Though
the car system originally "grew out of his back," Bianconi had
long been turning the subject over in his mind. His idea was,
that we should never despise small interests, nor neglect the
wants of poor people. He saw the mail-coaches supplying the
requirements of the rich, and enabling them to travel rapidly
from place to place. "Then," said he to himself, "would it not
be possible for me to make an ordinary two-wheeled car pay, by
running as regularly for the accommodation of poor districts and
poor people?"
When Mr. Wallace, chairman of the Select Committee on Postage, in
1838, asked Mr. Bianconi, "What induced you to commence the car
establishment?" his answer was, "I did so from what I saw, after
coming to this country, of the necessity for such cars, inasmuch
as there was no middle mode of conveyance, nothing to fill up the
vacuum that existed between those who were obliged to walk and
those who posted or rode. My want of knowledge of the language
gave me plenty of time for deliberation, and in proportion as I
grew up with the knowledge of the language and the localities,
this vacuum pressed very heavily upon my mind, till at last I
hit upon the idea of running jaunting-cars, and for that purpose
I commenced running one between Clonmel and Cahir."[2]
What a happy thing it was for Bianconi and Ireland that he could
not speak with facility,--that he did not know the language or
the manners of the country! In his case silence was "golden.
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