378 TH^ COACHING AGE. 



punished by one year's imprisonment ; but the Grand 

 Jury did not find a true bill on the more serious 

 charge of murder. 



The treatment of the prisoners before . their trial 

 shows that, according to the law at the time when 

 this event happened, persons charged with a capital 

 crime could be imprisoned for a period of six months 

 in irons, although it might turn out upon their trial 

 that they were innocent. 



Since the year when this happened — viz., 1820 — 

 the tendency to make laws and the treatment of 

 prisoners more humane has been considerable ; 

 amongst other changes is the establishment of winter 

 assizes, so as to avoid keeping persons in prison for 

 several months, who ultimately may be acquitted of 

 the charges made against them. 



Having now disposed of this sad case, I cannot do 

 better than wind up this chapter with the other 

 accident, to which I have referred as somewhat of a 

 comic nature. 



A coachman known as Jack Everett, who drove a 

 day-coach on the lower ground between London and 

 Bath, managed somehow to upset his coach, thereby 

 breaking one of his own legs, and one belonging 

 to a female passenger. The accident happening 

 near Marlborough, and neither of them of course 

 being able to walk, they were both put into a cart 



