despatches, passengers, and merchandise, was intrusted to the malles-poste, the diligences, and other conveyances, and as these could not be horsed, business and travelling were in abeyance.
An amicable arrangement was come to at this crisis, however, and the inconvenient state of affairs brought to a close, but not before the utility of the art, and its direct influence on the welfare of modern civilization, had been amply demonstrated. Without it, even at the present time, when railways, telegraphs, and steam-ships have usurped a large share of the work formerly performed by couriers, coaches, waggons, and canal-boats drawn by horses, there would be an amount of inconvenience which it would severely task modern ingenuity to overcome. The most useful servant ever possessed by man would be nothing else than a powerful living machine, whose forces could not be perfectly developed or satisfactorily utilized. The withdrawal of our hackney coaches from their accustomed duties is inconvenient enough, but this is a comparatively small matter when compared to the entire cessation of all horse-labour in our cities.
