Our readers will remember that in noticing the accident which befell the up-night mail on Monday se'nnight, at Rake Hill, we exonerated the coachman from blame; this was done in strict accordance with the version of the affair given to us by a correspondent. We were therefore unprepared for the statement contained in the Standard of Sunday last, which threw the whole blame on the coachman, and urged his removal from the road. Two letters, one from Scarlett, and the other from Mr Holdaway, of Petersfield, have been forwarded to us, and which in justice to the parties, we insert below; they strengthen our views of the transaction. Our duty as journalists shall always lead us to protect the public interest. In this we have never been found wanting. So in like manner when individual characters are at stake, we will always afford the opportunity of explanation. We leave it with the Standard to make ?? for its attack on the individual in question, if the statement is a false one, which it would appear was so, if the letters below are at all entitled to credit. We only say that if the letters in question are to be relied on, the Standard is bound to make the contradiction co-equal with the accusations with these remarks we leave the subject for the present. The letters, or rather the parties shall speak for themselves. We are further authorised to state by Mr Vicar, that the statements contained in the letters below, or in every respect true, Mr V. having taken considerable pains to get at the facts of the case.
To the Editor of the HAMPSHIRE INDEPENDENT.
SIR,—The following is a true statement of the accident which befell the up night mail on Monday. As the mail was going down the descent between the Jolly Drovers and Rake Hill, the offside wheel-horse fell, owing to ricking his fetlock joint. When the horse was taken from the coach, he was found incapable of working any further; the offside leader was then put in his place, and directly after starting, then going down the descent, this leader would not hold the coach. When arriving at the top of Rake Hill, I pulled at the horse for the purpose of stopping to put the drag on the wheel; but this said leader, instead of holding the coach with the other horse, ran out of the road on to the bank, and overturned the coach. The coach was very little damaged; the roller bolt was broken, and also one of the pannels. The guard, seeing there would be a great deal of time lost in getting the mail up, owing to not having sufficient strength near, and having to send to Liphook, a distance of four miles, for two waggon-horses, took a post-chaise with the bags. After the mail was got up fresh horses were put on, and I proceeded with three of the passengers inside of the mail. One of the passengers sprained his foot, as did also the guard, but no bones were broken. The accident would not have occurred had it not been for the horse falling, owing to ricking his fetlock joint, and not from exhaustion, as maliciously stated in the Portsmouth Standard. It is the first accident of the sort that has occurred (rest of original page not scanned)
(See also first account, second account)