2i6 STAGE-COACrt AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



may l)e gathered from one instance before the 

 Bathforum (for such was the style and title 

 of the local bench) magistrates. A farmer was 

 siiumioned for not having his Christian name and 

 surname painted on the rixjht or off-side of his 

 Avaggon, and mulcted in lOs. and costs, while 

 another for the same mistake in the position was 

 fined 5s. and costs ; the magistrates, in addition, 

 holding that the strict letter of the law required 

 not only the name of the owner and that of the 

 town, but the street as well. 



A great sheaf of informations was laid by him 

 at Brighton in July 1827. William Blunden, 

 proprietor of a stage-van, was summoned — not for 

 carrying more passengers than he should, but for 

 not having painted on his conveyance the number 

 of passengers his licence entitled him to carry. 

 A £5 fine was the result, of which Byers was 

 aAvarded 50s. and costs. In another of his cases 

 on this occasion the informer did not come off 

 victorious. It was not his master-mind that had 

 prepared the cases, but that of one of his hirelings, 

 Aaron Holland, and there was a fatal flaAV in this 

 particular one. It was a summons against Snow, 

 the Brighton proj^rietor, for carrying passengers 

 in excess ; but, unfortunately for the prosecution, 

 the coach was not j^lying for hire on that occasion, 

 and Byers suffered defeat. 



In this same year Byers was arrested and 

 imprisoned for debt, but he was soon out again 

 and prosecuting with redoubled energy. In 

 November William Cripps, of the firm of Crijips & 



