THE ROAD. 
in which case, he is said to cover both sides of the ground, 
or to and fro. At the expiration of twenty-eight days, 
the lunar month, a settlement takes place ; and if the 
gross earnings of the coach should be five pounds per 
mile, there will be four hundred pounds to divide 
between the four proprietors, after the following charges 
have been deducted ; viz., tolls, duty to government, 
mileage (or hire of the coach, to the coachmaker), two 
coachmen's wages, porters' wages, rent or charge of 
booking-offices at each end, and washing the coaches. 
These charges may amount to one hundred pounds, 
which leaves three hundred pounds to keep eighty 
horses and to pay the horse-keepers, for a period of 
twenty-eight days, which gives, within a fraction, a 
pound a-week for each horse. Thus it appears that 
a fast coach, properly appointed, cannot pay unless 
its gross receipts amount to five pounds per double 
mile ; and that, even then, the horser's profits depend 
on the luck he has with his stock. 
In the present age, the art of mechanism is eminently 
reduced to the practical purposes of life, and the modern 
form of the stage-coach seems to have arrived at per- 
fection. It combines prodigious strength with almost 
incredible lightness, not weighing more than about 
eighteen hundred weight ; and, being kept so much 
nearer the ground than formerly, is of course con- 
siderably safer. Accidents, no doubt, occur, and a great 
many more than meet the public eye ; but how should 
this be otherwise, when we take into account the 
