42 
loss of proficiency in the saddle. He estab- 
lished a riding school, placing in charge 
Major Foubert, a French officer, whom he 
invited to England for the purpose. At the 
same time he recognised that travelling on 
wheels would increase in popularity, and 
took such measures as he might to prevent 
the breed of horses from degenerating. His 
Aet of 1694 (5 and 6 Wm. and M.,. €. 22), 
granting licenses to 700 hackney coaches, 
four-wheel carriages, now called cabs, in 
London and Westminster, contains a clause 
forbidding the use of any horse, gelding or 
mare under 14 hands in hackney or stage 
coach, 
The increasing numbers of people who 
travelled by stage coach had brought the 
highwayman into flourishing existence, and 
4 of Wm. and M.c. 8, to encourage the ap- 
prehension of these gentry, gave the taker 
of a highwayman the horse, arms, and other 
property of the thief. In the tenth year of 
his reign another Act was passed (10 Wm. 
IJJ., «. 12) which made horse stealers liable 
to the penalty of branding on the cheek ; 
this enactment, however, was repealed in 
1706 by Queen Anne (6 Anne, 9), who 
substituted burning in the hand for a penalty 
which declared the sufferer’s character to all 
who saw him. 
