Note 59 — Chapter V · PALMER AND THE MAIL-COACH ERA.

The Liverpool merchants were the first to petition the Treasury for the new mail-coach. "This petition being complied with in the course of a few months, the letters from London reached Liverpool in thirty hours. At first these coaches were small vehicles, drawn by two horses, which were changed every six miles. They carried four passengers, besides the coachman and guard, both dressed in livery, the latter being armed to the teeth, as a security against highwaymen."—Baines's History of Liverpool. In October, 1784, York applied for a mail-coach, to pass through that place on its way to the North.