Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/116



John Farey, Esq. 10 August, 1831. road was more injurious than any other Carriages. There is no particular breadth of wheels which can be prescribed as the best to carry given loads over all sorts of roads, for much depends upon the hardness of the road materials, the size to which the pieces are broken, their general form and disposition to consolidate into a hard bed, the resistance the materials offer to wet and frost, and to wearing by the wheels, the breadth of the wheels, and the load upon them, should be adapted to all the combinations of circumstances, and the carrier will soon find, if his wheels are not best adapted to the road, by the draft being greater than it ought to be. As to Steam Coaches, the wear which will take place on roads, from all that can, by any probability, be expected to be brought into use for some years, will be so small that it cannot be felt for a considerable period, and when it is felt it will be time to look round and see what is the real effect on the roads of those particular Coaches which are in use, and apportion the tolls that they ought to pay.

Is it your opinion that weight for weight, including the weight of horses on one hand, and of Engines and an average of the water and fuel on the other, the tolls should be the same on Steam Carriages as on horse-drawn Carriages?—I think that if it were so it would prove a considerable advantage to the roads, because, as I have stated before. I think the roads will be considerably benefited by the change of impelling by steam instead of by horses. I think it will be a great public benefit when Steam Coaches come into common use, and hence that it is expedient that a moderate bounty should be offered for the adoption of Steam Carriages, by giving them all possible advantage they can have without trenching on the interests of individuals; and if they were allowed to run toll free and duty free, until a certain number were in use, or during a certain time, it would much accelerate their introduction, because it would diminish the loss that must necessarily be incurred by running them before they are perfected in their construction; small encouragements or discouragements have a considerable effect