COACHMEX 215 



aristocrat, and the lowest applicant, with the means of 

 hanging on or working a stage, were equally admissible 

 to those large establishments in London, where the 

 antecedents either of character or professional skill were 

 of little or no consideration. One family in particular, 

 ^vhose name was familiar to the traveller in the South and 

 South-West of England, still retained their hold on the 

 estimation of the neighbouring gentry ; and when the 

 rail put an end to the lingering career of Francis Faulkner 

 and the " Portsmouth Rocket " (the same drag on Avhich 

 the author first exhibited) — to their honour be it recorded 

 —they bought for him a handsome annuity, which 

 descends to the next generation. 



This is a solitary instance of voluntary compensation, 

 one worthy of more general adoption ; and it is also what 

 justice and equity require from the hands of those who, 

 by sanctionino; and encourao-ino;, if not formino; the rail, 

 cut the ground from under the feet of a part of the 

 community, to say the least, not altogether unworthy of 

 notice, and precipitated them to destruction ; for no 

 employment being offered them by those who had taken 

 away their very means of existence, many were driven to 

 the most abject poverty, and some few, in despair, 

 committed suicide. 



For myself every exertion was made by my friends on 

 the line of road to obtain for me employment. Testi- 

 monials were got up and signed by almost all the nobility 

 and gentry in the two counties. This the directors 

 could not refuse to notice, and I was called one hundred 

 miles before their board, when a sharp-visaged, evil-eyed 

 worthy, who acted ns chairman, told me very coolly — ■ 



