End of the Coaching Era 333 



The report presented by the Select Committee of 1837 

 admitted the inequalities of the taxation on land travelling 

 as between the coaches and the railways ; but, instead of 

 recommending, as the coach proprietors had wanted, that 

 the demands on the railways should be increased, the Com- 

 mittee expressed strong disapproval of any tax at all being 

 imposed on internal communication. They said, among other 

 things : 



" Very valuable evidence was submitted to your Committee 

 by Sir Edward Lees, secretary to the Post Office at Edinburgh, 

 as to the increased speed, security and cheapness with which 

 the post might be conveyed over the cross-roads of Scotland 

 by the establishment of mail cars similar to those now in use 

 in Ireland, thereby increasing the Revenue and opening up 

 districts now altogether destitute of any mode of public 

 conveyance ; the same remarks would necessarily apply to 

 many cross-roads in England. The grand obstacle, however, to 

 the establishment of these cars is the heavy taxation on 

 travelling, which utterly deters individuals from engaging in 

 such speculations ; while in Ireland, where the roads are de- 

 cidedly inferior, but where none of these taxes exist, cheap and 

 expeditious public conveyances are everywhere to be found." 



The ultimate findings and recommendations of the Com- 

 mittee were summed up in the following emphatic declaration : 



" Your Committee earnestly recommend the abolition of all 

 taxes on public conveyances and on carriages generally at the 

 earliest period consistent with a due regard to the financial 

 arrangements of the country." 



Unfortunately, the financial arrangements of the country 

 never have allowed of this recommendation being carried out, 

 and a further period of thirty- two years was to elapse before 

 even the moribund stage-coach business was relieved al- 

 together of the obligation to pay mileage duty. 



The burdensome nature of these duties on internal com- 

 munication led to the formation of a " Committee for the 

 Abolition of the Present System of Taxation on Stage Carriages 

 in Great Britain " ; and in some " Observations on the In- 

 justice, Inequalities and Anomalies of the Present System of 

 Taxation on Stage" Carriages," by J. E. Bradfield, f issued by 

 this Committee in 1854, a strong case was made out in favour 

 of such abolition. Bradfield based his main arguments on the 



