1829.] Affairs in General. 643 
some months ago, and they have been augmented since ; their profits 
were said to have repaid the outlay within the first year: the pro- 
prietors, among whom is Lafitte the banker, are making a large revenue 
out of the Parisian sous, and speculation is still alive. 
«“ The papers announce that a new description of omnibus is about to 
be established, which for its capacity is to outdo all former outdoings, 
since it will be able to carry one hundred passengers. A model is now 
exhibiting. It is constructed in two stages or departments, one above 
the other, but, though it is to be drawn by horses, it can be moved only 
on an inclined plane! This is the serious statement; but the projectors 
do not appear to have calculated on the somewhat limited field which it 
will have for its operations. This machine is to be furnished with seven 
invisible wheels.” This is, we presume, by way of ridicule. But why 
is the speculation to be left to the French? or why are we to be lett 
at the mercy of plague and fever in the most hideous of all moving 
receptacles of unpatrician mankind? Why not construct the Omnibus 
here? Of course we should be prepared to expect tremendous declama- 
tion from the whole generation of the whip, outcries about vested 
interests, tavern speeches, and applications to parliament. But the pub- 
lic convenience being the sole source of the existence of the present 
establishment, the same convenience must be a sufficient ground for 
change. Let the Omnibus then be authorized here. Let the coach 
owners, if they please, take their shares in the project, and transfer their 
_ capital from a sinking and useless trade, to a rising and valuable one. 
Let the public have a vehicle which will answer its purposes at once of 
safety, conyeyance, and health; and all with cheapness. An improve- 
ment on the French coaches might be easily made. They run in 
scarcely more than the streets immediately about the Boulevard (the 
Strand and Fleet Street of Paris). Let them run in all the leading 
streets of London, from north to south, and from east to west, regular 
_ coaches starting from their settled stations at known hours, and meeting 
each other at particular points, for the convenience of passengers from 
_ the cross streets. By this means the individual would be sure of always 
finding some carriage ready to convey him at least within a short distance 
of his destination, and sixpence might pay his fare from one end of London 
to the other. The advantages of the plan to the citizens would be ob- 
vious, for the facility and rapidity would save time, the cheapness would 
save money, and the fixed prices would put an end to the possibility of 
offence on the part of the coachman. The plan will of course at last 
‘force its way, and our only wonder will be, after having endured the 
inconvenience of the present system so long, how we could ever have 
endured it at all. The only objection to those French street stage coaches 
is, that they are not sufficiently select, the eagerness of the firms to make 
money, inducing them to let in the rabble, and that they run but in 
one direction. In London a dozen coaches, intersecting each other’s 
routes, would be the least that could supply the public convenience ; 
and notwithstanding the calamity of their putting a speedy end to the 
hackney coach system, there could be no doubt of their public profit and 
utility. The expense of those abominable vehicles is a point worthy of 
being looked to. A stage coach carries passengers from Hampstead, 
Fulham, or any of the villages at the same distance, to St. Paul's, a 
travel of nearly seven miles, for a shilling outside; the hackney coach 
would charge little less than seven times the sum. Yet from the -clum- 
4N2 
