[One of the most accredited works upon this vital topic is _An
Historical and Practical Treatise upon Elemental Locomotion;_ by Mr.
Alexander Gordon, Civil Engineer. It shows the commercial, political,
and moral advantages; the means by which an elemental power is obtained;
the rise, progress, and description of steam-carriages; the roads upon
which they may be made to travel; and the ways and means for their
general introduction. This arrangement of the subject is exceedingly
well executed by Mr. Gordon, who has added a series of efficient
illustrations--from a diagram simplifying the high-pressure modification
of the steam-engine as applied to steam-carriages, to the last completed
Steam Drag and Carriage attached; while the most material points of Mr.
Gordon's views are fortified by a condensation of the evidence before
the select committee of the House of Commons. All this and much more is
accomplished within two hundred octavo pages, which a less economical
and therefore less praiseworthy editor would have expanded into a costly
quarto. Mr. Gordon's work has thus been planned and executed in the
right spirit: he maintains national benefits which must arise from the
adoption of steam carriages, and he seeks to place his views in the
hands of all who are immediately interested in the subject by means as
efficient as economical. We quote a few extracts, (the most interesting
to the general reader,) from the first chapter, which aims at a cursory
estimate of a few of the leading commercial, political, and moral
advantages which will accrue to the community by the substitution of
inanimate or steam power for animate or horse power, for locomotive
purposes; leaving its spirit of fairness to the just appreciation of
the reader.]


_Economy of Conveyance_.