Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/114



John Farey, Esq. 10 August, 1831. Carriages drawn by horses?—No. I have not paid much attention thereto; it is a subject which would require more consideration and more data than I have before me. I am convinced that if a Steam Coach, complete when travelling, weighs no more on an average than a Stage Coach with its four horses complete weighs on an average, there is no reason for charging any extra toll for Steam Coaches, but on the contrary. I believe it will turn out in the sequel that they ought to go for less toll, because they will wear the roads less than the present Coaches whenever they are made really efficient; and in the mean time, until that is accomplished. I think it may be safely left to the chance of events as to injuring the roads to any extent whatever, by injudicious attempts to work Steam Coaches of an injurious construction, on the consideration that if any new Coach which may be started, does injure the road, it will be very soon given up from its own demerits, probably before it has produced any visible effect on the road. Suppose its wheels were to slip so much as to plough out ruts on the road, it would most likely stick fast, or be broken to pieces in the first journey along the road, and such abortive attempts will not be repeated very frequently. It is idle to talk of one or two Steam Carriages doing much visible injury to a frequented road in a year or two, even if they run constantly, for suppose that it wears the road four or five times as much as one Carriage of the same weight drawn by horses (including those horses in the weight) it would only be equivalent to four or five additional Coaches passing each day, and that on the road from London to Birmingham, for instance, would be quite imperceptible. I am confident that any Steam Coach which does a road any greater damage than equivalent to Carriages drawn by horses, will fail of itself in a short time, and prove an unsuccessful project. I should strongly recommend the new system to be left to its own chance of success or failure, as far as the roads and the safety of passengers are concerned; and I think the same reasoning applies against any regulation for the