The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-03 00:00:00

indescribable, and there would be no security
for travellers, either with respect to the
valuable property in their possession or from
the abuse to which cab-drivers are too much

inclined to resort whenever their extortionate
demands are resisted. We venture to assert that
such a state of things was never contemplated
by the Legislature, as would arise from the in-
discriminate admission of all cabs, without any
controlling power being vested in the railway
authorities. If the matter were left in the hands
of the Commissioners of Police, the boundaries
might be so defined as to render it impossible for
the Railway Company to carry on their other
business. And, as we have stated, their could
be no exclusion, no preference shown to
the well-behaved and trustworthy man, the
necessary result would be that the companies
should exclude all cabs, or public vehicles of any
description, to the very serious detriment of pas-
sengers of every class and grade in society.
There would, in fact, be no limit to the amount
of inconvenience.

Mr. LONG placed this matter in so clear a point
of view, that we cannot refrain from quoting his
very words. He said :

"It had been said that cab proprietors paid a large
sum of money for their licences to work their vehicles,
and that they ought all to have an equal chance of suc-
cess. Yes ; if they all possessed good cabs and good
horses, then let them all be treated alike ; but could any-
thing be more notorious than that there was the widest
possible difference in the appearance and cleanliness of
cabs, and in the behaviour and character of the drivers.
The railway companies selected the best of cabs and the
most respectable drivers, and as far as his own experience
went, he seldom had anything to find fault with, either as
to the cabs or the men driving them. On the whole, he had
no doubt it was a very great good that railway companies
selected cabs of the best sort, and drivers civil in beha-
viour, and honest in their conduct. He was of opinion
that the words in the act meant plying for hire in public
places only, ancq that the Legislature did not intend in
any degree that the act should apply to or interfere with
private property, which railway stations were. The
summons must be dismissed, as the plying for hire in
this case was not plying for hire within the meaning of
the act of Parliament.

We hope and believe that this sound and able
decision will be finally adopted, and that the

public will be spared the injury and annoyance
which a rigid adherence toMr. A'BECKETT'S orders

would necessarily occasion. If his judgment
should by any possibility be sustained, a
legislative remedy would be required, and
would doubtless be speedily granted ; but in
the interim an amount of damage would ensue
of which it is impossible to form an adequate
estimate. We can scarcely suppose that Mr.
A'BECKETT will be so wedded to his own opinion
as to refuse an opportunity of appeal, should the
matter again come within his jurisdiction.

THE Menui—the Berlin Speners Gazette of the 29th
ult., stated that the Madiai would be liberated by the
Duke of Tuscany on the Ist of December. This measure,
it was said, was due to the direct intercession of the King
of Prussia, through Count Arnim Blumberg.
INCREASE OF THE NAVY.—The increase to the naval
forces will be asked for in a supplementary estimate, and
that when granted, as we are assured they will be, the en-
try of seamen and enlistment of marines will commence
forthwith.

THE TENANT-RIGHT QUESTlON.—Yesterday a numer-
ous meeting of Irish members of Parliament assembled in
committee-room No. 15, to frame resolutions in accordance
with the tenant-right meeting held in October last, to at-
tend to proposed legislation on that subject, and on Irish
questions generally during the session. There were about
forty membersresent.
SINGULAR EMIGRATION FRAUD.—At the last meeting
of the Limerick board of guardians, a letter was read from
a man named Michael Ryan, of New York, complaining
that, having forwarded a passage ticket for his sister, an
inmate of the workhouse, a female had been sent out whom
he never saw before, and stating that the 4/. he had paid
for that purpose was all the money he had saved up to the
time he remitted the order.
THE NEW CRYSTAL PALACE.—We are requested to
State that the decision of the Government, on the applica-
tion of the directors of the Crystal Palace Company for a
adlcharter, has now been given. This decision had been post-
until the opinion of the law officers of the Crown
Geer
eenascertained, as to the bearing of an old act of
111.----prohibiting the opening of disorderly places,
questions, on r
This opinion has beenSundayssti given to the effect, that th 3 wording
I portion of the Crystal
poad tacreonders it illegal to open any
r park on Sundays, and con-
given with a clause provid-
-1 viequently the charter been
take place unmea less the Le-
sidatuca filial think fitio sanction itT?

.411

CIA

has been accomplished. It was pretended that it
t would be more graceful to nominate as Committee-
- men some among the literary celebrities of our
. generation—and appears to have been entirely
forgotten that these same literary celebrities,, but
for the parties in whose ardour the present scheme
originated, and under the influence of whose exer-
tions it has flourished—would have left the grave
of HOOD unmarked by a pebble or a root of
daisies, to say nothing of a marble monument !
The good sense of almost every individual present
yesterday, appears to have recognised the force of
these considerations almost instinctively—and so
matters have been left, for all practical purposes,
in their original condition. The fair and
gifted lady who has acted as Treasurer from
the commencement still retains the undisputed
and undivided glory of giving rise to the idea of
the undertaking. The active and intelligent
gentleman who has undertaken from the outset
the part of Secretary to the enterprise still
continues to preside, as he deserves to do,
over the details of the general management.
Another trustee has been formally and unani-
mously elected to co-operate with the before-
mentioned : and the Committee maintains its
ground, as it has earned the right to do, by contriv-
ing, by some extraordinary means or other, to exist
without the aid of the literary celebrities already
referred to. And thus the affairs of the fund have
been settled entirely to the satisfaction of the va-
rious contributors ! And so poor THOMAS HOOD
—the innocent humorist and the gentle poet—
may, before long, have his humble grave adorned
by the marble graces of a funereal monument.

The flippant decision of Mr. A'BEcK.nrr on
the Railway Cab question—a subject of consi-
derable importance, not only to the Boards of
Directors of the several lines having metropolitan
termini, but also to the community in general—is
likely to be subjected to speedy revision. Not-
withstanding the magnitude of the interests in-
volved in the result notwithstanding the
doubtful and difficult nature of the issue submitted
for his decision, the learned gentleman not only
refused to suspend his judgment until his brother
magistrates had an opportunity of considering
and forming an opinion on the question—but
even to frame it, so that an appeal might be made
to a higher tribunal. Whatever may be the
ultimate result, the parties concerned have much
reason to complain of the self-sufficiency—we
might almost say obstinacy—that induced Mr.
A'BEOKETT to refuse the reasonable request of the
gentlemen who appeared on behalf of the de-
fendant. All that was required at his hands
was, that he would put the matter in train for
further investigation, so that the opinion of
the Judges of one of the Superior Courts
might be taken thereon. That application he re-
jected, but we are happy to say that none of his
magisterial brethren have acted in an equally ar-
bitrary manner. The topic has been brought for-
ward in other Police Courts. The Directors of
the South-Western, and, more recently, the North-
Western Railway, have been virtually made de-
fendants, but in no instance has the example set
by Mr. A'BuxErr been followed. The other
Justices have exhibited a degree of modesty and
discretion of which the Southwark magistrate was
totally deficient.
The admirable decision of Mr. LONG, at the Mary-
lebone Police Court, put the matter in so clear
a light, that we have no doubt it will ultimately
prevail. That learned gentleman justly and pro-
perly entered into the consideration of all the
Statutes bearing on the point, and of the inten-
tion of the Legislature, deducible from the various
enactments. He also made full allowance for the
rights appertaining to private property, holding
that " if a railway company could not select cabs,
and have them under their own control, other per-
sons could not select them and have them waiting
upon their private property. The Duke of Devon-
shire, if he had a party, could not do so."
It would indeed be monstrous to suppose that
any- company should be bound to have their pre-
mises open at all hours, so that any person who
thought proper might come in—whether for pur-
poses of plunder or otherwise. It is already suf-
ficiently difficult to preserve order on the arrival
or departure of crowded trains; but, if Mr.
ATECKETT'S decisions were sustained, the scenes
of confusion on every such occurrence would be