The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-14 00:00:00

[PRICE SD.

HAC'SNEY CARRIAGES.

(From the Morning Chronicle.)
IL On Tuesday night, Mr. Fitzroy gave notice of a
ill for the better regulation of Hackney Carriages
lin the metropolis. The evils, however, connected
with the ordinary and cheaper carriages plying for
hire in and about cities, are not confined to Lon-
don. Wherever the thing is, its abuse co-exists.
Fiacre, cabriolet, droschsky, vigilante—or what-
ever else it may be called—it invariably brings
with it, in every city of the world, oaths, swindling,
abuse, extortion, violence, fraud, injustice, and
most of the other evils of Pandora's box. What is
true of the cab is, to a considerable extent, true of
the omnibus ; and the law of rapine which rules
over terrestial locomotion governs the river no less
than the roadstead. Why this strange social
phenomenon ? Why should travelling be subject
to this fate ? Why. should the wayfarine• man, on
sea or on shore, in street or in harbour', be reck-
oned a legitimate prey to cabmen, boatmen, and
porters, as caravans are to the Bedouins ? How
comes it that our highly civilised state of society
has not yet, in this matter, emerged from barba-
rism ? And how is it that this social vice espe
cially infests travelling ? What is the subtle con-
nexion between hiring the means of transit and
being, ex necessitate rei, robbed? What is there which
makes a journey and cheating inseparable ? How
is it that society resigns itself, almost without a
struggle, to the caprice and tyranny of that com-
pound of beer and blasphemy, extortion and
obscenity—the true British cabman.
We are well aware that this is no new thing.
Long before the Spectator's time, the slang an'l
swindling of the river were notorious. We do ni,t
deny. that the Cadiz and Neapolitan boatman, or
the. Venetian gondoliers, will outswindle and out-
swear their brethren at Dover or Gravesend. But
the antiquarian inveteracy or the oecumenical ex-
tent of a nuisance ought to be a reason for resist-
ance rather than for patience. It is not so, how-
ever, in England. All that is needed to conse-
crate an abuse among us is its largeness—its daily
occurrence—its universal impact. We are despe-
rately active about securing the purity of articles
that are consumed by one person in a million ' - but
to pestiferous air and poisoned water, we, in Lon-
don at least, submit with very inarticulate mur-
murs. A nation is convulsed if a foreign ecclesi-
astic calls himself Bishop of this place, or Arch-
bishop of that ; but the millions who inhabit this
great city passively permit their health to be in-
jured, and their property to be destroyed, to the
value of thousands of pounds per day, only because
it is nobody's business to enforce the Smoke Con-
suming Act.
So it is with cabs. Everybody is a rider in cabs,
and everybody feels that the cab driver is the na-
tural enemy of the whole human race. He is a
sort of Fate. Nobody hires a cab but with the
certainty of being cheated. The evil haunts every
family, and infests the daily necessities of life.
Wherever we ride—to church or theatre, to wed-
ding or funeral, to a meeting of creditors or to a
ball—one dark pall of misery, one grim anticipa-
tion of robbery, hangs over the journey. London
streets are as Finchley-common and as Hounslow-
heath—Stand and deliver is the rule of the road.
The moment the door is shut on the pensive travel-
ler, he begins settling whether he shall play the fool
or the hero—whether he shall sacrifice his money or
his peace. His only choice lies between being
swindled and savagely abused. Sometimes, as in
the case of women, the hirers gets both bullied and
cheated. And all this, we must say, is mainly our
own fault. Vicious customs, and our own criminal
weakness, have made the cab driver the savage and
robber that he is. Such has ever been the history
of a social evil, until it got to be so monstrous that
society avenged itself by a revolution. Fees to ser-
vants grew into a tax, and into so monstrous a one
that either society itself or the nuisance had to be
abated—either vails or visiting must cease.
It is with cabs as it was with the extinct tyranny
of flunkies. The evil has reached its zenith. A
necessary of London life is turned into a curse. All
the middle classes are interested in Mr. Fitzroy's
proposition ; and it will be our own fault if we sub-
mit any longer to the continuance of the cab nuis-
ance. When, some twenty or five-and-twenty
years ago, cabs became the regular form of hackney?
carriages, their fares were apportioned to their cost 4
Now that every other necessary of life has falhin,
more than one-fourth inoalue there is no ren7goir
why cabs should maintain charges which were
ample enough a quarter of a century ago. Six-
pence a mile in 1853 is more than eightpence a mile
was in 1830, considering the difference in the price
of horse-flesh, horse-keep, and carriages. Nor
must the active competition of the omnibuses be
forgotten in settling a new tariff for hackney-car-
ria,,o hire. Free. trade must penetrate into the
caawner's yard, as well as into the farmer's. We
see no cause why the undue profits which we deny
to the grower of corn, the breeder of horses, and
the carriage builder, should be intercepted from the
public savings in order to increase the consumption
of beer, 'bacey, and blackguardism at the public-
house oining the cab-stand. For we must not
forget that the cab nuisance is an offence against
public morality, as well as au engine of grinding
extortion.
If cabowners could be taught common sense, they
would see that it is their interest to prevent the
overcharges and savagery of their representatives,
the drivers. Cabs, if clean, and driven by men
who are neither extortioners nor reprobates, might
double their earnings. As it is, people are often
driven to a sweltering omnibus or a fatiguing walk,
in sheer despair of receiving civility or honesty in
cabs. And the unprotected middle-rank women—
all ladies, in fact, below the rank of " carriage
folks"—are driven to choose between staying at
home and a ruinous " clarence for the day." The
remedies, we maintain, are, if not easy, at least at-
tainable ; but we must begin with ascertaining the
causes of the unpopularity of cabs. These are,
first, the eightpenny fares, and next, the system of
sub-letting. From the days of revenue-farming to
those of Irish encumbered landlordism, middlemen
have been a curse to the public. The fares may be
easily settled ; but the sub-letting can only be kept
in check by a most resolute co-operation on the
part of the public, together with new and strin-
gent regulations against extortion. We are per-
fectly aware that solitary attempts to remedy
the evil have failed—the drivers have combined
alike against the sixpenny cabs and against the me-
chanical devices for measuring distances. Judg-
ing from our own experience, we should say that
the most available reform would be to cheapen and
facilitate complaints against the drivers. Who can
afford the time, the temper, and the strength re-
quisite to complete a successful complaint against
a cabman, in face of the misery and delay
inseparable from a visit to a police-court ? But
why not try cheap and summary justice ? An es-
pecial court for offences against the Hackney Car-
riage Act, with the power of levying higher penal-
ties than those at present imposed, may be worth
thinking of. Again, let there be a remedy against
the owner as well as against the driver. An
owner whose drivers are " unfortunate" enough
to be frequently " had up " might be made per-
sonally responsible ; and his license as well as the
driver's, might be suspended.
As prevention, however, is better than cure,
we should do well to provide facilities for ob-
viating extortion which either do not at present
exist, or are only very partially available. The
Commissioners might publish tables of fares
differently arranged from any now in use, which
would be of great local utility, and which would
find a large public sale. These tables might ben
separate series, so that there might be one marking
i
distances from every authorised stand. Fia
the Charing-cross or the Farringdon-street
°snelrFies
might register at least 500 distances in every direc-
tion ; and thus, as is found in the case of the railway
stations, a great approximation to ascertaining the
distance travelled would be secured. And this re
minds us of the secret cause of the
sA hirer
lie is disinclination of
the public to vindicate their
ownright
feels pretty confident thatcheated ; but, being
really, ignorant of the distance—say between Dal-
ston-Ine and Bloomsbury-square—he generally
pays double, simply because he cannot extemporise
anything better than the merest guess at the real
fare. And then his doubts prevent him from tak-
ing out a summons. Why should there not be an
office especially dedicated to inquiries, where, for
the fee of a penny, the victim may ascertain the
legal fare ? In a very short time, almost every
conceivable distance could be registered within
threepence ; and with a court specifically consti-
tuted for adjudicating on cab offences, a complaint
might be presented and decided at the' cost of one-
tenth of the present difficulty and annoyance.
Anyhow, it is the plain duty of the Legislature to
interfere. Means of cheap, speedy, and decently
comfortable locomotion are as necessary to the ac-
tive, economical, and sanitary working of our social
system, as is a fair supply of water and gas. The
State charges itself with the duty of compelling at-
tention to public morality and safety ; and mora-
lity, comfort, business,.and health are alike inter-
fered with by the present condition of the hackney-
Carriage trade, The existing law has failed, and it