112 The Right Son. Sir John Macdonald [April 18, 



time when the main lines of railway are becoming congested, and 

 there is a perpetual outcry from day to day against the tyranny of 

 railway rates. Soon we shall have fast, cheap, convenient, long- 

 distance traffic upon the roads, and it is the landed proprietor, the 

 tiller of the soil, the merchant in small places, the tradesman, and 

 above all the roadside inn-keeper who will reap benefit from the 

 development of motor traction. Whatever their feelings have been, 

 these feelings will change as the feelings of many people changed in 

 regard to the establishment of railways in the country. 



I know that there are certain districts where there is a determined 

 set made against the auto-car. I know also, for certain, that if that 

 set is successful, it will have the same effect as befel the City of 

 Sheffield when, in the early days of railways, the inhabitants of that 

 town did their very utmost, and successfully, to prevent any railway 

 being brought near them, because they said it would ruin their town. 

 For more than a generation Sheffield was not upon any practical main 

 road to the North from London, to its own great loss. 



I have had a considerable amount of anxious thought as to 

 how I should treat this subject to-night. As the man in difficul- 

 ties generally does, I consulted my friends. I asked one friend, 

 a man of great experience, who knows this place well, how the 

 subject should be treated. He told me that many experts would 

 be present, and therefore I should avoid being elementary. I con- 

 sulted another ; he said, " whatever you do be elementary." I asked 

 a third friend, in whom I have great confidence and trust ; he said, 

 "In medio tutissimus ibis," which, for the benefit of the ladies 

 who may be unacquainted with the Latin tongue, may be trans- 

 lated: "keep in the middle of the road." I went to yet a fourth 

 friend, in whom also I have very great faith, and who also knows the 

 subject of the auto-car very well, and he said : " My dear fellow, you 

 must take it for granted there is not one person in ten in your 

 audience that knows anything about the auto-car, except that it has 

 not got horses in front of it, and that by law it is obliged to make a 

 series of ' toots.' " I accordingly resolved that I would be more or 

 less elementary, and give my illustrations in the simplest form. I 

 wish particularly to give such illustrations as the ladies will be able 

 to understand, because I think the auto-car is going to be a great 

 favourite with the ladies, who, if they are strong enough, have plenty 

 of nerve for driving upon the road. My experience with ladies is 

 this, that they first say they don't want to get on to a motor car at 

 all, but whenever they do mount, they always want to go faster, and 

 always ask you to take them out again. 



Now there is no doubt that motor driving upon the road is 

 not by any means a new thing. In the early part of last century, 

 between 1820 and 1830, at the time when railways were beginning 

 to find their place in this country, there were far-seeing and inven- 

 tive men who produced carriages driven by mechanical power upon 

 the road, which were eminently successful ; and the names of such 

 men as Gurney and Hancock in England, and Nasmyth and Scott 



