The Express.
London, England, 1853-07-28 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, JULY 28.

LONDON is suffering from a coup (Mat. The cabs
have struck. Legs little used to walking have been
called into requisition. Behind-hand gentlemen ac-
customed to keep appointments simply by dint of
horse flesh at sixpence a mile, have broken down.
London enjoys unwonted stillness, and cab horses are
astonished by an unaccustomed rest. Omnibuses
fill with marvellous rapidity, and their threepenny
fares are suddenly raised. The ill wind that sends
Cabby into idleness wafts a double profit into the
pockets of owners of omnibuses. For them another
Great Exhibition has come to pass, and they may
cheerfully agree to subscribe handsomely to the
fund for keeping up this Cab Strike. A good
thousand pone& a Iv is now being spent in feeding
and stabling idle steeds, and the labour market is
supplied with thousands of idle cabmen, who sud-
denly find themselves " gentlemen at large." For-
bidden to charge what he pleases, the cabman flings
down his whip and refuses to drive at all. No argu-
ment ; no suggestion ; no petition ; no explanation.
Nothing of the kind will satisfy his froward humour
—nothing will do but a Strike.
But can this strike succeed? Strikes seldom do.
As a rule they are productive of unmixed evil. They
waste the substance of most of those involved in
them, and upset the temper of all. They have con-
stantly been productive of crimes of the deepest dye,
and have seldom resulted in anything but disappoint-
ment. The Cab Strike, it must be remembered, how-
ever, has features not common to all such move-
ments. Tho theory of Free Trade says that a man
should be permitted to get for the hire of his
horse and vehicle and of his own labour as much
as he can, but practically it has always
been found that the policeman of great cities
can alone prevent the drivers of hackney carriages
from plundering the passengers who wish to ride.
We may, and do, hope for better and freer
times : but so at present the fact stands. The
cabmen of all modern cities have been found
unfit to be trusted with the complete freedom of
operation permitted to other trades. The peculiar
character of the commodity they deal in partly
accounts for this. Their vehicles are generally taken
to save time. To preface every hiring with a
" haggle" about fares would interfere with this.
Hackney carriages, therefore, are put under the
police regulations of all large cities; over them a
sumptuary law is allowed to operate. In return,
the licensed cabby gets a monopoly in his
avour. By virtue of his license he is legalised, and
protected from the inroads of free traders in cabs and
horseflesh. And herein resides a very essential
element of the dispute now on hand. The licensed
cab-masters will not obey the law. They will not
permit their vehicles to be used by the public at the
price fixed by statute. Accustomed to a shilling a
mile they refuse to take sixpence. But surely if
this refusal is to be followed by cab-less streets, the
authorities would be quite justified in throwing the
trade open—if they chose so to do. If the cabmasters
turn our former cab-abundance into a sudden
and uncomfortable dearth,• the tired passenger

may fairly cry out for such an opening of the
ports as shall admit—if only temporarily—a full
supply of Free-Trade horseflesh and non-strike
hackney carriages.
As to the main cause of quarrel—the rate of fares
—it must be remembered that at least one cab-
master has long offered to work at sixpence a mile
—showing his belief, at least, in the sufficiency of
that sum. But the rest of the vehicular public have
tried to howl him down, and yesterday, it is said,
assaulted his drivers, and prevented them from serv-
ing the public, and earning their own bread. Like
all men on strike, these repudiating cabbies are
very tyrannical. They will not allow those
who dissent from their movement to exercise
free will. They determine upon idleness, and there-
fore will have every one of their craft idle too,
Practically doubting the wisdom and justice of their
cause, they bring tyranny to bear upon all dissen-
tients. A man may feel himself quite justified in
refusing to drive at sixpence a mile, but he
is clearly guilty—legally, morally, and econo-
mically—when he seeks to prevent another
from working at that price. One cab may be
thought worth two shillings a mile, if the
vehicle be handsome, the horse swift, and
the coachman in a brilliant livery, whilst another
machine on four wheels belonging to the real rani-
shackle race may be dear at a fourth of the money.
The clean and swift may prefer the stable to the
streets with Mr. Fitatov's law in force. But on
what plea can they justify their interference with
their more humble brethren who think the leg►l fare
quite enough ? If the strike is to go on let it at any
rate go on fairly. We must have no intimidation—
no assaults—no combination of the strong to oppress
the week ; and to this point the attention of the
police will naturally be directed.
Should the strike remain unadjusted, we may
expect to see spectral post-chaises emerge from the
cobwebbed recesses of ancient inn yards. Chariots
may once more see the light. Hounslow may waken
from its railway-begotten lethargy, and ancient post-
boys once more find their way up to town. The cab
horses will never be allowed to" cat their heads off"
in a too long idleness, and will assuredly find their way
from the shafts of the Hansom to the pole of the
'Bus. New lines of Waterloos and Atlases and
Favourites; new regiments of white Bromptons and
Putney', and blue Islington', Stratfonls, and Bows
may be looked for. The trim 'bus will flourish on the
ruin of the ramshackle cab, and the strike of one set
of horse-workers make the fortune of another. Whilst
the never-failing laws which regulate demand and
supply are thus adjusting in their own way the rela-
tions of this great vehicular exasperation, the public
may be temporarily inconvenienced. But though
the discomfort be short-lived, let us be wise
and make the best of it. Magistrates must be
just and temperate; and decisions like that of
Mr. HENRY in the PHILLIPS case, become
as rare as they are cruel and discreditable.
Drivers summoned to police courts when found
to be in the right must be treated like honest and
ill-used men and be recompensed for their loss of
time and for the delsayrjmento of being " pulled" into
the dock before his worship. Secretaries of State,
when asked about charges of injustice made against
police court, magistrates and county judges,
must treat such matters in another spirit
than that of flippant jocularity. Wo must

have full justice for ill-need drivers u well
as for abused and overcharged " fares." A little con-
sideration must also be given to the moral and social
condition of the cabdrivers—their day and night

and Sunday labours—their exposure to all weathers,
and to the mischiefs of irregular earnings.,
DIVES who calla a cab to take him on a wet even-
ing
to a turtle dinner, too often forgets his fellow-
mortal, LAZARUS, in the tattered box-coat,who drives
him to the feast. It is not well always to
be a screw and pin down a drenched Jehu to the
literal sixpence of the law. But whilst all such con-
, siderations will be present to the minds
of thousands who looked yesterday on the
cabless streets, they may not forget that
it is the Cab Master rather than the Cab
Driver who has locked up the vehicles and fulminated
the decree—that every man shall walk. Mr. FITZ-
Ror—as our Parliamentary report shows—is anxious
to reform the manifest injustice of the present " back
fare" clause. But whilst ready to do this and to
meet all just demands arising out of the present
aspect of the difficulty, it is very unlikely that Par-
liament and Mr. Commissioner M SYNE are, at the

fag-end of the session, to be frightened out of their
senses and their new law, by this coup d'elat of the
cab-stands.

"Yor have learned," said Lord ASHBURTON to the
Agriculturists at Gloucester, "almost to defy the
elements. It is true, you cannot stop the deluge of
rain; but you drain off superfluous moisture." The
speaker was loudly cheered as he referred to this and
other triumphs of skill over hostile forces of nature.
Yet, that same night, the "deluge of rain" had its
triumph—its cruel triumph. Not only was the entire
hay crop carried off or ruined throughout wide dis-
tricts of our island, and thousands of acres of grow-
ing grain laid low, and flocks of sheep drifted down
unaccountable torrents, and landslips caused in hill
sides, knockingdown or burying whole rows of houses;
but one entire family, at least—Mrs. LAWRENCE
and her household,—was swept away in the night
by the overflow of the Wye, and, of course, drowned.
We have something to do yet in our conflict with
the elements, it is clear. And that something is so
urgent, so evident, and so practicable, that we ought
to give our attention to it at once—let the political
elements roar as they may. There is nothing in the
Russo-Turkish question that can excuse us from at-
tending to affairs at home that are more disastrous
at this hour than anything that has happened to us
lyet from the East. We have been watching those
500 core-laden vessels cooped up in the Danube with
abundant interest and anxiety, and the more because
of the badness of our last autumn and spring sowing
seasons; and now, this last week, while we have
been on tiptoe, straining our eyes after those vessels
in the Danube, and talking about Odessa, we have
lost by our own remissness more agricultural pro-
duce than those boats would hold. It is true, as
Lord ASHBURTON says, that we can drain off super-
fluous moisture ; and we do it when the moisture
occurs in moderation ; but we take no measures
against a deluge. More than that, we tempt and
aggravate the mischief by the devices of our civilisa-
tion. Our floods are unquestionably worse, from
the same amount of rain, than they used to be ; and
they are growing progressively more mischievous
and fatal, while we are praising ourselves for our
improved skill and command of the elements. It
need not be so. Prevention and cure are in our own
hands. And if the experience of this year is not
warning enough for us, one wonders what further
punishment would do us any good. When September
comes, it will be a year since the down-pour began ;
and we shall then know the result of the harvest.
The prospects of the harvest, never very good, are
much impaired by the tempests and floods of last
week; and the practical encouragement we would
offer to everybody interested in the weather
is, that we must surely be sensible enough of our
losses and afflictions to take care that they
shall never recur, through any ignorance, apathy, or
wilfulness of, ours. We speak of afflictions of a
graver kind than losses of property, because there
are other evils attendant upon floods worse than the
sweeping away of crops, and stock, and houses, and
even than the drowning of an aged lady and her
household. The fever comes after the Hood; and
then, instead of the funeral of a single family, we
see a crowding of the churchyards wherever the
miasma is borne by the winds, or is tempted by the
warmth of human dwellings to exhale its poison
there. The causes of the mischief are within our
control; and the cure is, as we said just now, in
our own hands.

A committee of the House of Lords is at this
time considering the provisions of a Bill for incor-
porating the Lands Improvement Company, the
object of which is to improve, convert, and reclaim
lands by all the processes appropriate to the purpose,
" for the general benefit of agriculture, and the public
advantage." The capital to be provided, and the powers
given, are to be large. Drainage is, of course, one
of the main objects; and we are confident that if it
was properly understood what our arterial drainage
is, and what it ought to be, we should all agree that
the proposed measure may be made the very means
wo want of correcting the evils brought upon us by
certain circumstances of our advancing civilisation.
Of the few who really understand the case, most cry
out that individuals can do nothing in so vast a
business as instituting such arterial drainage.
Without admitting that individuals can do nothing,
we grant that they cannot do everything, and that
our best chance of a proper beginning is through
some such instrumentality as the Lords Committee
will probably soon lay before Parliament.
The best arterial drainage in England is to be
found, generally speaking, in fenny districts ;
and the lands that suffer most from floods
are usually those in which natural channels
abound. In the valleys, where rivers and
their tributary brooks flow briskly, Nature seems to
have made such wise and pleasant arrangements
that we are put off our guard, and lay aside, not
only art, but care and vigilance ; whereas, in the
fens and levels of our eastern counties, where the
streams are sluggish or stagnant, and constantly
liable to be lifted over their banks, the landed pro-
prietors are as careful of their out falls as the Dutch
are of their dykes. They take care that Nature is not
interfered with, but rather assisted ; and the daily
care thus taken tells upon the issue of any extraor-
dinary visitation. Last winter the Bedford Levels
were safe and solid when whole counties of higher
ground were under water. For, on those higher
lands, whether valleys or plains, where the rivers
run, men aro tempted to set up mills ; and the most
tempting spots are precisely those natural outfulls
where the streams would sweep their own way clear
if they were let alone. The miller backs up tho water,
little dreaming of the mischief he is doing. And
then the brooks which are gushing down to the main
stream have some parte shallower than others—
shoals which should be rather cleared away than
aggravated; and just there, men choose to make a
ford, and aro the better pleased the shallower it
becomes. At the same time, the improving farmer
above is, with the best intentions, deep draining, or
surface draining his land; and he prides himself,
and justly, on the feat of dismissing all surplus rain
in a trice, instead of letting it sink and stand till
time or the sun rids him of it. The gush from the
drains swells the rivers from each side, before the
clouds have done swelling them from above ; and

then comes the conflict of opposing waters, when the
weaker are driven back, and the drains themselves
become causes of inundation. While we have intro-
duced mills, locks, and other artificial obstructions,
we have not removed the natural ones, as a little ob-
servation of what is done in the fens might teach us.
We do not grub up obstructive trees, nor
cut off corners, nor deepen shallows, nor
clean out periodically such channels as
may require it. We can tell the surface measure-
' meat of our land well enough ; but how many of us
can tell the depth of the local ontfalls, and the actual
slope of the arterial channel ? There is not a man,
woman, or intelligent child in the Valais who can-
not tell to an inch the state of the bed of the torrent
beside which their village stands. Their lives depend
on the torrent not overflowing,aad therefore have they
this knowledge, and the skill to use it, in a much
more difficult case than can ever be presented in
England. It may be, however, that in our own
England more lives depend on such knowledge and
skill than we arc apt to suppose. We may stand
aghast, on account of the rarity of such a catastrophe,
when roaring waters bring death at midnight, as at
Holmfirth last year, and now, when an aged lady
was drifted dead upon the bank, and her whole family
whirled away to the depths ; but after every such
inundation hundreds die of the flood, not the less
because they die in their beds and of a lingering
death instead of a sudden one. All this must be
cured—all over the country where Nature has pro-
vided channels, or given us broad hints where
and how to make them. It has to be done, and it
will be done. If any one doubts of this, let him look
at the account of the Rye and Derwent Drainage, in
the last number of the Royal Agricultural Society's
Journal. He will see there what may be done by
zeal guided by knowledge—how much health and
prosperity arise from a wise co-operation with
Nature, under the form of control of her forces. What
individuals have done there individuals may do else-
where. But it is to be hoped that, while individuals
are confided in to do what their personal care can
bee effect, a fitting organisation will be provided for
achieving, in the completest way, the most important
order of public works that our national welfare re-
quires at this day.

LATEST FROM THE CONTINENT.

IMPORTANT FROM TURKEY.

A despatch, by submarine and electric telegraph,
puts us in possession of important news from Con-
stantinople. The steamer Caradoc, which left Con-
stantinople on the 18th, and Besika Bay on the 21st
inst., brings the intelligence that Russia has b 0 modified
her demands and propositions, that they hare been
accepted by the Sultan and the allies.