352 TRAVELLING BY RAIL. CHAP. XVI. 



frame indulge in any change of posture, was felt by 

 many to be a terrible thing. Then there were the con- 

 stantly-recurring demands, not always couched in the 

 politest terms, for an allowance to the driver every two 

 or three stages, and to the guard every six or eight ; 

 and if the gratuity did not equal their expectations, 

 growling and open abuse were not unusual. These 

 desagremens, together with the exactions practised on 

 travellers by innkeepers, seriously detracted from the 

 romance of stage-coach travelling, and there was a 

 general disposition on the part of the public to change 

 the system for a better. 



The extent to which the new passenger railways 

 were at once made use of proved that this better system 

 had been discovered. Notwithstanding the reduction 

 of the coach fares on many of the roads to one-third 

 of their previous rate, people preferred travelling by 

 the railway. They saved in time ; and they saved in 

 money, taking the whole expenses into account. In 

 point of comfort there could be no doubt as to the 

 infinite superiority of the railway carriage. But there 

 remained the question of safety, which had been a great 

 bugbear with the early opponents of railways, and was 

 made the most of by the coach-proprietors to deter tra- 

 vellers from using them. It was predicted that trains of 

 passengers would be blown to pieces, and that none but 

 fools would entrust their persons to the conduct of an 

 explosive machine such as the locomotive. It appeared, 

 however, that during the first eight years not fewer 

 than five millions of passengers had been conveyed 

 along the Liverpool and Manchester Eailway, and of 

 this vast number only two persons had lost their lives 

 by accident. During the same period, the loss of life 

 by the upsetting of stage-coaches had been immensely 

 greater in proportion. The public were not slow, there- 

 fore, to detect the fact that travelling by railways was 

 greatly safer than travelling by common road ; and in 



