As to stage-coaches, their form seems to have arrived at perfection. It combines prodigious strength with almost incredible lightness; many of them not weighing more than about 18 cwt., and being kept so much nearer the ground than formerly, they are of course considerably safer. Nothing, indeed, can be more favourable to safety than the build of modern coaches. The boots being let down between the springs, keep the load, and consequently the centre of gravity, low; the wheels of many of them are secured by patent boxes; and in every part of them the best materials are used. The cost of coaches of this description is from £130 to £150; but they are generally hired from the maker at 2½_d._ to 3_d._ per mile. It is said to be the intention of Government[74] to substitute light carriages with two horses for the present mail-coaches drawn by four. On this, a writer in the _Quarterly Review_ observes, that when the mail-coach of the present day starts from London for Edinburgh, a man may safely bet a hundred to one that she arrives to her time; but let a light two-horse vehicle set out on the same errand, and the betting would strangely alter. It is quite a mistaken notion that a carriage is less liable to accidents for being light. On the contrary, she is more liable to them than one that is laden in proportion to her sustaining powders. In the latter case, she runs steadily along, and is but little disturbed by any obstacle or jerk she may meet on the road: in the former, she is constantly on “the jump,” as coachmen call it, and her iron parts are very liable to snap. [74] The era of rail-roads has however now arrived, and there remains no need for such an experiment.--ED. Fifth Edition.