^Nimrod ' 



appointed, cannot pay unless its gross receipts amount to 

 five pounds per double mile ; and that, even then the 

 horser's profits depend on the luck he has with his stock. 



In the present age, the art of mechanism is eminently 

 reduced to the practical purposes of life, and the modern 

 form of the stage-coach seems to have arrived at perfection. 

 It combines prodigious strength with almost incredible 

 lightness, not weighing more than about eighteen hundred- 

 weight ; and, being kept so much nearer the ground than 

 formerly, is of course considerably safer. Accidents, no 

 doubt, occur, and a great many more than meet the public 

 eye ; but how should this be otherwise, when we take into 

 account the immense number of coaches on the several 

 different roads, a great portion of which travel through the 

 night, and have all the varieties of our climate to contend 

 with ? No one will assert that the proprietors guard against 

 accidents to the utmost of their power ; but the great com- 

 petition they have to encounter is a strong stimulant to their 

 exertions on this score. Indeed, in some respects, the in- 

 crease of pace has become the traveller's security.^ Coaches 

 and harness must be of the best quality, horses must be fresh 

 and sound, and coachmen of science and respectability can 

 alone be employed. In fact, to the increased pace of their 

 coaches is the improvement in these men's moral character 

 to be attributed. They have not time now for drinking ; 



1 To give one instance — The Worcester mail was one of the slowest on 

 the road, and the oftenest overturned. She is now fast, and reckoned one of 

 the safest in England. 



o 209 



