COACH PROPRIETORS. 119 



' It would be a great convenience to us if we were 

 allowed to take an additional passenger. In travel- 

 ling through the country we require the benefit 

 of the road trade. When we license upon the short 

 number of four and two, if a person is going from one 

 provincial town to another we cannot take him up ; 

 or if we do, it is encouraging our servants to peculate 

 with our earnings : but we do not desire to take him, 

 because of infringing the laws.' 



' Having licenses for four and two, the servant 

 is tempted to take a passenger up in the night 

 journey, and sometimes in the day, having a 

 vacant place; and if it be for a short distance, too 

 frequently he keeps the money in his own pocket, 

 or, in the phraseology of the road, " shoulders the 

 passenger." ' 



'We frequently,' Chaplin said, 'particularly in 

 winter, license only for six. At the commencement 

 of winter the night-travelling is not so popular, 

 therefore the outsides decrease, and we go away 

 with a vacant seat every night. At Piccadilly, in 

 going into the west of England, if a person wants 

 to go as far as Windsor, or Salt Hill, if we do 

 perchance take him up, there is a long passenger to 

 Exeter lost; and if we have four and two, we are 

 debarred from getting the accommodation necessary 

 for our own welfare, or the public convenience. But 



