Stage coaches at the beginning of this century were used in London to bring men of business into the city, and the fare was ordinarily two shillings from Paddington or Clapham; they were slow and unpunctual, being usually an hour over the five miles. The first Omnibuses were built at Paris in 1820, were drawn by three horses, and soon became much in vogue; they were never very fast, and still are slower than our omnibuses, not because they cannot be driven fast, for occasionally they keep up a good speed, but because our neighbours attach so much importance to the waybill, and stop at certain stations to take up passengers, or exchange some for the branch lines, and tickets are given at these stations beforehand bearing numbers which entitle the bearers to be first served. These regulations detain the omnibuses very much; the same remarks apply also to the tramways, on which the progress is still slower than by the omnibuses. There is at Paris an excellent service of omnibuses for the conveyance of passengers and luggage from the hotels to the railway stations. They hold eight inside, and are quick and easy. All over the Continent the hotels have the best omnibuses; some of them are of large size, well stuffed, and lighted at night with good lamps. Sometimes each hotel has its own ’bus; sometimes one will serve several hotels. The first Omnibus was started in London in July 1829, by the enterprising Mr Shillibeer, who had been for a short time a coachmaker at Paris. His first omnibuses were drawn by three horses, and carried twenty-two passengers, all inside. They ran in a shorter time to the city than the old stages; the fare was a shilling from the “Yorkshire Stingo,” near the bottom of Lisson Grove, to the Bank. We can imagine how unwieldy these carriages appeared even compared with the stage coaches and hackney coaches of the day, yet they soon proved a success; they followed the horses so easily that the drivers were astonished. The passengers were pleased by the speed, and the scheme should have been very profitable to Mr Shillibeer. The first omnibuses were thought too large for the streets of London, and they were superseded by a smaller pair-horse omnibus, carrying twelve passengers inside, and an extra one or two at the end of the omnibus, by the driver, but it was a very unpopular position. In 1849, an outside seat was added along the centre of the roof, and by 1857 the omnibus had been improved nearly to what we now have, and this was chiefly done by Mr Miller, of Hammersmith. Our present omnibus is probably the lightest and strongest vehicle in the world for carrying twenty-eight persons, at a speed of nearly eight miles an hour. If tried with four horses on a country road they easily beat the old-fashioned stage coach, either in weight, capacity for carrying, durability, or safety.