COACH LEGISLATION 219 



took up additional passengers, they Avere liable, 

 on conviction, to a heavy penalty. In addition, 

 there was a duty of \d. a mile on the coach itself. 

 The concession of 1839 reduced this impost to 

 a halfi^enny a mile, and provided a graduated 

 j)assenger duty hy Avhich a coach licensed for not 

 more than six persons paid \d. a mile ; up to 

 ten, \\ih ; not more than thirteen, 2^/. ; not more 

 than sixteen, 2Jf/., and so on to the impossil^le 

 number of twenty-two, when the license Avould 

 be U4. 



According to a return made for 1838, the 

 mileage duty paid on stage-coaches in England 

 for that year was £106,625, showing a total 

 mileage for those twelve months of 10,530,000. 

 The Grovernment thus apparently sacrificed 

 £83,312 10s. in reducing the mileage duty by 

 one-half; but the greatness of the sacrifice was 

 more apparent than real, for already railways 

 had begun and coaches were being discontinued 

 on every hand, while a small railway passenger 

 duty of one-eighth of a penny a mile made up 

 for its smallness by the increase in travelling that 

 railways brought. 



Still later, the passenger duty on coaches was 

 further reduced, and made \\d. a mile on any 

 number of passengers ; "while the annual stage- 

 carriage license was reduced Irom £5 to £3 3s., 

 and the licence for each coachman or guard from 

 £1 5s. to 5s. 



The harassed coach-proprietors, or those Avho 

 still existed, were properly grateful for the 



