English carriage constructors are certainly not an inventive race, if we allow that the names by which carriages are known are indicative of their origin. Coach is derived from the Hungarian _kotsee_, chariot is French, chaise is French, landau is German, cabriolet is French, and so on with many other names. But mere invention—mere original conception—does not constitute excellence; and if foreigners may fairly lay claim to the greatest originality, English artists have the merit, perhaps still more important, of gradually improving the original designs, and so contriving all the details that, in their state of comparative excellence, the carriages can be scarcely recognised as constructions of the same principle as their models. That English artists are not remarkable for the invention of new carriages is no proof of their want of talent; they have invention in abundance if there were sufficient motives to call it forth, and as a matter of fact invention is but poorly paid for. England possesses abundance of mind and matter, and there is no country in which a union of the two is just now more indispensable, and yet there is no country which throws greater obstacles in the way of the development of its minds. On an English patent lasting _fourteen_ years the stamp duties amount to £175, whilst on an American patent lasting _seventeen_ years the duty is only £7, or ¹⁄₂₅th of the English stamp duty. Under such a system no one will be surprised to find that on December 31st, 1879, there were only 15,755 patents in force in England, as against more than 200,000 in the United States. (These figures, of course, refer to patents of all kinds.) It has been calculated that about 10 per cent. of patentees manage to survive the seventh year of their patents, at which time the £100 duty is payable; that is to say, as far as their patents are concerned. English artists and artisans are little more than merchants in their trades and methods of doing business; they cannot afford to lose time, and their principal object is to make as large an annual return as possible, and as large a profit as possible on that return. Continental men are more enthusiastic lovers of their arts and sciences. They aim at improvement from mere liking for it, and when they fail it is mostly from want of efficient workmen to further their designs. The demand with them is not sufficient to make every branch of their art a manufacture. In England, on the contrary, the manufacture of carriages is a work of many trades, and greater skill is produced in manipulation by the division of labour. If chance brings in a new fashion, competition is aroused, which does not subside until some degree of improvement or excellence be obtained.