Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/16

 The cheapness of the conveyance will probably be for some time a secondary consideration. If at present it can be used as cheaply as horse power, the competition with the former modes of conveyance will first take place as to speed. When once the superiority of Steam Carriages shall have been fully established, competition will induce economy in the cost of working them. The Evidence, however, of Mr. Macneil, showing the greater efficiency with diminished expenditure of fuel by Locomotive Engines on Railways, convinces the Committee, that experience will soon teach a better construction of the Engines, and a less costly mode of generating the requisite supply of Steam.

Nor are the advantages of Steam power confined to the greater velocity attained, or to its greater cheapness than horse draught. In the latter, danger is increased, in as large a proportion as expence, by greater speed. In Steam power, on the contrary, "there is no danger of being run away with, and that of being overturned is greatly diminished. It is difficult to controulcontrol [sic] four such horses as can draw a heavy carriage ten miles per hour, in case they are frightened, or choose to run away; and for quick travelling they must be kept in that state of courage, that they are always inclined for running away, particularly down hills and at sharp turns of the road. In Steam, however, there is little corresponding danger, being perfectly controllable, and capable of exerting its power in reverse in going down hills." Every Witness examined has given the fullest and most satisfactory evidence of the perfect control which the conductor has over the movement of the Carriage. With the slightest exertion it can be stopped or turned, under circumstances where horses would be totally unmanageable.

The Committee have throughout their Examinations been most anxious to ascertain whether the apprehension, very commonly entertained, that an extensive use of these Carriages on roads would be the cause of frequent accidents and continued annoyance to the Public, were well founded.