This was found so burdensome that it produced the Rebecca riots in South Wales, which led to the passing of an excellent Act for that part of the Principality, and if that Act had been extended to North Wales and England, the turnpike gates would, most probably, have been standing at the present day, and I know not who would have been losers by it, except the doctors and the timber merchants and other hauliers. At any rate, the cost of repairing the roads fell on those who enjoyed the benefit. The system, on the whole, worked well, and might easily have been made to work better, and I entertain no doubt, indeed, I know it, that large numbers of those who clamoured against it, would now recall it if possible. If it was expensive to collect the tolls, it appears to be impossible to collect a wheel and van tax.
It is easier to destroy than to build up, and I only hope that, after the same length of trial, it may not be found that it would have been wiser if we had remained contented with the old form of county government, which had done its work so well for a great number of years.
Since the above was penned the South Wales Turnpike Act has expired, thereby saddling £25,000 a year upon those who do not use the roads, instead of upon those who do. Where is Rebecca now?
CHAPTER VIII.
A SCIENTIFIC CHAPTER.
I had intended to conclude my remarks on the subject of the mail coaches, but have been induced to invest in another chapter by an ingenious proposal which was brought to the notice of the Postmaster-General in the year 1807. If it led to no results, at any rate it shows that there were those who took a keen interest in the subject.
The Rev. W. Milton, Rector of Heckfield, Hartford Bridge—the same reverend gentleman whose acquaintance we have previously made as the advocate of broad wheels—invented a coach, which he claimed would prevent overturns and breakdowns. The body of it was this shape, which I give as it appears in the minutes on the subject, still preserved at the General Post-Office. It is certainly singularly deficient in graceful curves, and I can only suppose that it is meant to indicate the manner in which the luggage box was placed. At any rate, we are told that the coach was so constructed that nearly all the luggage was carried in a box below the body of the carriage, which was not higher
than usual; but the appearance of the coach was deemed heavy, and as the load was low, it was thought that the draught would be heavier than the coaches then in use. Many coaches which loaded heavily with luggage were already furnished with a receptacle for it denominated the "slide," which was fixed under the hind axle, and thus, no doubt, did add considerably to the draught; but to remedy this, as we shall see, Mr. Milton makes use of unusually high wheels.
To prevent breakdowns the coach was fitted with idle wheels on each side of the luggage box, with their periphery below the floor, and each as near as was requisite to its respective active wheel. These idle wheels were ready, in case of breakdowns on either side, to catch the falling carriage, and instantly to continue its previous velocity, till the coachman could pull up the horses. The bottom of the luggage box was fourteen inches from the ground, and the idle wheel five or six inches. The following extracts will convey a better idea of the value of the invention. It evidently received a practical trial:—
"Mr. Ward, the coachman, soon found what he might venture, and he took the coach accordingly over such ground as would most assuredly have caused an overturn of any stage-coach with its usual load. This was repeatedly done in the presence of six insides and ten outsides, besides the coachman. Seven parts, perhaps, in ten of the load, which was nearly three tons, lay on the hind wheels. These, by the patentee's directions, were six feet high, and with no dishing, and, as he deemed, sufficiently strong. They did not fail; but it was the opinion of Mr. Thomas Ward, and all the practical men on the spot, that they were not such as could show the principle of safety as to dangerous and side-long ground up to its full extent. As it was, however, any common coach would have gone over at fifty different places during the stage which this coach took without the least symptom of overturning. A linch-pin of one of the hind wheels was taken out. The coach went on, and presently off came the wheel, and down dropped the carriage about seven inches on a small idle wheel, which immediately continued the motion without the least inconvenience to the outside passengers or puzzle to the horses, and the shock was not greater than what was produced by taking over a stone in the night, and, if it had been required, the coach might have been taken five or six miles by means of the idle wheel; and Mr. Thomas Ward very confidently thinks these two circumstances of safety would invariably attend any stage-coach so constructed."