COACH PROPRIETORS. 115 



them at a less expense. The first thing is to 

 make them popular. We pay the guards from half- 

 a-guinea to fifteen shillings a week ; but we do that 

 to make them our servants, and have a check upon 

 their conduct.' 



He further observed, with reference to the question 

 whether passengers had a preference for the mail or 

 stage coach, 'There is a great deal to be said on 

 that. The mails unfortunately do not flourish, except 

 in connection with very populous towns. Now, in 

 Manchester and Liverpool, where there is a vast 

 spirit of enterprise, they esteem the style of travel- 

 ling by the mail, and we get a very good living ; 

 but with respect to places of minor importance, we 

 cannot get a sufficient number of gentlemen or active 

 merchants into the mail, and we are suff'ering very 

 severely for want of inducements to the passengers 

 to travel by it. It has occurred to me that 

 some twenty years ago (1815), when the mails 

 were established, and there were no day-coaches for 

 distances of about one hundred miles, gentlemen 

 invariably came from Bath and other such places 

 by the mails, and then the passengers consisted of 

 officers in the army, merchants and gentlemen ; but 

 now that day-coaches are established everywhere 

 within a hundred and forty miles from London, all 

 those passengers go by the day-coaches, and we 



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