¢ 
1822.] 
making for land, aided by this method, 
(which was first discovered by Ameri- 
can navigators,)he calculated on being 
four or five leagues from land; and, as 
the mist dispelled, he saw Cape 
Henlopen, at the mouth of the Dela- 
ware, at that distance. 
—>— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
THE SOCIAL ECONOMIST. 
NO. II. 
MAIL AND STAGE COACHES.* 
HE great importance which at- 
fi ©6taches to safe, expeditious, and 
cheap means of communicating by 
letters, and by the travelling of per- 
sons, and for the conveying of luggage 
and parcels of goods, has occasioned 
our selecting this, as an early subject 
to be treated ofinthe Social Economist. 
A stage-coach, in the early travelling 
daysof the writer, consisted, first, of the 
boot, a tall clumsy turret-like mass, on 
the top of which the coachman sat, 
that was erected on, and, without the 
intervention of any springs, was fixed 
on the fore axletree of the carriage; 
second, of an enormous wicker basket, 
in like manner fixed on the hind axle- 
tree ; and third, between these masses, 
the coach-body was suspended, by thick 
straps, from four, of what are now, for 
distinction-sake, called crane-necked, 
springs. 
The roads were, at the period 
alluded to, in general rough, sloughy, 
and uneven, and occasioned a degree 
of jolting and tossing about, of the 
three distinct masses, of which astage- 
coach then consisted, such as those 
can scarcely conceive, who may have 
seen only the modern coaches, con- 
structed of one piece, and resting on 
what are called grasshopper-springs, so 
' contrived and placed, that the jerk oc- 
casioned to either of the wheels by 
coming in contact with a projecting 
stone, or by momentarily sinking into 
a hole in the road, is received by, and 
equalized amongst, four or more 
springs, which act, not on a single 
comer of the coach, as the crane- 
necked springs used to do, but on the 
whole front end, or the whole hind 
end of the coach, accordingly as a 
fore or a hind wheel has received a 
shock : whereby the diagonal or 
oblique tossing or pitching of the for- 
* Much curious information regarding 
the invention and carly history of Coaches 
will be found in our 19th volume, p. 559, 
and 20th volume, p. 1. 
The Social Economist, No. 11. 
215 
mer coaches is almost entirely done 
away; and, with modern coaches, 
when sufficiently loaded to bring the 
whole system of their grasshopper 
springs into action, nothing» can ex- 
ceed the steady or the easy unda- 
lating motion with which such coaches 
pass over the roads, as at present con-. 
structed and kept: yet these modern 
coaches, when they are but slightly 
loaded, and go slowly, pitch and jolt 
rather considerably, on roads which 
they will pass very easily over, when 
properly loaded and driven, as to 
speed. 
Accidents from the breaking of a 
spring, or of one of the links by which 
the coach is attached to them, are 
now almost unknown: because, ex- 
cept in a few improper instances, the 
springs are now so arranged and 
placed, that, in case of the breaking of 
any one or more of them, the coach 
merely settles down two or three 
inches, and then rests on a solid, in- 
stead of an elastic bearing, in such a 
way, that it may proceed on toa town, 
where other springs can be applied, . 
with no otner inconvenience but from 
extra jolting on the way. 
For these great and important im- 
provements in stage coaches, we are 
entirely indebted to that highly meri- 
torious individual, Mr. John Palmer, 
who projected, and, after encounter- 
ing a host of difficulties, in the year 
1784 carried into effect, the admirable 
system of our mail coaches, which, 
since that time, have scarcely under- 
gone the slightest change of construc-~ 
tion ; the invention and introduction of 
which coaches, were unaccompanied 
by that noise and puffing with which 
minor schemers and professed in- 
ventors, too often assail and nauseate 
the public ear. 
The chief, and almost the only con- 
siderable danger which now attends 
stage-coach travelling, arises from the 
reprehensible practice of placing 
heavy luggage on the roofs of the 
coaches, and the too common disre- 
gard of those salutary laws which limit 
the height of luggage on the roof of a 
four-horse coach totwenty-fourinches, 
and to eighteen inches height for a 
two-horse coach; and which prohibit 
any coach luggage to rise more than 
ten feet nine inches above the road, 
under the penalty of 5I. per inch above 
that height! It isnot merely the dan- 
ger of an over-turn, which is occa- 
sioned by high and heavy luggage oa 
é the © 
