Note 60 — Chapter XII
Reading edition
Thus, the Act 20 Geo. III. cap. li. sec. 2—an Act passed four years before the mails were carried by coach:—
"That every person who shall keep any four-wheeled chaise or other machine commonly called a diligence or post-coach, or by what name soever such carriages now are or hereafter shall be called or known...."
That the term post-coach, as distinguished from mail-coach, was in vogue as late as 1827 appears from evidence taken in that year before the Commissioners of Revenue Inquiry—"(Q.) Are you acquainted with the post-coaches? (A.) Not any very great deal. (Q.) Comparing them with mail-coaches, which do you think are the best formed? (A.) Decidedly the mail-coaches, I think."—Appendix to Eighteenth Report, p. 443.