to an eminent
public position, at the same time that he conferred the greatest
benefits upon the country in which he settled and carried on his
industrial operations. We mean Charles Bianconi, and his establishment
of the great system of car communication through out Ireland.[1]

Charles Bianconi was born in 1786, at the village of Tregolo, situated
in the Lombard Highlands of La Brianza, about ten miles from Como. The
last elevations of the Alps disappear in the district; and the great
plain of Lombardy extends towards the south. The region is known for
its richness and beauty; the inhabitants being celebrated for the
cultivation of the mulberry and the rearing of the silkworm, the finest
silk in Lombardy being produced in the neighbourhood. Indeed,
Bianconi's family, like most of the villagers, maintained themselves by
the silk culture.

Charles had three brothers and one sister. When of a sufficient age,
he was sent to school. The Abbe Radicali had turned out some good
scholars; but with Charles Bianconi his failure was complete. The new
pupil proved a tremendous dunce. He was very wild, very bold, and very
plucky; but he learned next to nothing.

Learning took as little effect upon him as pouring water upon a duck's
back. Accordingly, when he left school at the age of sixteen, he was
almost as ignorant as when he had entered it; and a great deal more
wilful.

Young Bianconi had now arrived at the age at which he was expected to
do something for his own maintenance. His father wished to throw him
upon his own resources; and as he would soon be subject to the
conscription, he thought of sending him to some foreign country in
order to avoid the forced service. Young fellows, who had any love of
labour or promptings of independence in them, were then accustomed to
leave home and carry on their occupations abroad. It was a common
practice for workmen in the neighbourhood of Como to emigrate to
England and carry on various trades; more particularly the manufacture
and sale of barometers, looking-glasses, images, prints, pictures, and
other articles.

Accordingly, Bianconi's father arranged with one Andrea Faroni to take
the young man to England and instruct him in the trade of
print-selling. Bianconi was to be Faroni's apprentice for eighteen
months; and in the event of his not liking the occupation, he was to be
placed under the care of Colnaghi, a friend of his father's, who was
then making consider