THE ROAD. 
immense number of coaches on the several different 
roads, a great portion of which travel through the night, 
and have all the varieties of our climate to contend with ? 
No one will assert that the proprietors guard against 
accidents to the utmost of their power ; but the great 
competition they have to encounter is a strong stimulant 
to their exertions on this score. Indeed, in some 
respects, the increase of pace has become the traveller's 
security. * Coaches and harness must be of the best 
quality, horses must be fresh and sound, and coachmen 
of science and respectability can alone be employed. 
In fact, to the increased pace of their coaches is the 
improvement in these men's moral character to be attri- 
buted. They have not time now for drinking : and 
they come in collision with a class of persons superior to 
those who formerly were stage-coach passengers, by 
whose example it has been impossible for them not to 
profit in all respects. A coachman drunk on his box 
is now a rarity. A coachman, quite sober, was, even 
within our memory, still more so. But let us press this 
question a little further : do the proprietors guard 
against accidents to the very extent of their ability ? We 
fear not : too many of them, to touch only one point, 
allow their coachmen to omit the use of the hand or 
end-buckle to their reins, which, to our own knowledge, 
has lately been productive of several accidents. This is 
* To give one instance the Worcester mail was one of the slowest on 
the road, and the oftenest overturned. She is now fast, and reckoned one 
of the safest in England. 
U 
