The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-04-04 00:00:00

HORSE RAILWAYS.

Foremost among the necessary public evils of all large
towns has been the present common omnibus. In such
places the distance uf. the surburbau from the central
districts, where daily business or pleasure congregates
tens of thousands of both sexes and all ages, has rendered
the employment of a cheap mode of conveyance indispen-
sably requisite; and those residents in or near large
towns who have not statedly or occasionally made use of
the omnibus are certainly the exception to the general
rule. In the absence of anything better, therefore, all
must admit that the omnibus has been a great public
convenience ; and we may also concede the fact that
in many towns, if not also in Liverpool, recent improve-
ments in this popular meaas of transport from one
remote part of the town .to another, have done much to
make it so far adequate to the work it has had to per-
form. That irresistible law of progress, to which we
ourselves and everything around us are subject, has
now, however, developed an invention in this depart-
ment of social economics, which, we feel warranted
in saying, proclaims that the age of omnibuses in
crowded cities has passed, and the age of Horse Rail-
ways has commenced. If, therefore, we would not be
behind the age we live in, the vast cavalcade of lum-
bering machines which now encumbers our streets must
speedily disappear and give place to the smart and com-
modious city railway car. Now that we are offered an
improved substitute, we will not much longer patiently
endure the evils of the old systeni. Who has not suf-
fered serious annoyance, if not injury, from having to
submit to be crammed into one of those confined and
too often overcrowded vehicles ? In wet weather, when
all the passengers perhaps have been caught in
a heavy shower, froth which they were only too glad
to escape, and when everybody is benevolently
disposed to crush him or herself into the least possible
space, for the benefit of those who besiege the entrance
after every seat is occupied, with pitiable and imploring
mien,—it often happens that every inch of sitting and
standing room is so completely occupied, that everybody's
nose seems to be brought into less than pleasant contact
with somebody else's elbow, and every one is made to
feel as if packed in .a vapour bath, produced by the
combined heat operating on the moisture imbibed by the
garments of the occupants. Having no choice of com-
panions on these occasions, this modified process of wet
packing is sometimes rendered all the more painful to
endure from unfortunate proximity, perchance, to a
baker lad with his dusty coat, or it might be to a youth
whose calling of an opposite , complexion may be
equally indispensable to society at large, although
their presence is never very desirable as fellow-travellers
inside the 'bus. The good-natured are nowhere more
frequently victimised than in the 'bus. After the whole
inside accommodation has been more than sufficiently
occupied, it not seldom happens that up comes an anxious
mamma, with her interesting progeny, one in each arm,
and an older one, or more, bringing up the rear, hurry-
ing to get out of the rain. Mamma and her anxious
offspring Jook wistfully into the . already suffocating
interior, and a response is sure to be given by some good
soul who is as unable to stand his ground against such an
appeal as he is unwilling .to get out—and so another
effort must be made; and the result is that the submis-
sive crowdbecome as denselypacked as herrings in a barrel
—three or four of the passengers enjoying the felicity of
supporting each a juvenile on his knee, while mamma has
squeezed herself, crinoline, hoops, shawls, and wet umbrella
between some agreeable people, whose suffering forms
are entirely covered from human view, and who are only
kept from open remonstrance by appropriating to them-
selves the " pleasures of hope," in the belief that such an
excruciating sad condition cannot last very long. If
such is the state of matters in wet weather, how
much better is it in the hot season—when a good hearty
shower would be a treat? When the temperature is
very high, the inside of a 'bus becomes scarcely pre-
ferable to a het and ill-ventilated stable—close, con-
fined, and unpleasantly odorous. See the panting,
perspiring passengers inside, poking at the little wooden
ventilators, to keep them open. It is of no use.
The young men outside immediately kick them close
again with their heels, and the only relief is the
prospect of a speedy release. In warm weather as in
wet, then, the omnibus nuisance is equally unendurable,
and never submitted to where it can be avoided. Nor
let it be said that we have chosen two extremes. How
stands the case in moderately fine weather? Why,
these machines for the most part only get along at the
" slow coach " pace of about four miles an
hour, or little better ; and, let us ask, who that
is able to walk two or -three miles betwixt home and
business, would submit to be trundled along in a nasty
'bus at that rate, if he can perform the distance in the
same time, gratis, with the pleasure of the exercise into
the bargain? Nobody. All these and mail mote
objections to the present omnibus, are quietly passed over
so long as we can get nothing better; but they startle
us -into action the moment we are oflWed a substitute
which promises to remedy the evils we have been
enduring. So it is at the present moment. The Horse
Railway is a fact. It has been tried and it has suc-
ceeded. We are now to have railways in our cities
and towns, to be wrought by hOrse-power. In the
city railway car there will be no crowding, no want
of ventilation ; and the rapid yet easy motion
of the conveyance will present an inducement
to all to travel by it. The streets through which the
omnibus traffic chiefly runs will be freed from the noise
and confusion at present so often produced by the transit
of the various omnibuses. Experience has shown
that all those evils may be overcome, and all these
advantages secured without risk to life or limb, or
inconvenience to the traffic of crowded business streets.
Although England, first in iron railing the country
with steam, is last in iron railing the city with horse-
power, the enterprise that accomplished the former will
speedily stimulate the latter improvement. The project
is no dreamy speculation. In the crowded and busy
thoroughfares of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, pal-
tirnore, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and others; the' rail Way
cars have long displaced-omnibuses. Tb.ere io certainly
nothing in or about LilerpOol Or Dirkenhead to prevent
tbe city railway car from being as easily and extensively
adopted as it has been in those transatlqiitic citieai
whose inhabitants, albeit qt first lealos of the change,
would 39,w miss thqt inede of conveyance as much as we
wow(' our penny postage system. In short, those who
are best capable of judging, entertain no manner of
-clOubtas to the speedy adoption and entire success of
the new mode, in every considerable town in Dig-
land. We cannot stay at present to combat all the
.sage 'but stale objections of those antiquated wiseacres
who see danger in every important change. We would
bid Liverpool look to her laurels, if she would no lose
the opportunity of carrying the Pal% as flaying been
the -first to introduce ibis great improvement in eitie/.
At the same time, palmam qui meruie ferat ; .and wa
congratulate the liirimiheO Censmissioneri en the
liberal and enlightened spiril'in which they hwte enter-
tained Mi. Train's fair and spirits
a HOOD Raiie,
proposal to construct,
' • '
ay from Woodside to the neighbouring;
townships at his own risk, and without the guarantee
of any preference. The fact is, there is really. no risk about
It will be a great success; and sae heartily wish Mr,
Train health and strength to put forth buss undoubted'
ability to giye effect to hia proposal; and we are sure
that all the favour he asks is a fair field, and all the
reward, he cares fair is to see that which is sure 'to follo w
—the universal adoption, in this country, of one of the
greatest' practical, labour and time-saving inventions of
the day,--the.city Horse Railway.