The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-06-28 00:00:00

LORD ROSEBERY ON LONDON CABMEN.

The Earl of Rosebery presided at the anniversary
festival dinner in aid of the funds of the Cabdrivers'
Benevolent Association, which was held at Willis's
Rooms, in London, on Saturday evening.
In giving the toast of the evening, "Prosperity to
the Cabdrivers' Benevolent Association," the chair-
man observed that this institution was not entirely a
charity, because its funds were largely made up of
the. subscriptions of its beneficiares. Yet it was a
society which appealed especially to the sympathies
of the opulent. Upwards of 1000 cabmen were mem-
bers of the society, and 23 aged drivers were in receipt
of a pension of 20 a year. He thought there was a
mysterious charm about a London cab. You ordered
it, not knowing whence it came or whither it was
going; who had been your predecessor or who might
succeed to your occupancy. A great fascination, too,
surrounded the driver of a cab. He knew of sev.eral cases,
and had heard of others, in which men born to high
positions, who, either by merited or unmerited mis-
fortune, had come to want, had found the best way of
earning a living to be by driving a cab. For all you
knew the driver of your cab might be a former vicar
of your parish, or the boy who bullied you at Eton, or
the Wandering Jew, in whom he believed as firmly as
he did in any legendary personage. That which
struck one most about the London cabdriver was the
imperturbable impersonality which he presented; and
if everybody were able or willing to write their auto-
biographies, those of the London cabmen would be
found to be by far the most interesting. The late
Lord Beaconsfield once said to him that handsome
were "the gondolas of London," and it was with great
pleasure that he (Lord Rosebery) found the phrase
repeated two or three years later in the pages of
" Lothair." But the driver of the hansom was at
least silent; he did not attempt to charm the night by
music. The music might occasionally be heard to
proceed from the interior of the cab. There was no
fact which had struck him so much as the improve-
ment during recent years, in the London cab, the
cabliorse, and the driver. At one time it was
the prevailing idea that one was likely to meet
with incivility and unpleasantness from the driver,
but such was not the case at this moment. In the year
1883 10,200 cabs were licensed in the metropolis, of
which two-thirds were hansoms, and the drivers
numbered 13,500, of whom 1700 applied for licenses
as drivers for the first time. Of the whole number
three were convicted four times for drunkenness, 18
three times, 142 twice, and 940 once; but of these
latter one only was a member of this association. On
the other hand 20,400 articles left in cabs were
deposited at Scotland-yard, an increase of 1765 over
the previous year, among them being two packets of
bonds valued at £3OOO and £l5OO respectively, and
one bag containing £250 in gold. These were 'facts
which the cabmen of London might proudly bear on
their banners. His lordship concluded by an appeal
for further pecuniary support, and at the close of the
evening the hon. secretary announced that subscrip-
tions had been received and promised amounting to
£1203 165., including £5O from the chairman, £lO
from the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, £lO from
Lord Derby, and .E 5 from Mr. Gladstone.