[370] By Quarterly Payments. Thus the Power of the Commissioners over the Chairs arose before that over the Coaches. [371] Some Lawsuits having arisen from this Clause, it was explained by a short Act of the 12th year of the Queen (1713), subjecting such _Widows_ to the same Rules, Penalties, &c. made, or to be made, as any acting Chairman. And thus it continues to this day; for the owner of a _Figure_, as it is called, is answerable for certain faults of his or her assignee. By this statute likewise the rates were limited to time and distance, at ten shillings by the Day.--One shilling and six pence for the first Hour, and one shilling for every succeeding Hour.--One shilling for the distance of a mile and a half.--One shilling and six pence for any distance more than a mile and a half, and not exceeding two miles; and so on, in the proportion of six pence for every succeeding half mile. The Chairs are likewise at the same time rated at two-thirds of the distance prescribed to the Coaches, so that they were allowed to take one shilling for a mile, and six pence for every succeeding half mile. Though the time of waiting is not specified in the Act with regard to the Chairs, yet it follows, by implication, to be intended the same as the Coaches. These have been altered by a very late Statute, 1785. It is well known that it is left in the option of either Coachmen or Chairmen, whether they will be paid by the distance or the time, which is but a reasonable privilege; but there is another circumstance, not generally known, of which the passengers are not perhaps aware, _viz_. that if the room which a Coach will occupy in turning about should exceed the distance allowed, the Coachman is entitled to a larger fare, that is, as much as if he had gone another half mile. The doctrine is the same respecting Chairs, and the room allowed is eight yards in the case of a Coach, and four yards in the case of a Chair. As the Statute gives all competent allowances to the Coachmen and Chairmen, so it was requisite, on the other hand, to make the contract obligatory, and that each of them should be compellable to perform their parts; and therefore, to do this, and at the same time to prevent extortion, it became necessary to add a severe penal clause, _viz._ "that if any Hackney-Coachman or Chairman shall refuse to go at, or shall exact more for his hire than, the several rates hereby limited, he shall, for every such offence, forfeit the sum of _forty shillings_." These penalties were, by this Act, to have gone in the proportion of _two_-thirds to the Queen, and _one_-third to the Plaintiff. [Since made half to the Crown and half to the Complainant.] The Coachmen and Chairmen are thereby likewise liable to be deprived of their Licences for misbehaviour, or by giving abusive language[372]. On the other hand, that the Coachmen and Chairmen might have a remedy in case of refusal to pay them their just fare, any Justice of the