2 12 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



Licences a\ ere to specify the number of i)ersons 

 inside and out the coaches were authorised to 

 carry ; and any running without a licence, or 

 carrying passengers in excess, were to he fined £10 

 for each passenger or additional passenger, or 

 double if the driver were also owner or part-OAvner. 

 If the offending coachman could be proved to have 

 carried the additional j)assengers without the 

 knowledge of the proprietors, and if the proprietors 

 derived no profit from it, they escaped the penalty, 

 which then had to be borne by the coachman, Avith 

 the alternative of imprisonment. 



These regulations were notoriously broken with 

 impunity every day in the year. Passengers sat 

 on the luggage if they felt so inclined ; coachmen 

 got drunk, drove furiously, or allowed the deadly 

 amateur to drive ; luggage was stacked to alpine 

 heights ; guards discharged their l)lunderbusses 

 everywhere from sheer Avantonness or on joyful 

 occasions ; passengers Avere carried to excess ; and, 

 indeed, every provision of every Act was fla- 

 grantly violated, generally of malice aforethought, 

 but not seldom from very ignorance and the sheer 

 inability of coach-proprietors and the others con- 

 cerned to keep themselves fully informed on all 

 points. The Avaggoners esj^ecially found it diffi- 

 cult, Avith the best will in the Avorld, to keep the 

 law ; and even the pikemen at the turnpike gates, 

 who Avere the sAvorn enemies of all the users of the 

 roads, but who Avere bound to comply Avith certain 

 regulations, often heedlessly omitted the formulae as 

 by law established, and became liable to penalties. 



