while a coach drawn by four horses would be charged only 3s. On the Teignmouth and Dawlish Roads the proportion is 12s. to 2s.
The trustees of the Liverpool and Prescot Road have already obtained the sanction of the legislature to charge the monstrous toll of 1s. 6d. per 'horse-power,' as if it were a national object to prevent the possibility of such engines being used.
Sufficient evidence has been adduced to convince your Committee:—
- That carriages can be propelled by steam on common roads at an average rate of ten miles per hour.
- That at this rate they have conveyed upwards of fourteen passengers.
- That their weight, including engine, fuel, water, and attendants, may be under three tons.
- That they can ascend and descend hills of considerable inclination with facility and safety.
- That they are perfectly safe for passengers.
- That they are not (or need not be, if properly constructed) nuisances to the public.
- That they will become a speedier and cheaper mode of conveyance than carriages drawn by horses.
- That, as they admit of greater breadth of tyre than other carriages, and as the roads are not acted on so injuriously as by the feet of horses in common draught, such carriages will cause less wear of roads than coaches drawn by horses.
- That rates of toll have been imposed on steam carriages which would prohibit their being used on several lines of road, were such charges permitted to remain unaltered.
The Committee of 1831 made recommendations as to a Bill to regulate the tolls to be charged for mechanical vehicles and to prevent the imposition of exaggerated tolls. The recommendations, however, were not adopted, and the use of steam vehicles on the road consequently became practically impossible, although Hancock had considerably improved on Gurney's carriage, and up to 1836 was running highly successful vehicles on the road. After 1836 inventors from time to time came forward with improved road carriages, but owing to restrictive legislation they could not be put to any practical use.
