The Express.
London, England, 1862-09-30 00:00:00

MOB WATIX AT WIDOW MIDGE.

TIM DST Warmla& ri. 6a..../111mensai. 6h. 3Otil.
To-moazow—Yang, 71 lis.....Atimeaft, Tis. 4011.

LONDON, TUE.SDAY, SEPTEMBER 30.

TIMM is only one trading interest in London
which is always pulling against the collar, and that
is the cab interest. Its masters represent a large
amount of capital, its men constitute a large
body of labour, and yet the first are mostly looked
upon as extortionate usurers, the second as noisy
vagabonds and ruffians. No other trading inte-
rest works with so little satisfaction to itself, or
so little satisfaction to the public. It always
seems to be either quarrelling at street corners,
driving sulkily over the stones, or paying fines for
alleged misconduct to frowning magistrates. It
seems to take no pride in its business, but to con-
duct it as if it were a penal task, like oakum-pick-
ing or stone-breaking. It gives us vehicles that are
generally dirty and never comfortable, and horses
that are sometimes spectral and always ricketty.
We employ it with reluctance, we pay it with
dread, and we turn our backs upon it with a
feeling of relief ; while it serves us with suspicion,
is glad when it is able to refuse our offers, and is
seldom satisfied with our custom.

As the relations between seller and buyer are
generally cheerful, and business is a pleasure in
nineteen cases out of twenty, it is as well to in-
quire why the cab trade is in this singular and
unhealthy condition. Neither cab proprietors nor
cab drivers are a peculiar race ; they behave like
other men when they dabble in other trades, and
therefore we have not got to look far for the cause
of their disease. It lies in the fact that they are
over-organized, that they are meddled with by •
paternal government, that the price of what they
sell is regulated by an inelastic Act of Parliament
which recognises no change of weather, no diffe-
rence in roads, no variation in the cost of keeping
horses. The decree has gone forth that sixpence
per mile is the proper charge for driving two per-
sons in an ordinary cab, and the driver who
accepts his position is treated as a government
machine. He has no power to make • bargain
except against himself ; he has no power to charge
more for struggling across London-bridge, or toiling
up Pentonville-hill, than for bounding across Bel-
grave-square ; he is hemmed in by a hundred rules
and regulations which are poor substitutes for free
action, and he is hourly irritated by seeing omnibus
competitors working under a most accommodating
sliding scale of charges. Sometimes he must feel
like a child, sometimes like a fool, especially if he
is so unfortunate as to be of • reflecting dispositior.
In an age of free-trade, when every commercial
restriction is being swept away like oobwebs, be
stands high and dry as a melancholy monument of
protection. Taken with Wi sulky look, his bat.
tered cab, and his wrinkled horse, he forms a
pretty picture of the triumphs of Government in-
terference.

If anything were wanted to make this State
regulation of a particular branch of trade ridicu-
lous, it would be the recent provisions issued by
the proper authorities for the improvement of the
oh service. No now cab driver is to be provided
with a badge nnlwu !''! CM prove that he can read
and write with fluency and propriety. Just as tie
public are calling out for more vehicles, a rule is
published which is likely to check the supply. The
quality of the drivers is to be improved, or ;-1
other worts the quantity is to be care-
fully limited ; while the unchangeable s-c-
-pence is still to rule the road, and the usual
rise in price under such circumstances is not to be
officially permitted. As the feelings of the drivers
may naturally be outraged by this tightening of the
reins, the precaution is taken to get none but
well-educated cabmen. The influence of a little
schooling is expected to curb their temper, or at
least to cause their oaths to be of • refined and
agreeable nature. Nothing is said about vaccina-
tion, the use of the globes, or a knowledge of music,
but they are evidently expected to drive
their horses only to the genteeleat of
melodies. The connexion between reading
and writing and the management of hones
in crowded streets it is not easy to see ; nor is
it quite plain why arithmetic is to be left out of
this new competitive examination. The cabman's
work requires him to be constantly calculating,
and a Government which undertakes to improve
the breed of cabmen should surely not omit to
develop their arithmetical faculties.

The evident break-down of all this official cod-
dling of a particular trade is nothing more than
might have been reasonably expected. A wish to
try free-trade in cabs is now very generally ex-
pressed, because it is felt that any change can
hardly make matters worse, while it will probably
make them much better. There is no proof that
Cleaner vehicles and stronger horses cannot be sup-
plied at less than sixpence a mile, under a system
which will give fair play to wholesome vigorous
competition. At present the cab interest is
withered by oonfineinent in official fetters, and it
is a standing reproach to our good sense and our
business habits. Free-trade in cabs may be good
for owners and drivers, may have been demanded
by some few advanced men at the recent public
meetings of cabmen ; but the consumer
is the person whose interest we are chiefly