MR. RODWAY IN DEFENCE OF HIS PATENT SHOE. 199 
little against it, and that little so easily contradicted ? What 
would a tradesman be thought of, at what be rated his judg- 
ment, if, in one single simple article of which he was justly 
expected to have a perfect knowledge, he required eight or nine 
months to give his opinion whether it was better or worse than 
an old article of different structure for the same purpose ? What 
w'ould be the state of trade in such hands? Assuredly there 
would be a lamentable check to improvement, if the public are 
to be subject to the influence of such obtuse intellects. 
From the knowledge the writer wishes to display upon the 
subject, I feel assured 1 may ask him to keep a little nearer a 
fair and proper description of my shoe when he volunteers it. 
“ Mr. Rodway’s patented horseshoe differs from the shoe in 
ordinary use only in having a wide, deep excavation, groove, or 
concavity, upon its ground surface — a sort of extension or dilata- 
tion of the fullering of the common shoe from the outer to the 
inner border of the web.” Pray, allow me to ask, after all this, 
how much of a shoe would be left? None, of course! The 
writer would groove the whole substance away, and wish the 
public to believe the nothing remaining to be my shoe ! These 
are sweeping measures, and will easily account for want of dura- 
bility in one forge, and abundance of it in another. What is 
more simple or more clearly understood than that difference of 
form may often supply the w^ant of substance ? Though the 
writer must and does admit the advantage of lightness in my 
shoe, he appears anxious not to take into consideration that it is 
on the principle of an arch, the strongest form to be obtained, 
and that more than sufficient durability would be no recommend- 
ation. By the same rule, he might argue that the Greenwich 
railway would be more secure by having the arches upon which 
it is constructed built up and made solid ; the wheels of railway 
carriages solid also. Though the desire to have solid and heavy 
shoes for horses may be strong in some persons, I apprehend the 
same individuals would little like to exchange their own leather 
for wooden ones; we are, therefore, justified in dispensing (if 
required) with superabundant solidity for beneficial purposes. 
Experience, however, has told that, with ordinary care, the pa- 
tent concave shoe is made to answer every purpose, and will wear 
quite as long as is desirable, either for the horse or his owner. 
But in this, as in any other shoe, the best workman will produce 
the best article. The writer admits that, even if the patent shoes 
did not last so long as the common, there is a remedy by the pa- 
tent being attended with much less cost. It might doubtless ap- 
pear, at first sight, that, presenting two rims to the ground as a 
bearing surface, they would wear away sooner than the broad, 
