As a benefactor to Ireland it is almost impossible to overestimate Bianconi’s usefulness. The farmer who formerly drove spent three days in making his market; when the cars came into operation one day was sufficient, thereby saving two clear days and expense of his horse. Another good object gained was the opening up the resources of the interior of the country. And lastly, there was the civilising effects of the intercommunion created among classes of the country, by means of travelling together on one or other of the Bianconi cars. The way in which the system was organised ensured its success, “I take my drivers,” said Mr. Bianconi at the Cork meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, “from the lowest grade of the establishment. They are progressively advanced, according to their respective merits, as opportunity offers, and they know that nothing can deprive them of these rewards, and also of a pension of their full wages in cases of old age or accident, unless it be their own wilful and improper conduct.” The whole establishment must have had a beneficial influence over a large area. Any man found guilty of uttering a falsehood, however venial, was instantly dismissed, and this consequently insured truth, accuracy, and punctuality. It must be remembered, too, at the time in which Mr. Bianconi commenced his career, the county of Tipperary was much disorganised, owing to the maladministration of the laws, and to the almost total severance of the bond which ought to have united the upper and humble classes of society. At that time the Catholics were generally looked down upon as beings of an inferior race. A Catholic was not permitted to buy or become possessed of land. In his very short autobiography, Mr. Bianconi thus describes the grievances of the Roman Catholics:—