HORSES AND ROADS. 



thews and sinews should endure the burden, or 

 whether this shall be imposed upon inanimate 

 metal ? Eeducing the matter to £ s, d., which is 

 cheaper ? Fact pronounces " iron " to be the 

 answer.' Thus much for springs, upon which 

 nothing more is necessary than to give full and 

 hearty assent to Mayhew's opinion. 



But there is another subject connected with 

 carts, waggons, and all other vehicles upon which 

 Mayhew has not touched, but which may be here 

 introduced. Those who have been on the Continent 

 may (or may not, according to the use they made of 

 their eyes) have remarked that all vehicles, whether 

 two-wheeled or four-wheeled, are fitted with brakes, 

 which not only serve for down-hill work, but are also 

 applied when horses run away, or when they are left 

 to stand. It will be said that our four-wheeled 

 heavy waggons are fitted with a chain, or a skid. 

 Granted ; but these cannot be put to various uses 

 with the same celerity and utility that a proper 

 brake can ; in fact, in the case of runaway horses, 

 they are of no use at all. Even in the other cases 

 they are far behind the brake, as they necessitate 

 a stoppage of the team to apply them, and another 

 to remove them. They mostly stop only one wheel ; 

 which wheel, in the case of the chain, is exposed to 

 injiu'y by having the tire worn into facets at the 

 corresponding distances from whatever spoke the 

 chain may be put against, while the spoke some- 

 times breaks; the violent jerk thrown on the 

 next spoke carrying away that one also, as well as 



