A hundred years ago
From the 'Spectator.' 12 June /869—The regular average of persons killed in London by horses. or rather their drivers. is four a week, two companies of infantry. say. a year. This is exclusive of wounds, many of them most serious. Mr. Justice Mellor, trying a case of the kind on Wednesday. said one main cause of the slaughter was an idea among drivers that the pavement belonged to pedes- trians and the roadway to them, a division of property which turns the crossings into licensed shambles. Had the man been convicted. he should have passed a severe sentence. We fear the drivers will chance that, just as the Russian coachmen used to chance Siberia. and that the only protection will be a material one. We have already "refuges." or "islands." or what- ever they are. in most crossings. Elongate them in dangerous places, till carriages and carts must go through the straits in single file. They cannot drive fast then without endangering their own necks, and, unless paid extra, they respect them.
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