624 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



despatches, passengers, and merchandise, was intrusted to 

 the 7uaIIes-poste, the diligences, and other conveyances, 

 and as these could not be horsed, business and travelling 

 were in abeyance. 



An amicable arrangement was come to at this crisis, 

 however, and the inconvenient state of affairs brought to 

 a close, but not before the utility of the art, and its direct 

 influence on the welfare of modern civilization, had been 

 amply demonstrated. Without it, even at the present 

 time, when railways, telegraphs, and steam-ships have 

 usurped a large share of the work formerly performed by 

 couriers, coaches, waggons, and canal-boats drawn by 

 horses, there would be an amount of inconvenience which 

 it would severely task modern ingenuity to overcome. 

 The most useful servant ever possessed by man would 

 be nothing else than a powerful living machine, whose 

 forces could not be perfectly developed or satisfactorily 

 utilized. The withdrawal of our hackney coaches from 

 their accustomed duties is inconvenient enough, but this 

 is a comparatively small matter when compared to the 

 entire cessation of all horse-labour in our cities. 



