The carriages of America are so different from our own, and from those of Europe, that they require special attention. It is possible that their style may influence in an important degree the carriages of future ages. We see in them primarily “lightness.” That lightness in their larger carriages is carried to excess most Coachbuilders will agree. We are supported in this view by the fact that for some years these, such as landaus, broughams, and coaches, have been materially modified by European types. The Americans have adopted some of the shapes of Europe, and the mode of constructing the under carriages, retaining their own methods of making the pole and splinters, or whipple trees, as giving greater freedom to the horses. I think this principle of allowing the horse greater scope for exertion is particularly worth the attention of Coachbuilders. The manner in which our horses are confined by tight heavy strapping and traces, by tight pole chains, by bearing reins, and the indiscriminate use of blinkers to the bridles has been much overdone in England. If a horse with a heavy load, driven fast over slippery roads should stumble, it is most difficult for him to recover himself--he falls, is sometimes pushed along by the impetus of the carriage, and is more or less injured in his limbs or nerves by the accident, whilst it is difficult for him to rise again until the harness is unstrapped, and the carriage is removed from above him. We also harness our horses too closely to their work in the two-wheeled carriages. We have thought only of the ease of turning and moving the whole vehicle in crowded or narrow ways, without observing the advantage of the long shafts over short shafts. If the shafts are considered as levers by which the horse supports and moves the weight behind him in a two-wheeled cart, it will be at once obvious that (although whilst those levers are parallel with the road) it does not so much signify whether they are long or short; yet the moment they point upwards, and especially when they point downwards, the difference between long and short levers is felt severely by the horse. We can all of us lift a weight or support a weight more easily with a long lever than with a short one, and it is the same with a horse. Those who have travelled abroad must have noticed the great weights placed upon two-wheeled carts in France and Belgium, and the greater comparative distance at which the horse is placed from the wheels, and yet how little the horse is distressed. He manages his load more easily because he does not feel the weight so heavily upon his back. Many drivers in England seem to have observed this, and try to ease the horse and lessen his chance of stumbling by tipping the shafts up in front, but in this way the horse is made to feel a pressure on the under part of the body which is neither natural nor healthy. I think therefore that, in future years, the growth of public opinion will be in favour of longer shafts and