The Express.
London, England, 1868-09-02 00:00:00

THE EXPRESq, WFDNESDAY E

They are sometimes the savages of grist cities; 0101
I nehmen and backwoodsmen of populous capfuls.
To judge them by their infinitely various physi-
ognomy they are the rinsings and the soeurings
of es cry trade and profession. There are m
ming them who might peas for bishops n•td
di tins ; them are men among them who) might be
n for liberated convicts. Clergymen, country
tgnir, a, for mere, lawyers, ostlers, blliard -markers,
turbot In, family coachmen, and the rowslies of Le
times, but all down upon their Issok, all out
of sorts with fortune, and all at war with mm-
kind, appear to bo represented among them ;
de,perotion is the badge of all of
their tribe, and they look as if the world
were not their Mead, nor the world's law.
Of course there are exceptions—men of education,
of good manners, of honesty. It is not abso-
lutely impossible to pay a cabman his fare with-
out being bullied—nor is it always a proof that
you have paid him much more than his fare whoa
he fails to insult you. But why should so useful,
so indispensable an order of men as the drivers of
hackney carriages be regarded as the refuse of
civitisatigp P They are not so in all cities—,
in Edinblirgli, for instance, they are most re-
spectable, honest, and obliging citizens. Why
have the railway companies found it
noceasary to restrict the admission of cabs
to the stations, and to impose certain con-
ditions upon the owners and the drivers
of the vehicles which are licensed to ply for
hire within their precincts, and to set down and
take up passengers at their platforms ? There is
nothing to prevent the Railway companies, so far as
t heirown interest is concerned, from admitting indis-
criminately all cabs, and making all pay an equal
tax on admission to their stations. The Railway
companies have enough to answer for on their own
account, but in this matter of cabs they are really
acting for the common good of their passengers,
and protecting the public, as far as they can,
against insolent and extortionate drivers, filthy
vehicles, and animals only fit for the lmacker's
yard. Wherever cabs are admitted indiscrimi-
nately passengers become the sport of cabmen,
who pick and choose their fares according to their
own convenience, and the station becomes a scene
of ruffianism and confusion. There is a decent
and respectable minority of cabmen who would
confess the truth of these remarks, but who are
overawed and bullied by a majority who do not
shrink from emulating the rattoners of Sheffield.
It is most important that the public should under-
stand that the present agitation of cabmasters and
cabdrivers, although nominally against the rail-
way companies, is really against the public ; that
the interests of the railway companies and of the
public are in this case identical. There are cab-
masters who oppose what they call the monopoly
of admission to the railway stations, because they
are unwilling to provide decent carriages and
cattle for the public use, and prefer to screw the
hard earnings of their servants out of disgraceful
conveyances, blackguard drivers, and terrified
" fares." But now that these public enemies have
chosen to descend into the streets it is to be hoped
that neither the railway companies nor the public
will yield one jot or tittle to their pretensions. If
the cabmen prefer to stand idle and let their
families starve in order to bully the public,
let them be made to learn that where
there is a demand the supply will not
be long wanting. The strike could not happen at
a less unfavourable season, and if it is persevered
in it ought to result in the discovery of a better
class of public vehicles than those which are now
disputing the "monopoly" of the railway sta-
tions, and in the application of the regu-
lations of the railway companies to every
licensed cab or driver; or, what would be
infinitely better, in extending to cabs and
cabmen the principle of free trade, subject only
to such regulations as might be necessary to pub-
lic order and security. Under such a regime most
of the cabownere and drivers who are now
clamouring for the abolition of a " monopoly" would
disappear altogether, in obedience to that law of
natural selection which presided over the destinies
of the whole animal kingdom.

porl.. et fulsenee eulogies of.rAi
. he
.Nispoleoni,!. use
1:els eximposee et
Lein on •Ikeryktte-ex on spurin
tred4mark. Belch arti as . IRRAE
el (Meg °via has ik]y itublish*
in satemelve numbers oat The ArderES '
tl eir eystcm of government, written in a style
which by no stretch of courtesy can "be called
Frglisb, result only in the condemnation of the
Luftatunate journal which priaht them, with-1
out conferring the slightest momentary al-
%willow, upon their secret promoters and
penipters. Public opinion in Franc* is
Cot deluded for an instant by such counterfeit
',resentments of English opinion ; nor are English
readers quite so credulous as to mistake them for
indigenous products. No party differences shall
prevent us, once for all, from expressing a regret
that any journal professing to be the chosen
organ of an English political party should
bnd itself to such ignominious adulterations, and
descend so ter beneath the contempt of English
journalists, of whatever party, who respect their
vocation, and have some regard for the honour of
their country. Whe can wonder, in the faoe of
such facts as the conspicuous connection of Con-
servative members of parliament with the Credit
Foncier, and the devotion of an accredited organ of
a Conservative English government to the service
of French Imperialism, that English gentlemen
of high and stainless honour, such as General PHIL,
should seize the earliest opportunity of announc-
ing their complete separation from a Minister
Mho, in the last days of the Morning Chronicle,
was significantly reminded by the agents of the
Emperor NAPOLEON of a correspondence which it
might be inconvenient to his reputation to dis-
close.