Whilst many possessing a personal
interest in everything tending to improve or enrich the country
have been so misled or inconsiderate as to repel by exaggerated
statements British capital from their doors, this foreigner chose
Tipperary as the centre of his operations, wherein to embark all
the fruits of his industry in a traffic peculiarly exposed to the
power and even to the caprice of the peasantry. The event has
shown that his confidence in their good sense was not
ill-grounded.
"By a system of steady and just treatment he has obtained a
complete mastery, exempt from lawless intimidation or control,
over the various servants and agents employed by him, and his
establishment is popular with all classes on account of its
general usefulness and the fair liberal spirit of its management.
The success achieved by this spirited gentleman is the result,
not of a single speculation, which might have been favoured by
local circumstances, but of a series of distinct experiments, all
of which have been successful."
When the railways were actually made and opened, they ran right
through the centre of Bianconi's long-established systems of
communication. They broke up his lines, and sent them to the
right and left. But, though they greatly disturbed him, they did
not destroy him. In his enterprising hands the railways merely
changed the direction of the cars.
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