DILIGENCE, the name given in France to a public conveyance of the nature of a stage-coach. It is a huge, strong-built vehicle, with four broad wheels, weighing about 5 tons, and is drawn by 4 stout horses, at the rate of about 6 miles an hour. It consists of 3 chief compartments: the front, called the coupe, for 3 persons; the second, called the ;Pl(erieti r, for 6 persons; and, lastly, the rotonde, entered from behind, for 6 persons. A'of t in front, is the banquette, where the eondueteur is seated; and behind this, under neath thick leather covering, passengers are sometimes huddled among luggage and g000s, with little regard to their comfort. All the places in the body of the vehicle are numbered, and assigned in the order of booking. Usually an effort is made to be booked early, in order to secure corner-places. In booking, it is customary to pay only a por tion of the fare, called arches; the remainder being paid at the end of the journey.
For the ;miles, a receipt or bulletin ought to be given. Without this security, a traveler may be put down half-way and cheated out of his fare, or he may be compelled to pay over again. The driver being concerned only with the horses, the entire management of the vehicle, including the charge of the drag or break, devolves on the conducteur, a trustworthy but most dictatorial personage, dressed in a blue cloth jacket and cap, and having a badge on his breast indicative of his dignity. The greater number of the diligences in France belong to two companies in Paris—the lifessageries Imperiales and the ikressageries Generales. The system of diligences, however, has been latterly much broken up by railway transit.