215 
Steam Engine, 
require very little repair. Such roads, I am inclined to 
believe, ought to be preferred, in the first instance, to those 
proposed by Mr. Stevens ; as two ways could be made, 
in some parts of the country, for the same expence as one 
could be with wood. But either of the modes would an- 
swer the purpose, and the carriages might travel by night 
as well as in the day. 
When we reflect upon the obstinate opposition that 
has been made by a great majority to every step tow- 
ards improvement ; from bad roads to turnpikes, from 
turnpikes to canals, from canals to rail-ways for horse car- 
riages, it is too much to expect the monstrous leap from 
bad roads to rail- ways for steam carriages, at once. One 
step in a generation is all that we can hope for. If the 
present shall adopt canals, the next may try the rail-ways 
with horses, and the third generation use the steam carri- 
ages. 
But why may not the present generation, who have al- 
ready good turnpikes, make the experiment of using 
steam carriages upon them ? They will assuredly effect 
the movement of heavy burthens, with a slow^ motion, of 
two and a half miles an hour ; and as their progrees need 
not be interrupted, they may travel fifty or sixty miles in 
the 24 hours.— This is all that 1 hope to see in my time, 
and though I never expect to be concerned in any busi- 
ness requiring the regular transportation of heavy bur- 
thens, [on land] because if I am connected in the affairs 
of a mill it shall be driven by steam, and placed on some 
navigable water, to save land carriage— yet I certainly in- 
tend as soon as I can make it convenient, to build a steam 
carriage that will run on good turnpike roads, on my own 
account, if no other person will engage in it ; and I do 
verily believe that the time will come when carriages pro- 
pelled by steam will be in general use^ as well for the 
transportation of passengers as goods, travelling at the 
rate of fifteen miles an hour, or 300 miles per day. 
