terests, nor neglect the wants of poor people. He saw the
mail-coaches supplying the requirements of the rich, and enabling them
to travel rapidly from place to place. "Then," said he to himself,
"would it not be possible for me to make an ordinary two-wheeled car
pay, by running as regularly for the accommodation of poor districts
and poor people?"

When Mr. Wallace, chairman of the Select Committee on Postage, in 1838,
asked Mr. Bianconi, "What induced you to commence the car
establishment?" his answer was, "I did so from what I saw, after coming
to this country, of the necessity for such cars, inasmuch as there was
no middle mode of conveyance, nothing to fill up the vacuum that
existed between those who were obliged to walk and those who posted or
rode. My want of knowledge of the language gave me plenty of time for
deliberation, and in proportion as I grew up with the knowledge of the
language and the localities, this vacuum pressed very heavily upon my
mind, till at last I hit upon the idea of running jaunting-cars, and
for that purpose I commenced running one between Clonmel and Cahir."[2]

What a happy thing it was for Bianconi and Ireland that he could not
speak with facility,--that he did not know the language or the manners
of the country! In his case silence was "golden." Had he been able to
talk like the people about him, he might have said much and done
little,--attempted nothing and consequently achieved nothing. He might
have got up a meeting and petitioned Parliament to provide the cars,
and subvention the car system; or he might have gone amongst his
personal friends, asked them to help him, and failing their help, given
up his idea in despair, and sat down grumbling at the people and the
Government.

But instead of talking, he proceeded to doing, thereby illustrating
Lessona's maxim of Volere e potere. After thinking the subject fully
over, he trusted to self-help. He found that with his own means,
carefully saved, he could make a beginning; and the beginning once
made, included the successful ending.

The beginning, it is true, was very small. It was only an ordinary
jaunting-car, drawn by a single horse, capable of accommodating six
persons. The first car ran between Clonmel and Cahir, a distance of
about twelve miles, on the 5th of July, 1815--a memorable day for
Bianconi and Ireland. Up to that time the public accommodation for
passengers was confined to a few mail and day coaches on