The first coach that was seen in Sweden, was taken there the end of the sixteenth century by John of Finland, upon his return from England (Dalin, Geschichte des reichs Schweden, ubersetzt vote Dahnert,iii. i. p. 390 aril 402). Public carriages were first introduced to let fcr hire France in 1650, by Nicholas Sausage. These carriages took their name from the residenee of !he proprietor, who lived in a Louse called ! Intel St Fi (re, and were thence called Others O• in this employment. and obtained licence fir let ting carriages upon paving a certain sum of limo Among others, Charles Vilerme paid Imo treasury 15,000 byres. for the exelusiyi prk of keeping coaches for hire a ithin the city or after this coaches w ere kept, such as the harkm y coaches of the present day, standing at •ertain Ph-c( s in different streets, to go from one part of the t its to another. The name nacre became soon applied solely to than ; the appellation of Carosses dc Remise being given to those that were kept at the proprietors houses) and lit out to hire fOr a certain lime. And in 1662, carriages ts ith four horses were kept for the purpose of cart sing pc mle to the different palaces at which the court might he. These went under the name of Voiturcs flour la Suite de la (bur. Regulations were established by the police to secure the safety of public carriages, and marks affixed upon them, whereby they might be known. A full history or the Parisian flacres, and the orders respecting them, may be seen in Continuation du traitc de la Police, Paris, I 7.18, fol. p. 435 ; and also Hist. de la rine de Paris, par Sauval, i. p. 192. Coaches to be let for hire were first established in London in 1625, amounting at that time to twenty. These stood at the principal inns, and were called hackney coaches, from their being first used to go betwixt. London and Hackney. Ten years after they became so numerous, that Charles I. issued an order limiting their number. In 1637, there were in London and Westminster fifty coaches. In 1652 their number had increased to two hundred. In 1654, there were three hundred. In 1661, four hundred were licensed at 51. sterling annually for each. In 1694, they were limited to seven hundred. In 1715, to eight hundred. In 1768, there were one thousand ; in 1802, they were increased to 1100; and they are now considera bly above that number. Hackney coach( s were first established at Edinburgh in 1673, at which time there were twenty. (Armes Hist. of Edinb. p. 597.) In 1679, at the rebellion, the hacks( v coach horses of Edin bu•gh were employed to draw the royal artillery. plait land's History, p, 338 ; W o(row's history, VOL ii. p. 52.) In 1752 they had decreased to foul teen, and in 1778 to nine. (Armes History, p. 598.) Since that period, however, in consequence of the improvements in the various streets, whereby their use has become more general, the great enlargement of the city, and the increasing wealth of the inhabitants, their numbers have been gradually increasing, till ilON; :.re very nearly one hundred hackney coaches. nacres were first introduced at Warsaw in 1778. In Copenhagen, about the same time, there were one hundre4 hackney coaches. (Haubers Beschreibung von C' pe••agen. p. 173.) There were in at that time from four to fiN c thousand gentlemen's carriages; (Twiss's Travels through Slain and Portugal.) In Vienna, three thousand gentlemen's carriages, and two hundred hackney coaches. In 1663, coaches with wheels were forbidden at Amsterdam. be ing considered destructiN e to the pavemel is ; ilandres ten von .Amsterdam. ii. p. 739.) but about 1775 tie it number had increas.,1 so much, that there were to ("my five thousand coach horses in the seven 111 ited prO•• N inccs.
The following statements of the number of carriages in England, Scotland, and \\'aics, in 1607, the progi es sive increase or decrease for the twenty years preceding, with the number of carriages actually made in 1804, 1805, 1806, and 1807, may be interesting to our readers.
They are taken from the Appendix to the Report from the Committee on the Acts now in force regarding the use of broad wheels, and on the preservation of the turn pike roads and high ways of the kingdom, printed by order of the House of Commons, 2d May 1809 ; and are therefore completely authentic documents. We also subjoin a statement of the number of four and two wheeled carriages charged with the duty in Scotland, from 25th March when the duty commenced, until the present time ; distinguishing, as far as possible, the private from the public carriages ; and also the number of taxed carts from 1798, the period from which the duty upon them commenced.
Carriages hat e improved in their construction, and increased in variety, iu a greater proportion than in num bers. The improvement in dim i• construction may be imputed to the distribution of labour in building them, to the long experience of the workmen in their several departments, to the emulation naturally arising amongst the people employed ill their manufacture ; but chiefly to mechanics having become more a stud), and of course better understood anionv,st all ranks of society than for merly. Cam riages have been, like every other invention or loan, improving slowly but gradually ; and even now, when fur beauty, elegance, lightness, and strength, hu man ingenuity would seem to be exhausted, experience leads us to look forward to sunset mores perfect than we have yet seen ; and we are win-Jilted to expect this from the ariOLIS 1111prOVellIelaS appearing from all dif ferent quarters, in almost every separate department of coach-making. We shall conclude this article with a list of patents granted for the several improvements in wheel carriages within the last ten years ; and to which we refer our readers, if desirous of more information than our limits enable us to afford.
The variety in carriages is so great, that it is almost impossible to enumerate them, arising in a great mea sure from the increasing wealth of the people enabling them to gratify their improved taste ; but inure particu larly, we should imagine, from a desire in the makers to raise their own reputation, by attracting the notice of the public with a name that had not been before heard of, although the carriage they produced under such name, differed very immaterially from others that had been long perfectly well known. We shall content ourselves by giving the names of those most generally known and used, with a very short description of each, leaving out of view the varieties hinted at above.
Carriages may naturally be divided into two classes : four-wheeled, and two-wheeled. The chief of these arc, Coach carriage, made generally to hold six, sometimes only four people in the inside, one half sitting opposite to the other, face to face, a window in the door on each side, and a large one, or two small ones, in front, having four wheels, and drawn by one or more pairs of horses, drove by the coachman from a coach box in front of the body. When the driver rides on horseback, they arc called post coaches. Under this description may be included all mail and stage coaches, which have nothing particularly to characterise them but their uncommon strength. See Plate CXXXII. Fig. 1.
Vis a ids, made after the fashion of a coach, and in every respect like it, but only to hold two people within, sitting opposite, as the name indicates. It is drawn by two horses abreast, and driven as a coach.
Landeau, made exactly to resemble a coach, with the same accommodation, but having the top or roof, upper part of the sides, and back, to open and fold down to the front and back, leaving to the passengers a free view of every thing around ; drawn and driven as a coach.