's, and
here I am before you, without fatigue, or a thought that I should not be
present in time. What has enabled us to do this but the determination of
man to communicate with his fellow-men, and his thirst for the knowledge
of what is doing in places where he, as an individual, could not be
present. When there were no roads, it was no easy matter to move about,
so the people remained at rest. But the Romans, a people who aspired to
conquer the world, were not a people to sleep and let things stand
still. They began the making of roads in Britain, and to them we owe the
first of our greatness. They saw, as every wise man now sees, that the
first thing to the improvement of land and property is easy
communication, and facilities for bringing the things needed for the
improvement of the land, and the means also of export for the produce.
The earliest roads were, as we may say, right on end; and the Roman
roads, as I hear, have borne the traffic of two thousand years. I hope I
may say that even a Roman road would not bear the traffic of a town like
Greenock for anything like that period of time, or I fear the commerce
of this populous and most thriving town would be in a bad way. The great
Telford and Macadam are the persons to be thanked for our beautiful
system of road-making, and no person can, I am sure, deny the utility of
their plans. As I said, roads are a means of communication for the body,
and also for the mind; and therefore, now that their advantages are
seen, we should strive to further their advance in all districts.

_Coaches_.--We come now to the means of communication on the roads for
the body, and also for the mind, as both must go together--viz., the
coach and the carriage or cart (for before the roads were made we had no
coaches). In the first place, these carts or carriages were rude and
heavy waggons, without s