CONSTRUCTION OF COACHES. 95 



existing system ; and the Government being only 

 concerned in the construction and management of 

 the mail-coaches, did not think it worth while to 

 undertake experiments and incur expenses which 

 in the end would be principally, if not entirely, 

 for the benefit of the coach-proprietors. Sir Henry 

 Parnell thought that a series of experiments ought 

 to have been made by the Government ; that the 

 expense of conveying the mails might be diminished, 

 and the travelling by mails increased, by im- 

 proving the construction of the coaches, Mr. 

 Purcell, in his observations furnished to the Post- 

 master-General on mail-coaches, referred principally 

 to the advantages of coaches without perches ; 

 and he went rather fully into the subject, giving 

 some instances derived from his long and extensive 

 practical experience as a builder. He said : ' The 

 coach without the perch possesses three inlportant 

 advantages over the plan of the mail-coaches now 

 in use, in point of weight, safety, and economy. They 

 can be made lighter by doing away with the perch 

 and other parts with iron attached to them. A 

 coach may be made nearly two hundredweight lighter ; 

 the body and boots do not require to be made 

 stronger for a mail-coach without a perch, and as the 

 weight of the fore-carriage is about equal in either 

 case, the additional weight of the perch, beds and 



