Large omnibuses are in use in Glasgow and Manchester, and other towns where speed is not so much an object as it is in London, and they have been re-introduced in London between Charing Cross and Portland Road, and there are a few small one-horse omnibuses for short distances. It is not necessary to describe these vehicles at any length; it is sufficient to notice that they must be light and strong for the work they have to perform, and the peculiar shape enables the builder to secure this. The London General Omnibus Company has contributed greatly to the improvement of the system of public conveyance. It was founded in 1856, when it took over five hundred and eighty omnibuses previously in use, and belonging to a large number of different owners. The company had 6,400 horses the first year. Although many of their omnibuses have been superseded by the metropolitan and district railways, and the establishment of tramway cars, they have still 560 omnibuses and 6000 horses to work them. Each omnibus runs about sixty miles a day. The company builds for its own use about thirty ’busses each year; the average weight of an omnibus is 24 cwt. Most of the vehicles are now provided with brake retarders, which are set in action by the foot of the driver, and check the speed down hill, or help to stop the omnibus to take up a passenger without so much strain upon the horses as formerly. In Vienna the public omnibuses are longer, and are divided into two compartments, entered by separate doors; they carry twelve inside and six outside. The speed is rather slow and the appearance of most very shabby. In summer other omnibuses are also used, which are constructed without sides or windows, and in hot weather are agreeable from the free admission of air without draught. American stage coaches began in 1786. As early as 1697 an innkeeper, named John Clapp, at the Bowery, New York, kept a hackney coach for the accommodation of the public; and in 1699 a law was made forbidding fast driving of “slees” through the streets of New York. The first private coach owned there appears to have been in 1745 by a Lady Murray. In 1786 there were but three Coachmakers’ factories in New York: Mr Steel, in Pine Street, Mr Jones, and James and Charles Warner, in Broadway. In 1789 six more factories had been opened in the coach trade, and five livery yards had begun to keep hackney coaches. In 1790 a coach was built in Philadelphia for eight hundred dollars, and there were eight Coachbuilders in that city. But the usual vehicle was a sort of wheel chair upon wooden springs, and from recent accounts it seems that gigs, hung upon long wooden springs, are still in use in the United States and Canada.