14 BIPEDS AND QUADllUPEDS. 



least caused its being done, was complimented as 

 being a " spirited coach proprietor," an appellation, 

 I doubt not, many have often heard of and seen in 

 print. "• He does not care more about losing a horse 

 than he would a rat," was a eulogium meant to be 

 indicative of the liberal turn of mind of a man 

 who ought to have been execrated for his avarice 

 and brutality. The majority of persons reading of 

 " that spirited coach proprietor," most probably held 

 it as implying that he expended more money for their 

 accommodation, and consequently was satisfied with 

 less profit than others. Not a bit ; his being spirited 

 only consisted in his never hesitating to spend a few 

 extra hundreds on any occasion, where he saw an ad- 

 vantage in so doing. He would sink five hundred in 

 an opposition, and immolate horses by the dozen, to 

 bring on the ruin of a fellow-coachowner, and " drive 

 his coach off the road," that he might have that road 

 to himself; his " spirit" in this was often about as 

 laudable as his mercy to the horses sinking in the 

 fray. Yet such of the public as were not deterred 

 by apprehension of injury to their own persons. 



