COACHMEN. 231 



compeers any further than I have done ; for 

 I will at once admit I never felt myself suf- 

 ficiently competent to converse in a lan- 

 guage, the acquisition of which was con- 

 sidered a great accomplishment ; and alto- 

 gether it was an association to which I 

 no longer coveted to belong. 



Nevertheless, there were some very 

 respectable and very worthy men among 

 them ; men that were a credit to their 

 station, and upheld it both before and 

 after the profession had become a refuge 

 for broken-down gentlemen, or the 

 summit of ambition to aspiring cads. 

 For competition had so disarranged or 

 altered the original system of conduct- 

 ing stage-coach business, that the titled 

 aristocrat, and the lowest applicant, with 

 the means of hanging on or working a 

 stage, were equally admissible to those 

 large establishments in London, where the 

 antecedents either of character or profes- 

 sional skill, were of little or no considera- 



