an assortment of wheels, axles, and tools, for
any repairs that may be wanted. One of these
men is always left behind at the head district
depôt, to meet any contingency that may arise
during the day. When an accident occurs in
the street, an omnibus is immediately despatched
to take the place of that which has broken down;
the "plates" (i.e. the legal authorisation of the
Inland Revenue) are shifted from one to the
other; and, if the smash has been serious, a large
van arrives and brings off the disabled omnibus
bodily up to Highbury. But such accidents
are very rare, owing to the constant supervision
given to the axles, tons of which are constantly
thrown aside. These axles are all manufactured
on the premises, and are composed of ten or
twelve pieces of iron "faggotted" together. The
trade or cost price of an ordinary omnibus is one
hundred and thirty pounds, but the large three-
horse vehicles, which are of tremendous weight
(those from Manchester, in use last year plying
to the Exhibition, weighed thirty-six cwt.), cost
two hundred pounds. The ordinary time of
wear is ten years; after that, they are of little
use, though some last seventeen years. The
wheels require entire renewal every three years,
and during that time they are under frequent
repairs, the tires lasting but a few months. So
soon as an omnibus is condemned, it is broken
up; such portions of it as are still serviceable
are used up in repairing other omnibuses, but in
a new omnibus every bit is thoroughly new.
The condemned omnibuses stand out in an open
yard, abutting on the line of the North London
Railway; and the superintendent of the coach-
builders told me he had often been amused
at hearing the loudly-expressed indignation of
the railway passengers at the shameful condition
of the company's omnibuses—they imagining
that the worn-out old vehicles awaiting
destruction, which they saw from their railway-
carriage windows, were the ordinary rolling
stock of the London General. The wood used
in the composition of the omnibuses, is English
and American ash, elm, deal, and Honduras, but
the poles are invariably formed of stout English
ash. The superintendent told me that these
poles last far less time than formerly: and
this he attributes to the stoppages having
become so much more frequent, owing to the
introduction of short fares; the strain upon the
pole, occasioned by constant pulling-up,
gradually frays the wood and causes an untimely
smash. Before I left, I was shown an ingenious
contrivance for defeating the attacks of those
universal enemies, the street-boys. It appears
that the passengers of a little omnibus which
runs from Highbury-terrace to Highbury Barn,
and which, for its short journey, has no con-
ductor, were horribly annoyed by boys who
would ride on the step and jeer with ribaldry
at the people inside. To beat them, my friend
the superintendent invented what he calls a
"crinoline," which, when the door is shut,
entirely encloses the step, and so cuts away any
resting-place or vantage ground for the marauding
boy.

The depôt, where all the provender is
received, mixed, and served out for all the
district establishments, is at Irongate Wharf,
Paddington, on the banks of the Regent's Canal: a
convenient arrangement when it is considered
that the barges bring stores to the doors, at the
rate of fourpence-halfpenny per quarter, while
the land transport for the same would cost one
shilling. Hay is, however, generally brought
in at the land gates, for the facility of the
weigh-bridge immediately outside the
superintendent's office, over which all carts going
in or out are expected to pass. There is no
settled contractor for hay, but there is no lack
of eager sellers, for the company are known to
be quick ready-money purchasers, and a
transaction with them saves a long day's waiting in
the market. On this same account the
company are gainers in the deal, to the extent of the
expenses which a day's waiting in the market
must involve for rest and refreshment for driver
and horses. When a sample load is driven into
the yard and approved of by the superintendent,
a couple of trusses are taken from it and placed
under lock and key, to serve as reference for
quality; and when the general supply comes in,
every truss which is not equal to the quality of
the sample is rejected by the foreman, who
carefully watches the delivery. The whole of
the machinery-work of the building is performed
by steam power, erected on the basement-floor,
and consisting of two engines of two hundred and
fifteen horse-power, consuming four tons of coal
a week. By their agency the hay received from
the country waggons is hoisted in "cradles" to
the topmost story of the building, where it is
unpacked from its tightened trusses; to the
same floor come swinging up in chain-suspended
sacks, the oats from the barges on the canal, and
these are both delivered over to the steam-
demon, who delivers them, the hay separated and
fined, and the oats slightly bruised (not crushed),
and freed from all straw and dirt and stones,
through wooden shoots and "hoppers," into the
floor beneath. There—in the preparation-room
—the ever-busy engines show their power in
constantly-revolving leather bands, in whirling
wheels, and spinning knife-blades, and sparkling
grindstones; there, are men constantly allaying
the incessant thirst of the "cutters" with offerings
of mixed hay and straw, which in a second
are resolved into a thick impervious mixture;
while in another part of the room the bruised
oats into which it is to be amalgamated are
slowly descending to their doom. All the
"cutters" are covered over with tin cases, else
the dust germinated from the flying chaff would
be insupportable: while at the hand of every
man is a break, a simple lever, by the raising of
which, in case of any accident, he could at once
reverse the action of the machinery. Descending
to the next floor, we find the results of the
cutters and the bruisers; there, stand stalwart
men covered with perspiration, stripped to the
shirt sleeves, and who have large baskets in front
of them at the mouths of the shoots, anxiously
awaiting their prey. Down comes a mass of