ROAD S C A R S. 59 



ment, and which almoft ranks in public eafe and benefit with 

 that of the port-office. 



It is not to this fy;le:n fingly, that Ireland is indebted for 

 !he goodnefs of her roa-.'.s ; another circumftance calls mate- 

 rially tor obfervation, which is the vehicle of carriage : all 

 land-carriage in thai kingdom is performed with one-horfe 

 cars or carts. Thofe of the poor people are wretched things, 

 formed with a viw to cheapnefs alone ; and the loads they 

 carry on them when working by the day, are fuch as an Eng- 

 lifhman would be afhamed to take in a wheelbarrow, yet they 

 fuffer thtir hcrfcs to walk fo flow with thefe burthens, that I 

 am confident, work of this fort, done by hire, is five hundred 

 per cer*. dearer than in England. Even when they work for 

 themfeives, their loads are contemptible, and not equal to 

 what their garrem, miferable as they are, would draw. Cars, 

 however, which work regularly for mills in carrying flour to 

 Dublin, do better ; the common lead is from fix to ten hun- 

 dred weight, which, confidering the horfes, is very well ; eigh- 

 teen hundred weight has been often carried thither from Slane 

 mills. The lownefs of the wheels fuits a mountainous coun- 

 try ; but if there is truth in the mechanic powers, is in gene- 

 ral a great difadvantage to the animak Great numbers of 

 thefe cars confift only of a flat bottom over the axletree, on 

 which a few facks, logs, or ftones, may be laid, or a little 

 heap of gravel in the center. Others have fide-boards, and 

 iome bafkets fixed. But fuch an imperfect and miferable ma- 

 chine deferves not a moment's attention ; the object of impor- 

 tance arifing only from one horfe for draught. 



Some gentlemen have carts very well made in refpect of 

 ftrength, but fo heavy, as to be almoft as faulty as the com- 

 mon car. Others have larger and heavier two-horfe carts ; 

 and a few have been abfurd enough to introduce Englifh wag- 

 gons. The well-made roads preferving themfelves for fo 

 many years, is owing to this practice of ufmg one-horfe car- 

 riages, which is worthy of univerfal imitation. Notwithftand- 

 ing the expence beftowed on the turnpikes in England, great 

 numbers of them are in a moft wretched ftaie, which will con- 

 tinue while the legifkture permits fo many horfes to be har- 

 neffed in one carriage. A proof how little one-horfe carriages 

 wear roads, is the method ufcd in Ireland to conftruct them; 

 they throw up a foundation of earth in the middle of the fpa,ce 

 from the outfides, on that they immediately form a layer of 

 Jimeftone, broken to the fixe of a turkey's egg ; on this a 

 thin fcattering of earth to bind the ftones together, and 

 over that a coat of gravel, where it is to be had. Their car- 

 riages considered, no fault is to be found with this mode, for 

 the road is beautiful and durable, but being all finifhed at 

 once, with very little or no time for fettling, an Englifh wag- 

 gon vrould prefently cut through the whole, and demolifh the 

 road as foon as made, yet it is perfectly durable under cars 

 and coaches. 



I have 



