ss bought the best horses at increased prices, and he took
care not to work them overmuch. He gave his horses as well as his men
their seventh day's rest. "I find by experience," he said, "that I can
work a horse eight miles a day for six days in the week, easier than I
can work six miles for seven days; and that is one of my reasons for
having no cars, unless carrying a mail, plying upon Sundays."

Bianconi had confidence in men generally. The result was that men had
confidence in him. Even the Whiteboys respected him. At the close of
a long and useful life he could say with truth, "I never yet attempted
to do an act of generosity or common justice, publicly or privately,
that I was not met by manifold reciprocity."

By bringing the various classes of society into connection with each
other, Bianconi believed, and doubtless with truth, that he was the
means of making them respect each other, and that he thereby promoted
the civilisation of Ireland. At the meeting of the social Science
Congress, held at Dublin in 1861, he said: "The state of the roads was
such as to limit the rate of travelling to about seven miles an hour,
and the passengers were often obliged to walk up hills. Thus all
classes were brought together, and I have felt much pleasure in
believing that the intercourse thus created tended to inspire the
higher classes with respect and regard for the natural good qualities
of the humbler people, which the latter reciprocated by a becoming
deference and an anxiety to please and oblige. Such a moral benefit
appears to me to be worthy of special notice and congratulation."

Even when railways were introduced, Bianconi did not resist them, but
welcomed them as "the great civilisers of the age." There was, in his
opinion, room enough for all methods of conveyance in Ireland. When
Captain Thomas Drummond was appointed Under-Secretary for Ireland in
1835, and afterwards chairman of the Irish Railway Commission, he had
often occasion to confer with Mr. Bianconi, who gave him every
assistance. Mr. Drummond conceived the greatest respect for Bianconi,
and often asked him how it was that he, a foreigner, should have
acquired so extensive an influence and so distinguished a position in
Ireland?

"The question came upon me," said Bianconi, "by surprise, and I did not
at the time answer it. But another day he repeated his question, and I
replied, 'Well, it was because, while the big and the little were
figh