There are many carriages, however, such as stanhope and mail phaetons, omnibuses, waggonettes, and pony phaetons, in which it is easy to advance the hind wheel, so as to carry the principal part of the whole weight of the body. This has been done, but then many persons have erroneously imagined that the carriage followed the horse easily, not because the weight was on the higher wheel, but because the wheels were so near together, and they have pressed the Coachbuilder to keep the front wheels backwarder, instead of rather placing them forwarder, as they should have done. In the stage coach we see a conspicuous example of this great error, and some of the drags more recently built are the worst. If the roads round London were not so good as they are, or if the roofs of drags were loaded with luggage, we should hear of more accidents to the summer amateur coaches than we do at present. Most of the weight of the stage coach or drag is upon the front wheel, which is much the lowest, and it is so far back under the body that if the horses gallop the coach begins to swing, and a very small obstruction is sufficient to upset the whole. Compare this with a similar load upon an omnibus, with four horses at a rapid pace on a bad road. The comparative security and safety of the latter vehicle is at once apparent. If a coach and omnibus could be fairly tried together, it would be found that the omnibus with three horses could beat the coach with four horses, besides doing its work with much greater safety, and turning in a much narrower road. It is right to mention that the idea, or a great part of the above, has been contributed by a foreign Coachbuilder, in whose views I entirely concur. It is as easy to make a stage coach as safe and nearly as light in running as an omnibus, by making it with much higher front wheels, and carrying them more forward. If it is considered essential to be able to turn in a narrow road, it would be easy to cut a small arch in the boot, which would allow the wheel to turn as far as the perch, instead of only half way to the perch as at present. The reason given why drag-coaches are made with the front wheel so far back is, that it was necessary in order to bring the horses close to their work, to use a phrase that has been much misapplied, and also to bring them under the driver’s hands, who prefers the reins short, but it would be quite possible to build a coach in which the driver might be over the horses, and yet have the advantage of higher front wheels, and properly placed for carrying the load. The Coachmaker may often gather a useful hint by studying the construction of carts, which have to carry heavier loads than carriages, often at an equal speed, and certainly not with better horses.