Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/310

276 it might be possible to diminish the expense of the two-penny post, and make deliveries every half hour over the greater part of the metropolis.

(337.) The power of steam, however, bids fair almost to rival the velocity of these contrivances; and the fitness of its application to the purposes of conveyance, particularly where great rapidity is required, begins now to be generally admitted. The following extract from the Report of the Committee of the House of Commons on steam-carriages, explains clearly its various advantages: