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

LONDON WITHOUT CABS.

Yesterday the metropolis stood, as Sir Charles
Wetherell once phrased it, in a "parenthesis of vehicu-
larity." There was not only a dearth, but an absolute
famine of locomotion, and never since the days of
Charles 11., when hackney coaches were first invented,
have the sight-seeing and out-going public been reduced
to such an extremity of helplessness as the cabmen's
" strike" of yesterday. For once the magistrates who
fine, and the Legislature who settle the fares of " cabby,"
have been defeated. One man may take a horse to
water, but a Hundred can't make him drink. Mr.
Fitzroy may ordain what "cabby" shall charge, but the
whole House of Commons can't make him drive. The
grievance that has so wrung the o'erfraught breast of
" cabby," as to make him declare "a holiday" is not so
much the lowering the rate of charge per mile to six-
pence, -instead of eightpence, as the abolition of back
fares ; and the compromise desired, is said to be that
this back fare may be charged for distances of three
miles beyond some fixed spot after nightfall. " Cabby"
complains, and with some justice, that by the new
system he starts from an ever-shifting centre to an
ever-receding point of distance, and •may be com-
pelled to travel anywhere, at any time, six miles
from himself. " Cabby" wants something settled,
even if it be nothing more than the restoration of that
indefinite fixture, known during the last half century
as "the place where Hicks's-hall formerly stood." He
objects to being taken from Waterloo-bridge to Dulwich
at two o'clock in the morning, for half-a-crown ; or from
Tottenham-court-road to Southall for five and sixpence.
So " cabby" resolved to "play," and determined to give
labour a holiday, after the fashion of the Lancashire
Chartist rioters in 1838. The cab proprietors gave their
men notice simultaneously not to call at their stables after
Tuesday, and yesterday morning the sun rose on a city
without cabs. The first to feel the inconvenience was
the traveller by early trains, into and out of London,
who found himself three or four miles from everywhere,
with a leather trunk, a hat-box, a carpet bag, fishing-
rod, umbrella, and waterproof coat to carry. As the
day progressed, the desire for cabs became more urgent;
people found themselves at a full stop without knowing
why. There was no " going to my banker's," or "call
in the City," or " take a cab to the railway." The rail-
ways suffered the greatest possible inconvenienc. At
every station piles of luggage waiting conveyance, and
mobs of jeering bystanders advising the calling of a cab
that would not come, confronted the impatient traveller.
Even the highest aristocracy did not escape the com-
mon fate. Unless met by their " own carriage," they
were compelled to trudge it on foot for long dis-
tances, and several instances of ladies of high de-
gree in a state of comparative exhaustion were ob-
served by the writer. At none of the railways was
the inconvenience greater felt than at the London
and North-Western. Train after train brought
an accumulation of luggage, and each hour added to the
harassing of impatient passengers from all parts of the
country. Fortunately, the day was fine, and the ap-
pliances of a railway are so multifarious that they can
be expanded to meet almost every possible emergency.
Cabs being altogether wanting, the railway authorities,
by going a step lower in the scale, were enabled in some
measure to meet the contingency. Spring vans for the
accommodation of the heavier luggage, light carts, and
even wheel-barrows for the immediate urgency of single
passengers, were pressed into service, and by the active
employment of the energies of all the officials, the diffi-
culties were considerably diminished. How long this
state of things may continue will perhaps depend on the
manner with which a scanty Sunday's dinner may be
received by the cabman's family. It is said the frater
pity are in a position to hold out until Monday. Whe-
ther this will really be so must depend much upon what
takes place in the House of Commons. Whatever be
the result, unless the act be materially altered, there

seems much reason to suppose that it will become im-
mediately obsolete, as was the case half a century since
with that by which it was attempted to settle the water-
men's fares.