420 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



taxed in Ireland, but railway carriages compete very 

 severely with road carriages. In many parts of the 

 country they have almost driven them off the roads, 

 and the very few exceptions go to prove the rule. 

 Every new railway or tramway opened tends further 

 to crush the carriage- building industry. It is said 

 sometimes that the rich pay the carriage taxes. In- 

 vestigations prove that, although the taxes are directly 

 paid by the owner, they are ultimately paid out of the 

 wages of the w^orkmen and the profits of the employers ; 

 they enhance the cost of manufacture, rendering com- 

 petition with foreign countries difficult and almost 

 hopeless, and they intensify on the carriage-building 

 industry a trade depression that seems general. The 

 exceptional and oppressive character of these taxes 

 on industry demands the careful consideration of 

 statesmen and financiers," But the question of the 

 carriacje tax I have dealt with elsewhere, and therefore 

 I will now quit the subject. 



In speaking of springs I forgot to mention that 

 tilbury springs have been applied to a brougham in 

 order to ease and stop vibration. I believe that Lord 

 Arthur Somerset is the first person who had this done 

 to his own brougham, which Mr. G. Newson, the well- 

 known coach-builder of Bond Street, mentioned in a 

 speech he made before the members of the Institute of 

 Carriaofe Manufacturers, which statement was received 

 with general approval. 



In the Carriage Department of the London Inter- 

 national Exhibition of 1873, there were some interest- 

 ing exhibits of conveyances formerly in use ; amongst 

 these were sedan-chairs used by former Duchesses of 

 Northumberland, and various litters, etc., from India, 

 Japan, etc., as also an Australian barouche, lent by His 

 * In England, and yet they are subject to no tax. 



