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

number of carriages at a station, what amount of cab ac-
commodation would be sufficient for passengers arriving
by light or heavy trains at all hours of the day. The
commissioners, too, would have the regulations of the
hours during which the cabs should ply for hire, and
they might say, " You shall ply for hire from such an
hour to such an hour ;" and those very hours might be
when no trains came -in. The commissioners were to
make such regulations for enforcing order as they deemed
necessary. But how could they go and do this on
the private property of the company, where the public
had no right to go except as customers of the com-
pany ? They had also the power of removing any per-
son who should be loitering on the stand. Surely the

railway company had the power of doing this themselves,
and could exclude any person who was not a passenger
departing from, or arriving at, the terminus. So that,
in fact, the police commissioners would be taking on
themselves the guardianship and the regulation of the
business of the terminus. Of course, this would inter-
fere seriously—supposing the commissioners to interfere
arbitrarily—with the business which the company had
to transact there. He now came to the thirty-third sec-
tion of the act, viz., that declaring that the driver should
not apply elsewhere than at a place appointed by the
police commissioners. He apprehended that the word
"elsewhere" had a limited meaning—that it meant such
places as the commissioners of po'ice would have the
power of authorising stands upon, and that the term was
confined to that meaning—that was, any public street,
'thoroughfare, or other place of public resort. It had been
suggested to him that, under such an interpretation as
would make the cabs at railways subject to the control
of the police, the Duke of Devonshire could not, without
causing an infringement of the law, call into his court-
yard a number of cabs for the convenience of any guests
who might not have their private carriages with them.
His grace might tell Mr. Jones or Mr. Thompson to
order fifty cabs to be in waiting at ten o'clock, and re-
main till they were wanted ; and would any one say
that this could not be done without the interference of
the police ? If the Duke of Devonshire could do this on
his own private property, then a railway company had
the power of making regulations for the employment of
any number of cabs they chose for the use of the direc-
tors, officers, or passengers arriving at the terminus, and
' of allowing such cabs to remain on the private pro-
perty of the company till they were required. The
public could not come into the station and hire a cab—
this was not permitted. The advantage of the regula-
tions by which the cabs employed by the company were
governed would be obvious, when he stated, that not
only was great care taken in selecting good cabs and
horses, and 'men of respectable character, but that every
driver was obliged to make a return of the places to
which he took his passengers. He might illustrate the
advantages of this by the statement of a single fact. He
had some time since to defend an action for the London
and North-Western Company, and the principal point
for him to make out was the identification by a cab-
driver of a man he had driven from Euston-square to
Chelsea about twelve months before. The cab-driver
was questioned on the subject, and it was on his evidence
that the case turned. The present regulations of the
railway companies were, as he had stated, of much
benefit to the community ; but if the law was so strin-
gent as not to admit of a liberal construction, such as he
had given it, the companies must bow to the law, how-
ever greatly it might, as it undoubtedly would, operate
to the injury of the pubhc at large.
. .

Mr. Long thought this one of the most important
questions that had ever come before him for his decision.
He had considered the matter fully, in order to arrive a
a just conclusion. It was nothing to him that he had
on the former occasion—when the case was not fully gone
into—decided in a particular way. He was not in any
degree bound by any former decision. He now thought
it desirable to look into the history of the acts, and he
found by the Ist and 2d Wm. IV., c. 22, that the plying
for hire was in reference to any public street or road,
The Ist and 2d Vic., c. 79, enlarged the definition to any
place within the distance often miles from the Post-office,
and by the 6th and 7th Vic., c. 86, the language was ply-
ing for hire in any place within the metropolitan district.
Now, the 33d section, referred to by Mr, Humphreys, if
it were to be construed strictly, would embrace the case
before him. There could not be a doubt of that. The
word " elsewhere," if taken in its widest sense, would
bring the defendant within the penalty for having
unlawfully plyed for hire. They must, however, look at
the object which the Legislature must have had in view
when these, restrictions, with reference to plying for hire,
were laid down. After referring, on the subject of hack-
ney-carriage stands, to the Hackney-carriage Act of Ist
and 2d Wm. IV., cap. 22 ; the Ist and 2d Vic.' cap.
79 ; the 6th and 7th Vic., cap. 86 ; and the 13th Vic.,
cap. 7, he said he could not help asking himself what
the Legislature intended by having any hackney-carriage
stands at all ? Certainly, that the public might know
where to find accommodation. Again, a cab stand was
considered a great inconvenience by those who resided in
its immediate neighbourhood, and on the other hand, un-
less stands were appointed, the drivers would go where
they thought proper, and the public would be unable to
find them when they were wanted. As to plying for
hire at a railway station, so far from having any of
the inconvenience just alluded to attached to it, the
thing was a great public convenience. He used the
word convenience, but he might observe, that such a
practice at railway termini was absolutely necessary for
the proper working of the railway system ; and, if the
companies were to be prevented doing this for the accom-
modation and security of their passengers, they would
be obliged to apply to Parliament for power to do so.
If they were not to have under their own control the
supply of cabs for Conveying their passengers from the
stations, there would be a scene of confusion hardly to
be described, and the inconvenience suffered by pay-
sengers arriving at a moment when cabs might be at the
station, would be intolerable. But, if such was the
law, he must decide accordingly. But was the law so ?
He must confess that lie could not think, looking at the
purposes of the acts, and the clause stating the hackney
carriages should not ply for hire elsewhere than at
a stand appointed by the police commissioners, that
it was the intention of the Legislature to interfere with
private property. He had read with considerable atten-
tion Mr. A'Beckett's decision, and had much respect for
that gentleman's judgment ; but he could not go with
him in this question. He (Mr. Long) thought that great
inconvenience would result if such a decision could be
maintained—inconvenience of such a character, that he
hardly knew what limit could be placed to its applica-
tion. There could be no doubt that a railway terminus
was private property. Railway travelling had now be-
come almost the only mode of transit, and the com-
panies had taken upon themselves the character of
public carriers. They opened the doors of their termini
previous to the starting of a train, and after the tra-
vellerglad secured their luggage and taken their depar-
ture, the gates were shut, or the companies had
power to shut them. They could keep their
gates closed at all times, except for the arrival
and departure of passengers, who had no right to
remain on the station longer than was necessary to
see to the proper disposition of their luggage. Therefor()
a railway terminus was, to all intents and purposes, pri-
vate property, and any person not using it for the pur-
poses of travel would, by going there without the
permission of the company, be as much tispassing
as
if he entered his (Mr. Long's) house without his sanc-
tion. Being private property, it_ was not, inconsistent,
with the law (as the reporter understood) that the com-
panies should collect together cabs absolutely necessary
to carry on their business. If the Police Com-
missioners were to appoint a railway station as a
cab-stand, the public would have the right to walk
in and hire the vehicles, and it might be, that at the mo-
ment a train came full of passengers there would not be
one cab in attendance. If a railway company could not
select cabs, and have them under their own control, other
persons could not select them, and have them waiting
upon their private property. The Duke of Devonshire, if
he had a party, could not do so ; it could not be done
at Lord's Cricket-ground, or other places, unless each
driver was specially hired. He could not think that the
Legislature could have contemplated such a thing as this.
If the Legislature had intended anything of this kind they
would have expressed themselves more decidedly than
they had done. 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 success. 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 behaviour, and honest in their conduct. He was of
opinion that the words in the act meant plying for hire
in public places only, and that the Legislature did not in-
tend in any degree that the act should apply to or inter-
fere 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.

STATISTICS OF THE FRENCH ARMY AND NAVY.—
The French army just now (in November, 1852) consists
of 6 marshals, 78 lieutenants-general, 152 majors-gene-
ral ; 539 officers of the general staff, 21,491 gendarmes,
7,793 of whom are foot soldiers, while 13,698 are
mounted gendarmes ; 100 regiments of infantry, viz.
—75 regiments of the line and 25 light regiments, each
regiment consisting of 3 battalions, each battalion of 6
companies, and each company has 125 men. Nest come
the Vincennes Rifles in 10 battalions of 8 coml
panies
each, each company of 100 men—making a tota of 8,000
Vincennes Rifles. There are also three regiments of
Zuaves, now in Africa, each regiment of 3
3 battalions
lions,
and each battalion of 9 companies ; and batta of
Light African Infantry, and 12 fatigue companies. Be-
sides these, there is the Foreign Legion, in two regiments
each, of 2,600 men. The cavalry consists of 2 regiments
of Carabiniers, 10 regiments of Cuirassiers, 16 regiments
of Lancers, 12 of Dragoons, 9 of Hussars, 4 of African
Mounted Rifles, 3 regiments of Spahis, and 1 regiment
of Guides. The artillery consists of 15 regiments, each
of 16 batteries. There are three regiments of Engineers,
each consisting of 2 battalions. The total is—foot,
275,000 ; horse, 60,000 ; artillerymen, 36,000
; corps of
Engineers, 10,000 men ; and 12,000 of the Foreign
Legion and bands of Africans in the French service.
The French fleet numbers 40 vessels of the line, 50 fri-
gates, 40 corvettes, 50 brigs, and 18 transports—all sail-
ing
vessels. Addto this their brilliant and efficient
steam navy of 10 frigates and 20 corvettes of from 320 to
400-horse power, and 70 smalls6teamers. There are
altogether 328 vessels, namely, 22
102 steamers—commanded by 2 sailing vessels and
admirals, 10 Nice-ad-
mirals' 20 contre-admirals, 110 captains of vessels of the
line, 230 captains of frigates' 6
lieutenants, andtuis,arines =. first,
300 cadets,
and 550 second
a,..clets,and manned by 27,000
sailors—Kalter zatwag.