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Motor-Propelled Vehicles 313 which later became cynically known as the “ Red Flag Act.” Self-propelled vehicles were not forbidden upon the public highways. Oh, no ! But they were not to travel at a speed exceeding four miles an hour, and, moreover, must be preceded by a man carrying a red flag to warn others using the highway of the approach of the Juggernaut ! As might be readily imagined, such an obtuse and repressive Act of the legislature effectively prevented any further developments in this field so far as Great Britain were concerned. It was sheer waste of time for an inventor, no matter how brilliant he might be, to trouble his brain two seconds about a self- propelling idea for carriages. It could not be ex- ploited profitably owing to the ridiculous legal re- strictions. And as there was no object in striving to perfect a horseless carriage which would be pre- vented from exceeding a walking horse in pace, financiers were not likely to support the most alluring schemes. It would seem as if Parliament almost regretted passing this law in a moment of panic, because eight years later a Select Committee, after turning the subject inside out, recommended “ that self-contained locomotive coaches (or engines) not exceeding 6 tons in weight, making no sound from the blast and consuming their own smoke ... be permitted to travel at the ordinary speed of vehicles, and only subjected to the same restrictions as such vehicles.” It was a discreet recommendation, but it took nearly twenty-three years to carry it into legal effect! While Britain appeared determined to prevent the realisation of the horseless carriage era, other coun-