4o8 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



and tested by persons independent of the workmen, 

 with a view to accuracy and satisfactory results. 



"About 1 20 of the men are employed in the manu- 

 facture of carriage-springs. Great care is taken to 

 ensure soundness, good fit to the plates, and well- 

 fitted and jointed ends ; they are tested as to soundness 

 and elasticity twice at the works, again at the depot 

 in Paris, so that the French carriage-builders are 

 in this direction well supported by those who use 

 springs which they can rely upon. Not very long 

 ago, a French coach-maker was of necessity obliged 

 to employ spring-makers on his own premises if he 

 wished to use reliable springs. 



" Taking the French carriages as exhibited, they 

 are heavier than those made in England ; there may 

 be good reason for this, as, notwithstanding the 

 excellent paving in that part of Paris seen by English 

 visitors, other parts away from the fashionable quarters 

 are anything but good ; even in the street where 

 the works of the Paris General Carriage Company are 

 situated, the state of the road is so bad that it would 

 be difficult to match it in any part of London. The 

 company's carriage-springs are tolerably well tested 

 in the very street where the carriages first emerge 

 from the works, and before they begin to be used. 

 An omnibus of the London General Omnibus Company 

 would well bear comparison with the French one, 

 as regards lightness and carrying power ; but a 

 genuine London four-wheel cab would make the 

 French public believe that London was just emerging 

 from barbarism, unless a London hansom accompanied 

 it to show that things are not quite 'so bad as they 

 seem." 



Here terminates JMr. Hooper's report on the 



