The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-09 00:00:00

I would here observe, that very few engineers have
taken any trouble to make themselves acquainted with
the theory and practice of steam carriage communi-
cation except upon. Railroads. They have, it is true,
been compelled to admit the possibility of steam power
upon common roads ; but many of them—and I think
they arc without exception engaged on Railway under-
takings—doubt the economy of the same. Other en-
gineers, although they acknowledge both the possibility
and the economy of steam conveyance by the public
highways of the country, confess that they are fully
occupied with Railway communication. The practica-
bility has been abundantly proved not only to engineers,
but to the publin at large, and to several members of
your Committee ; and, that this Report may not be
altogether bare of information upon the economy, I will
add a few hues on that head.

It must be admitted, that the difference in the de-
structive effect upon a steamer can only be in over-
coming the resistance of collision. Now, on railways
the steamers are rapidly injured by this force, and the
strongest wheels and axles are quickly destroyed by it.
These carriages on the railway strike and bound from
side to side, and skip along a hard unyielding railroad ;
the wheels and axles immediately suffer, and the fine
work of the engines, imperfectly protected by rigid and
i!1-applied springs, almost as immediately suffers from
such shocks. There is a want of sufficient flexibility in
the springs, and the railway is entirely destitute of
elasticity.

I am, after long and repeated observation, satis-
fied, that the destruction will bo less on the turnpike.
road than on the railwayzi

. . • .. . . .
My opinions upon this point have been coafirmed by
the results of numerous steam journeys, by Colonel
Maceroni's steam carriage; ;tnd I would refer'you to
Appendix Aof this Report. The results of 'stay expe-
rience of the actual expenses, including fuel, repairs,
attendance, superintendence, and toll-money—the total
expenses per mile are Is. ; carrying, on an average, fif-
teen passengers at a mean rate of 1.5 miles per hour.

I know a valley, 13 miles from London, which is
passed by horse-coaches, and which I have passed by
steam carriages, descending on one side, and ascending
on the other, at a speed of 11 or 12 miles per hour.
. . Over this valley an embankment and
viaduct, which cannot cost less than 200,0001., is con-
structed for a Railway. To pass this valley, therefore,
will cost annually 10,000/. of interest, exclusive of the
more immediate cost of carriages, maintenance of way,
repairs of engines, &c., which must be charged to some-
body, and therefore forms a charge on goods and pas-
sengers carried. Railway engineers would do well to
think of this. Steam carriages on common roads do
not require all this work.

They can carry passengers and goods from towns
situate in the lowest parts of valleys, or other low coun-
tries, to towns on hill-sides or in mountain districts ; not
so railway locomotives ; the railroad may have a very
fine level ; but if our residence be at the bottom of
a valley, all our produce must mount a more than ordi-
narily steep acclivity before we can place it on the rail-
way. If we reside on the high land, we must have all
our necessaries brought up to us at considerable ex-
pense. The whole produce of the country is on different
levels, and some undulations in lines of communication
are absolutely necessary. So that, even supposing such
levelling as railroads demand benefits the proprietors of
them, it may be to the public a disadvantage.
Now, steam carriages on the common road would set
the carryini, trade, and all other trades and pursuits,
on an equarfooting.

The turnpike-roads of England and Wales alone, ex-
clusive of 130,000 miles of other highways, extend, ac-
cording to a report of the House of Lords in 1829, over
19,800 miles in length ; they have been constructed at
great expense ; the trusts are heavily in debt. These
roads form the grand currents of trade, through long-
established, and well-pcopled, and busy lines : on,
along, and across these lines every kind of carriage can
pass, without a charge which can at all enrich the road
trustees. On these roads competition in the carrying
trade can always exercise its wholesome checks. Many
of these roads, public property, with a free carrying
trade, are at present endangered by the Railway mania,
which Railways are private property, with a monopoly
in the carrying trade.

. . . . . .
I made numerous trips, of many miles at a time, with
Colonel Maceroni's steam carriage, between the months
of August, 1833, and September, 1834, at a speed
varying from 10 to 20 miles an hour, acrding to the
" Clivities" of the road, or the variable turnpike sur-
faces in the neighbourhood of London ; and after tra-
velling by this and other steam carriages over an
aggregate of not less than 3,500 miles of common roads,
I confidently recommend Colonel Maceroni's carriage
sup-
to your notice as the one by which you may accomplish
the object you have in view, e.s,pecially when
it is
plied with Colonel Macerom s New Boiler Improve-
ments, with the nature and particulars of which I have,
in confidence, confidence, been made acquainted, and which will
render the new steam carriages far superior to the or
ginal one, of which I have soken so favourably in the
2d and 3d editions of my Treatise on Locomotion, and
other publications, as economical and perfectly safe.
' .
It is perhaps .unnecessary for me to
say, that the in-
.
either
ventions of Colonel Maceroni may h
be employed
as draggers for other carriages, or as passenger car-
riages.
#4t# Prospectuses maybe_ had on application to Air.
Hodgson and to Mr. G. Concanon, Solicitors, 21,
Lincoln's Inn-fields.
........—_____

the 19th uI t • r. John Jones,
On Tuesday,
(Joan Chwcfrawr), Egiwys Eirow, Pembrokeshire, private
pupil in divinity, to the Rev. Dr. Williams, Cowbridge,
passed his examination for deacon orders, before thev.
Rev.
Mr. Bruce Knight, chaplain to the Bishop of Llandaff.
Mr. J. is to be assistant curate of Pontypool. On Friday,
in the mime week, Mr. Jones was ordained druid and poet
,
(Joan Chwefrawr), by the Chair of Glamorgan as a com-
pliment to his knowledge of Welsh literature, and Welsh
poetry
G:4 einidog o Awen ocliaeth,—gwesdy,
Neu gastell dysgediaeth,
Are ci ddysg yma a ddneth,
I urdduniant Bardoniaeth. --Cambrian.
The Cheltenluzm Free Press contradicts the ru-
meur that Mr. Symons entertains a notion of relinquishing
his claims on the electors of Stroud at the next vacancy
for the representation of that borough.