APPENDIX. 285 



THE following petition was written when 

 the railroad mania was at its zenith, and 

 the country in a fevered and discontented 

 state. It was presented by the late la- 

 mented Lord Joscelyn, in the session of 

 1846, when member for King's Lynn, and, 

 like many others of greater or less im- 

 portance, was ordered to lie on the 

 table : 



" To the Honourable the Commons of 

 Great Britain and Ireland, in 

 Parliament assembled, 



" The humble Petition of THOMAS CROSS, 

 of King's Lynn, in the County 

 of Norfolk, late stage-coach pro- 

 prietor, sheweth, 



" That your petitioner was originally 

 brought up in a noble profession, but 

 from a visitation of Providence, and other 

 circumstances over which he had no con- 

 trol, was compelled to seek subsistence as 

 a stage-coachman. 



