446 THE COACHING AGE. 



The idea of this competition, however, was not so 

 unreasonable as at first glance would seem to be the 

 case, for the road-locomotive period, so to speak, was 

 rather earlier than the railway, as in 1839 a member 

 of the Institution of Civil Engineers, who had devoted 

 much attention to the subject, said he had travelled 

 more than 3,000 miles by steam-carriages on common 

 roads during the previous fourteen years, so that they 

 were in use before even the Stockton and Darlington 

 Eailway. Neither the projectors of the road steam- 

 carriage nor railway engineers anticipated a pace 

 much above twenty miles an hour, so that in that 

 respect both were about on a par. But the road- 

 locomotive supporters had this great advantage, that 

 their roads were all constructed and ready for them 

 to run on, and the only thing for them to do was to 

 provide the locomotive engines and start them ; the 

 railways, on the other hand, having first of all to 

 acquire the necessary powers for the purchase of the 

 property through which their lines were to pass, and 

 then incur a very large outlay in buying the land 

 and constructing the line. The future of the rail- 

 ways having dawned upon the public, there was an 

 end of the idea that steam-carriages would one day 

 cover the common roads throughout the kingdom. 



As soon as the railways were completed for any 

 considerable distance, engagements were entered into 



