132 COACHING. 



to put his horses into a gallop, and that he was 

 answerable for all the consequences of an in- 

 friue:eiTient of this law. The driver of a stagfe- 

 coach was bound to protect even the intoxicated, 

 the blind, the aged, and the helpless against 

 their own want of caution or imprudence. The 

 case now before the Court presented circum- 

 stances of gross aggravation, and his Lordship 

 felt it his duty to pronounce the severest judg- 

 ment that the law would allow, which was 

 that the prisoners should be severally confined 

 in the common gaol of this county for the term 

 of one year. 



At the Wiltshire Assizes in 1813, an action 

 was brought by a Mr. Gooden against the pro- 

 prietors of a mail coach, to recover damages 

 for a serious injury sustained by the plaintiff, 

 from its being overturned. It appeared in 

 evidence that the plaintiff was an outside 

 passenger, that the coach was overturned im- 

 mediately on quitting the yard of the " Red 

 Lion Inn," Salisbury, and that a compound 

 fracture of the plaintiff's leg was the conse- 

 quence of the accident. It seemed established 

 that there was no gross misconduct on the part of 

 the coachman to call for vindictive damaofes. Mr. 

 Justice Gibbs left it to the jury to determine 



