GUARDS AND THEIR FEES. 389 



journeys where the extreme points of a mail's journey- 

 were only a little over that distance, which made it 

 too short to divide between two ; otherwise, on the 

 London and Liverpool road, or Holyhead, for instance, 

 one guard would not take the whole distance. 



The coach-proprietors, appointing their own guards, 

 and having only the prosperity of their coaches to 

 consider, were averse to having too many guards and 

 coachmen for their passengers to pay, to which the 

 passengers naturally objected, preferring, both as a 

 matter of convenience and economy, to pay only 

 occasionally, and for long distances. 



The Postmaster-General did not in any way concern 

 himself with the likes or dislikes of the mail- 

 passengers, caring only not to send his guards on too 

 long a journey, or keep them on duty for too many 

 hours continuously, so as to run the chance of their 

 not being active and thoroughly up to their work. 

 Although mail-guards were strictly looked after as to 

 the time of their starting on their journeys and 

 arriving at the end of them, yet it sometimes 

 happened that a man in the night, when there was 

 no one to see what was going on, would allow the 

 mail to lose time by either stopping at places where 

 he ought not, or stopping longer than the proper 

 time somewhere, in which case, if the time lost was 

 more than the coachman could or would make up, 



