"
Had he been able to talk like the people about him, he might have
said much and done little, --attempted nothing and consequently
achieved nothing. He might have got up a meeting and petitioned
Parliament to provide the cars, and subvention the car system; or
he might have gone amongst his personal friends, asked them to
help him, and failing their help, given up his idea in despair,
and sat down grumbling at the people and the Government.
But instead of talking, he proceeded to doing, thereby
illustrating Lessona's maxim of Volere e potere. After thinking
the subject fully over, he trusted to self-help. He found that
with his own means, carefully saved, he could make a beginning;
and the beginning once made, included the successful ending.
The beginning, it is true, was very small. It was only an
ordinary jaunting-car, drawn by a single horse, capable of
accommodating six persons. The first car ran between Clonmel and
Cahir, a distance of about twelve miles, on the 5th of July,
1815--a memorable day for Bianconi and Ireland. Up to that time
the public accommodation for passengers was confined to a few
mail and day coaches on the great lines of road, the fares by
which were very high, and quite beyond the reach of the poorer or
middle-class people.
People did not know what to make of Bianconi's car when it first
started. There were, of course, the usual prophets of disaster,
who decided that it "would never do.
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