and influence at their disposal, they secured a law from the English Parliament which effectually killed automobile locomotion. It ordained that a man carrying a red flag by day, or a red lantern by night, must be kept a hundred yards in advance of every automobile vehicle.
The report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons which was published in 1831 is extremely instructive, and contains the following remarkable paragraphs:—
These inquiries have led the Committee to believe that the substitution of inanimate for animal power, in draught on common
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Hancock's Steam Coach 'Era,' 1833
roads, is one of the most important improvements in the means of internal communication ever introduced. Its practicability they consider to have been fully established; its general adoption will take place more or less rapidly, in proportion as the attention of scientific men shall be drawn by public encouragement to further improvements.
Many circumstances, however, must retard the general introduction of steam as a substitute for horse-power on roads. One very formidable obstacle will arise from the prejudices which always beset a new invention, especially one which will at first appear detrimental to the interests of so many individuals. Tolls to an amount which would utterly prohibit the introduc-
