I So HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



On another occasion a man was carrying to 

 Cashel on his back one of Bianconi's large mirrors. An 

 old woman by the road-side, observing the carefully 

 wrapped-up package, asked what it was. Bianconi, 

 who was close behind, answered that "It was the 

 Repeal of the Union." The old woman was so de- 

 lighted that she knelt down on her knees in the 

 middle of the road, and thanked God for having 

 preserved her in her old age to see what she and 

 all Ireland had been longing for, for years past. 



At the time of the war between England and 

 France, when Napoleon was at the zenith of his 

 glory, gold was at a premium in Ireland ; a guinea 

 was worth about twenty-six or twenty-seven shillings. 

 Bianconi began to buy up the guineas from the pea- 

 santry, which he afterwards sold at a profit to the 

 bankers. But, about this time, he was impressed with 

 the necessity of providing proper conveyances for 

 the poor. 



When Mr. Wallace, Chairman of the Select 

 Committee on Postage in 1838, asked Mr, Bianconi 

 what induced him to commence his car establishment, 

 his answer was : "I did so from what I saw after 

 coming to this country of the necessity for such cars, 

 inasmuch as there was no middle mode of con- 

 veyance, nothing to fill up the vacuum that existed 

 between those who were obliofed to walk and those 

 who posted or rode. My want of knowledge of the 

 language gave me plenty of time for deliberation ; 

 and, in proportion as I grew up with the knowledge 

 of the language and the localities, this vacuum pressed 

 very heavily upon my mind, till at last I hit upon the 

 idea of running jaunting-cars, and for that purpose I 

 commenced running one between Clonmel and Cahir." 



